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Final Fantasy VII Remake is the highest-selling digital release on the PS Store in Square Enix's history

Extract from today's Sony Electronics x Final Fantasy VII Rebirth collab.

Sony_Electronics_Inc__FINAL_FANTASY_VII_REBIRTH.jpg
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SAN DIEGO, Jan. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Electronics Inc. announced today the continuation of its partnership with SQUARE ENIX® on the launch of the highly anticipated second game in the critically acclaimed FINAL FANTASY™ VII remake project, FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH. Sony BRAVIA XR™ TV is the official gaming TV for this release, offering the ultimate gaming experience to guide users who take on the role of Cloud Strife and pursue Sephiroth, the legendary swordsman.
The first game of the FINAL FANTASY VII remake trilogy project, FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE, released in 2020, has been praised by both players and critics across the globe, earning more than 20 perfect scores from media, and was selected as a PlayStation® "Editor's Choice" pick. The game also became the highest-selling digital release on the PlayStation® platform in SQUARE ENIX's history, exceeding more than 7 million shipments and digital sales worldwide since its release. FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH, the second game in the trilogy and standalone story, is now in development and will be available worldwide on February 29, 2024, for the PS5®.

 
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Madflavor

Member
I honestly thought a remake of FFVII would've sold more than that. 7 million, plus whatever they sold physical, is a respectable number, but FFVII was for a while the Holy Grail of requested video game Remakes. I remember the cheer from the crowd at E3 2015 almost blew the roof off. It deserved to sell more, because FFVII: Remake is easily the best single player FF game in the past 20 years.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
I love Remake so it's nice to see it do well but it's still odd to me that the game couldn't beat FF15 when it comes to sales.

It's the better game.
11 months after release they struck a deal with Sony to release it for free on PS+. It's remained on PS+ since. This would have reduced the number of copies people would buy dramatically when you can access it with a plus sub.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
I honestly thought a remake of FFVII would've sold more than that. 7 million, plus whatever they sold physical, is a respectable number, but FFVII was for a while the Holy Grail of requested video game Remakes. I remember the cheer from the crowd at E3 2015 almost blew the roof off. It deserved to sell more, because FFVII: Remake is easily the best single player FF game in the past 20 years.

It's only part 1 of a 3 game series.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Extract from today's Sony Electronics x Final Fantasy VII Rebirth collab.

Sony_Electronics_Inc__FINAL_FANTASY_VII_REBIRTH.jpg








It's hard to understand exactly what Sony and Square are saying here?

- Is it the highest-selling game on the PS Store?
- Is it the higher "percentage" game that sold digitally?
- Is it Square's highest-selling game on the PS Store?
 
tbf that Twin Pack is padding the numbers. I played the first one one PS+ and wouldn't have bought it, if there wasn't a twin pack with it basically being "free" to digitally own.
 

Thief1987

Member
I honestly thought a remake of FFVII would've sold more than that. 7 million, plus whatever they sold physical, is a respectable number, but FFVII was for a while the Holy Grail of requested video game Remakes. I remember the cheer from the crowd at E3 2015 almost blew the roof off. It deserved to sell more, because FFVII: Remake is easily the best single player FF game in the past 20 years.
7 million is the overall sales as far as I'm understand
exceeding more than 7 million shipments and digital sales worldwide
 
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It's hard to understand exactly what Sony and Square are saying here?

- Is it the highest-selling game on the PS Store?
- Is it the higher "percentage" game that sold digitally?
- Is it Square's highest-selling game on the PS Store?
I believe they mean the highest selling game by volume (units sold) from all the games they've released so far on PSN. Ofc, I could be mistaken though as that 7 million shipments and digital sales number was already known since back in September of last year. Basically it's a confirmation that FF7R sold very well digitally as well.
 
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Madflavor

Member
7 million is the overall sales as far as I'm understand

Yeah after almost 4 years of the game being out, that definitely falls below my expectations.

Still we can expect these numbers to continue climbing with the release of Rebirth. Remake will probably get a small boost to it's sales.
 
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Little Mac

Gold Member
I just bought a PS5 during the holidays and picked up FFVII Intergrade digital on sale for like $16 bucks. Haven't started it yet. I beat the original on the OG Playstation back in the day. Looking forward to Remake and all the nostalgia but I'm kinda afraid the battle system won't click with me.
 
Really silly way of putting this not to mention that this is such a non-story.

As if Square Enix has this massive history with digital games.

PS Store came to be on PS3. PS3 sold significantly less than PS4. FFVII is available on both PS4 and PS5.

