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Is final fantasy 7 not as big as people think?

At some point SE said the game ff7 remake has sold digitally and shipped 5 million (shipped isn’t sold through).

Since then we’ve heard nothing about how many units the game has sold? Is FF as a series on decline? Was the original ff7 really that massive to begin with? Last time I checked life to date sales of og ff7 were 10 million and that’s what 24 years?

Allegedly 5 million for remake doesn’t seem a lot for a game that’s supposed to be massive.
Maybe once the reception of remake came out and news of the kingdom hearts hack job people thought nah not for me. I’ve played og7 many times, with remake felt no reason to play it again despite its fun battle system.
 

Dthomp

Member
At some point SE said the game ff7 remake has sold digitally and shipped 5 million (shipped isn’t sold through).

Since then we’ve heard nothing about how many units the game has sold? Is FF as a series on decline? Was the original ff7 really that massive to begin with? Last time I checked life to date sales of og ff7 were 10 million and that’s what 24 years?

Allegedly 5 million for remake doesn’t seem a lot for a game that’s supposed to be massive.
Maybe once the reception of remake came out and news of the kingdom hearts hack job people thought nah not for me. I’ve played og7 many times, with remake felt no reason to play it again despite its fun battle system.

FFVII is my favorite game or 2nd favorite game of all time, so speaking for me. I did buy and play FFVIIR, but I went in very unhappy about the changes being made. I actually enjoy the classic battle system and didn't want to see it changed into the usual boring modern hack and slash RPG that so many modern RPGS resemble. I think they underestimated 1) How many people did not want anything but a beautiful 1:1 remake not changing the battle system 2) Being sold this game in pieces, especially over multiple system gens (you can play the OG classic for 15 bucks...the whole thing, this will cost what? 180-240 dollars by the end?), 3) Like you said, the inevitable Kingdom Hearts hack job that many were afraid of (and got).

My opinion, if they wanted to make a new battle system, they should have just made a new game. People don't like their classics messed with, for niche titles I think you can pull it off, but something that means as much as this game did to gamers back then, maybe not.

The youth of today will have to wait 20 years til companies begin to "remake" their favorite games from their youths to see what angered so many here. Wait til Bloodborne gets dumbed down and changed, or any Soulsborne game with an easy mode and change to the battle mechanics, making it feel like a completely different game then they loved.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
The series still sells well, 8-10mil long-term (7 will too after PC and Xbox release), but yes it has stagnated. Hence why I'm sure the PS+ release for 7R and 16 having a medieval setting is part of their branding strategy to expose FF to new audiences. Releasing on PS+ massively widens access to it and a medieval setting is more palatable to your normie gamer.

13 and 15 sold incredibly well for games that were turds and 7 is likely around the 6mil mark now which is great for one platform. If they can release an FF again that is just fundamentally good then it will sell incredibly well I'm sure (10mil+). Let's hope 16 and 7R-2 deliver.
 

base

Banned
At some point SE said the game ff7 remake has sold digitally and shipped 5 million (shipped isn’t sold through).

Since then we’ve heard nothing about how many units the game has sold? Is FF as a series on decline? Was the original ff7 really that massive to begin with? Last time I checked life to date sales of og ff7 were 10 million and that’s what 24 years?

Allegedly 5 million for remake doesn’t seem a lot for a game that’s supposed to be massive.
Maybe once the reception of remake came out and news of the kingdom hearts hack job people thought nah not for me. I’ve played og7 many times, with remake felt no reason to play it again despite its fun battle system.
Good game doesn't always mean huge amount of sold copies.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
You look at the remaster for FF10 and it's like the game released all over again for the first time. The remaster sold millions and you wouldn't believe the game is 21 years old when you look at YouTube and the view counts different videos for the game gets. The FF fanbase is quite dedicated to the series which is the most impressive thing to me. I think the series was a memorable part of a lot of peoples childhoods and captured many imaginations.
 
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Pejo

Gold Member
They simultaneously tried to expand the audience while pissing off the "purists", which is almost never a recipe for success. That said, it honestly has done better than I expected that it would. Ever Crisis is more of the remake i was hoping that FFVII was going to be, but even that looks like it's just going to streamline the story and add a bunch of FFVII universe side shlock. Hope to be wrong about that, and it's an actual JRPG with world map, side quests, etc.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
The game came out when the pandemic just entered full force. Its sold 5 million by August last year. I wouldn't be surprised if Square announced 10 million sold when Intergrade hits. Which is good for a third party exclusive, essentially a remake of an old game. And just the first part of it. Its clear that FF has been surpassed by IP like Last of Us, God of War, Uncharted etc but they do sell. Even those shit games like XV did.
 