Its only real competition are FF15 and FF16 and FF15 was largely panned and FF16 isn't available on PS4...
 
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Dynasty8

Member
Square: FFVII Remake is the HIGHEST selling digital release in our history

Also Square: .....But it did NOT meet our ridiculous sales expectations.
 

E-Cat

Member
I honestly thought a remake of FFVII would've sold more than that. 7 million, plus whatever they sold physical, is a respectable number, but FFVII was for a while the Holy Grail of requested video game Remakes. I remember the cheer from the crowd at E3 2015 almost blew the roof off. It deserved to sell more, because FFVII: Remake is easily the best single player FF game in the past 20 years.
Maybe that's because it's not actually a FF7 remake, but a remake of FF7 that encompasses the Midgar portion, which is like 10% of the whole game.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
It’s a great game and should have sold more. My favorite SE modern RPG in many years.

SE’s move to put it on PS+ might have been a mistake.

We don't know the terms of these kinds of deals. But I'm guessing Sony would have fronted favourable terms and cash because it was done in 2021 when there was a lot of fear over Gamepass taking over and so there was a push to make PS+ much more competitive. They were reluctant to put 1st party games on PS+ and so they went after 3rd party games. They've also kept it on PS+ for 3 years now rather than remove it which must mean they're happy with the result of it.

From what we know.. they sold over 5mil copies at around full price (announced Aug 2020 5 months after release), lets say an average of $60 rather than $70. Then they sold about 2mil more copies since taking it over 7mil sold (announced Sept 2023), let's assume at an average of $40 with sales.

15th September 2023
Square Enix shared the news on social media, saying that Final Fantasy VII Remake has now sold over 7 million copies (physical + digital units) globally since its launch on April 10, 2020. This also includes the Intergrade version that came out in 2021 on PS5 and PC.

When you weigh up all the deals and potential revenues, I think they should have made a very nice profit as a result of part 1. I remember reading the budget for Rebirth was increased because they were happy with the result of Remake.

-PS4 12 month exclusivity = $?
-PS5 6 month exclusivity extension for Intergrade = $?
-PS+ deal = $?
-5mil* copies at $60* = $300mil revenue
-2mil* copies at $40* = $80mil revenue
-Future sales at $x = $x revenue
-Merchandise sales = $?
-Other FF7 game/media sales since the Remake project = $?
-Epic Game Store 6 month exclusivity = $?

Other variables are we don't know how many have downloaded the game on PS+, but I think there are 35million subs or something. It's a good way of incentivising people to try FF7 before Rebirth who otherwise wouldn't play it. It's also possible they're cutting a deal with Xbox for release on the Series consoles, either Gamepass or as a normal release.

Basically, it's impossible to know how successful their strategy is when we don't know the full amount of money generated from all of the items listed above.
 
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leo-j

Member
I love Remake so it's nice to see it do well but it's still odd to me that the game couldn't beat FF15 when it comes to sales.

It's the better game.
PS plus release a year after it game out would probably be the killer in sales. I’m shocked it only sold 7million copies tbh, wondering how much the original game has sold at over 14 million, and gaming is a much bigger medium now than it was back then.
 
The game had at least three different SKUs over several years. There is the PS4 release, then PS5 release, then the PS5 bundle release. I wonder if they are counting the PlayStation Plus “sales” when it was a free game, plus the “sales” from people getting the free PS5 upgrade. These are all handled as sales on the PSN side.
 

Madflavor

Member
Maybe that's because it's not actually a FF7 remake, but a remake of FF7 that encompasses the Midgar portion, which is like 10% of the whole game.

Again I think some people are really overestimating how much of a difference it would’ve made if it was the whole game.
 
I love Remake so it's nice to see it do well but it's still odd to me that the game couldn't beat FF15 when it comes to sales.

It's the better game.

Looks like FF15 did about 10 million sales in 2022. I think FF7 R will be around that but you also have to remember it skipped Xbox while FF15 released on all platforms.
 

Mister Wolf

Member
It's important for them to maintain exclusivity over Final Fantasy. I think they are going to lose Persona. I don't see Sega taking that exclusive money anymore. They realized it handicaps their IPs growth.
 
I honestly thought a remake of FFVII would've sold more than that. 7 million, plus whatever they sold physical, is a respectable number, but FFVII was for a while the Holy Grail of requested video game Remakes. I remember the cheer from the crowd at E3 2015 almost blew the roof off. It deserved to sell more, because FFVII: Remake is easily the best single player FF game in the past 20 years.
It's important to notice the game hit PS Plus like a year or even less than that after its release.
 
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