Bragr

Banned
Don't let Call of Duty or Super Mario cloud your view, over 5 million is huge for most games. Year to date of 10 million for classic FF7 is great numbers, a lot of big games you might think sold a lot didn't push as much as you think.

I mean, the original Deus Ex, one of the most hyped PC games in history that you constantly hear mentioned even today, sold a bit over one million over 10 years.
 

skit_data

Member
Might be because its just Part 1 so far. My plan was to wait for at least Part 2 to release before buying it, but Im playing it right now instead since we got it on PS+
 
The series still sells well, 8-10mil long-term (7 will too after PC and Xbox release), but yes it has stagnated. Hence why I'm sure the PS+ release for 7R and 16 having a medieval setting is part of their branding strategy to expose FF to new audiences. Releasing on PS+ massively widens access to it and a medieval setting is more palatable to your normie gamer.

13 and 15 sold incredibly well for games that were turds and 7 is likely around the 6mil mark now which is great for one platform. If they can release an FF again that is just fundamentally good then it will sell incredibly well I'm sure (10mil+). Let's hope 16 and 7R-2 deliver.
Well we don’t know how much remake has sold and I doubt adding pc and Xbox will double the sales since ffs market is on ps.
Good game doesn't always mean huge amount of sold copies.
Ok but I’m not talking about how good a game is. I’m talking about how massive it is. Dog shit games can sell 10s of millions while highly rated games sell peanuts.
 

Pejo

Gold Member
It's definitely as big as I think it is
thumb_for-you-for-you-bane-for-you-meme-on-53760629.png


Might be because its just Part 1 so far. My plan was to wait for at least Part 2 to release before buying it, but Im playing it right now instead since we got it on PS+
I totally forgot this was PS+ this month.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Citizen Kane did 1.8 million at the box office and it’s considered one of the greatest films ever made. The Fast & Furious made 207 million at the box office. Which film deserves to be preserved and taught about in cinema classes? I don’t expect anyone on my block has played Chrono Trigger either. I bet they know what Fortnite and Roblox are. I’d imagine that SE has been crafting FF7 to be one of their largest Final Fantasy franchises to date. FFVII brought them into mainstream. I wouldn’t judge it like we do other mainstream games either. It’ll come when it comes.
 

Same ol G

Member
At some point SE said the game ff7 remake has sold digitally and shipped 5 million (shipped isn’t sold through).

Since then we’ve heard nothing about how many units the game has sold? Is FF as a series on decline? Was the original ff7 really that massive to begin with? Last time I checked life to date sales of og ff7 were 10 million and that’s what 24 years?

Allegedly 5 million for remake doesn’t seem a lot for a game that’s supposed to be massive.
Maybe once the reception of remake came out and news of the kingdom hearts hack job people thought nah not for me. I’ve played og7 many times, with remake felt no reason to play it again despite its fun battle system.
FFVII was a great game back in the day i really loved it, the turn based gameplay, the minigames, the weapon boss fights, optional characters, summons, ultimate weapons the game had it all.
Then came the FFVII Remake, boy they fucked it up from story to gameplay it's only graphically what i wanted from a remake.
I think they could've sold a lot more if they didn't give it the FF15/Kingdom hearts treatment..
Also they fucked it up by cutting it in parts i don't care about the weak reasons or reasoning behind it, just give me a complete game so i can relive the adventure i played so many times when i was younger with advent children graphics.
 
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It was reported to have sold 5 million copies as of last August. 3.5 million of those sales were in the first three days. It was the fastest ever selling Playstation exclusive. This was only a year ago.
Well we don’t know how much remake has sold and I doubt adding pc and Xbox will double the sales since ffs market is on ps.
FF market is cross platform. FFXV was sold on multiple platforms and became the third best selling entry of all time over a year ago.

Hard to not see this one taking the same path. A lot of people buy these games.

This thread reads like a lot of misinformed doomsaying.
 
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JeremyEtcetera

Unconfirmed Member
Judging by the responses so far, it sounds like the FF7 Remake selling as much as back then is truly an impossible task. Most Old fans want turn based, most newer fans hate turn based. Old fans don't want more lore and better done cutscenes. New fans do. You have to try and please both audiences and if I were to make the call I would have made the same one they currently did. Old fans of any franchise let nostalgia in the driver's seat. Giving them exactly what they want would end in an undersold, dead game and the icing on the cake is that they would STILL happen to find issues with that 1:1 remake.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
People are probably waiting for a the complete package
If you played it when it released you're looking at two years to swap to disc 2
That's kinda off putting
 
It was reported to have sold 5 million copies as of last August. 3.5 million of those sales were in the first three days. It was the fastest ever selling Playstation exclusive. This was only a year ago.

FF market is cross platform. FFXV was sold on multiple platforms and became the third best selling entry of all time over a year ago.

Hard to not see this one taking the same path. A lot of people buy these games.

This thread reads like a lot of misinformed doomsaying.

So the game allegedly sold 5 million by august, shipped = doesn’t mean sales. Some games sales are front loaded and sometimes drop off a cliff. If it sold more than 10 million we’d have heard about it.

Also the series being cross platform doesn’t mean shit. Look at the sales divide between platforms. 13, 15 etc.

You can't compare the sales and profits of a 1997 game with the sales of a modern big budget because development and marketing costs were very different back then.

Ff7 cost 100 million to make including marketing in 1997. I doubt SE spent that much on remake.
 
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Same ol G

Member
Exactly, I wanted a full 40~60 hour full game, and what do I got?

> 5 hour Midgar section converted into a 40 hour segment
> A single piece of the game
> Not a remake
> Convoluted story about time jannies and kingdom hearts
> DLC
> $70 dollar version
> Ruined existing characters and lore

BUT SINCE I DIDN'T GET EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED, I SHOULD BE HAPPY!
THAT WAS A GENIUS MOVE!
BRAVO NOMURA!
HOORAAAY SQUARE-ENIX!
I CLAPPED WHEN I SAW SEPHIROT!
I saw some comments from people acting like it's all nostalgia and rose tinted glasses.
The reality for people who actually played it back in the day and from time to time is that Square fucked up.
As others said many times before it's just a small part of the game, we didn't need all the extra writing and why the F go all Marvel/Rick and Morty with the alternate universe shit.
If they really wanted to do something different why not make a game that incorporates crisis core, ff7 and advent children in a complete story.
That would also give them more freedom in certain parts.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
So the game allegedly sold 5 million by august, shipped = doesn’t mean sales. Some games sales are front loaded and sometimes drop off a cliff. If it sold more than 10 million we’d have heard about it.

Also the series being cross platform doesn’t mean shit. Look at the sales divide between platforms. 13, 15 etc.



Ff7 cost 100 million to make including marketing in 1997. I doubt SE spent that much on remake.
That $100 million was just the US marketing budget. They spent another $45 million on development.

 
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So the game allegedly sold 5 million by august, shipped = doesn’t mean sales. Some games sales are front loaded and sometimes drop off a cliff. If it sold more than 10 million we’d have heard about it.

Also the series being cross platform doesn’t mean shit. Look at the sales divide between platforms. 13, 15 etc.



Ff7 cost 100 million to make including marketing in 1997. I doubt SE spent that much on remake.
80 million including marketing. 40-40 Split.
 
J

JeremyEtcetera

Unconfirmed Member
Exactly, I wanted a full 40~60 hour full game, and what do I got?

> 5 hour Midgar section converted into a 40 hour segment
> A single piece of the game
> Not a remake
> Convoluted story about time jannies and kingdom hearts
> DLC
> $70 version
> Ruined existing characters and lore

BUT SINCE I DIDN'T GET EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED, I SHOULD BE HAPPY!
THAT WAS A GENIUS MOVE!
BRAVO NOMURA!
HOORAAAY SQUARE-ENIX!
I CLAPPED WHEN I SAW SEPHIROT!
"Me not getting what I want means that you're telling me I should be happy with what I got"

No that's exactly not what I'm saying.
 
That $100 million was just the US marketing budget. They spent another $45 million on development.

That $100 million was just the US marketing budget. They spent another $45 million on development.

I think they pulled that "100 million in Marketing for US" out of their asses. Never heard such a thing, and I was on top of all news videogames back then. I always read about "30 million budget" for the game, making it the most expensive ever at that time. 100 million for US marketing my ass.
 

Dr Bass

Member
FF7 is probably a big deal to people who were in their "gaming prime" (I would consider that mid to late teens) during it's original release, which I was. Don't think it's a big deal to that same slice of people playing games now. They weren't even born then.

I bought it but once I found out about the changes I stopped playing. I should have known something was up when they ruined one of the most iconic scenes in the game, which was Cloud meeting Aerith for the first time. I don't mind the battle changes or anything else, but changing the story, vastly, for the worse probably turned off some potential buyers. I wouldn't be surprised if subsequent installations sell less. I know I won't be buying part 2 myself.

Not to beat a dead horse, but this is why investing in past franchises is not a good strategy for the future of a platform. Some people speculated Sony should buy Square Enix as a response to the Bethesda deal. No. This is, again, buying the past and thinking it will be indicative of future success. Final Fantasy XVI could be good, but it won't be the kind of watermark moment FF4, 6 and 7 were in the U.S.

IMO the Final Fantasy 7 Remake was such a hugely missed opportunity. They actually committed to producing it, then proceeded to stomp all over it's most important ideas and moments. What is the point?

Bottom line, if it didn't sell as well as they hoped, I wouldn't doubt it was directly tied to the story issues that leaked out.
 
J

JeremyEtcetera

Unconfirmed Member
FF7 is probably a big deal to people who were in their "gaming prime" (I would consider that mid to late teens) during it's original release, which I was. Don't think it's a big deal to that same slice of people playing games now. They weren't even born then.

I bought it but once I found out about the changes I stopped playing. I should have known something was up when they ruined one of the most iconic scenes in the game, which was Cloud meeting Aerith for the first time. I don't mind the battle changes or anything else, but changing the story, vastly, for the worse probably turned off some potential buyers. I wouldn't be surprised if subsequent installations sell less. I know I won't be buying part 2 myself.

Not to beat a dead horse, but this is why investing in past franchises is not a good strategy for the future of a platform. Some people speculated Sony should buy Square Enix as a response to the Bethesda deal. No. This is, again, buying the past and thinking it will be indicative of future success. Final Fantasy XVI could be good, but it won't be the kind of watermark moment FF4, 6 and 7 were in the U.S.

IMO the Final Fantasy 7 Remake was such a hugely missed opportunity. They actually committed to producing it, then proceeded to stomp all over it's most important ideas and moments. What is the point?

Bottom line, if it didn't sell as well as they hoped, I wouldn't doubt it was directly tied to the story issues that leaked out.
It is in the name of the title. It is a re-making of the events. It's not quite a 1:1 remake because it's technically a retelling of events by potentially being a sequel.

Before anyone jumps on this post like my last one thinking I'm defending the game, I'm not. You either like the concept or hate it. Give Ever Crisis a try when it comes out because that looks like what most of you wanted.
 

Dr Bass

Member
It is in the name of the title. It is a re-making of the events. It's not quite a 1:1 remake because it's technically a retelling of events by potentially being a sequel.

Before anyone jumps on this post like my last one thinking I'm defending the game, I'm not. You either like the concept or hate it. Give Ever Crisis a try when it comes out because that looks like what most of you wanted.

I've heard that argument. I don't really buy it. It's an excuse after the fact, and not what the word necessarily implies. You just said it yourself it's "potentially a sequel," which in itself is absurd when it's playing through the exact same events, but adding twists that make the story worse. It's like trying to have it's cake and eat it too.

Anyway, not worth belaboring, I'm over and done with it and won't even be paying attention to the next installments. I don't care if other people like it or hate it, because it's simply impossible to really care anymore after what they did.

Also it's not the point of this thread.
 

Spokker

Member
FF7 is huge but they've run it and Final Fantasy as a whole into the ground. People say they are just focusing on their most profitable franchise, but I think right now there is probably more of a demand for a Chrono Trigger/Cross remasters/remakes. Some of the lesser franchises like Parasite Eve and one-offs like Vagrant Story deserve some attention. Maybe some of the old Enix RPGs too. Reintroduce Valkyrie Profile to the world. Something other than Final Fantasy.
 
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base

Banned
Well we don’t know how much remake has sold and I doubt adding pc and Xbox will double the sales since ffs market is on ps.

Ok but I’m not talking about how good a game is. I’m talking about how massive it is. Dog shit games can sell 10s of millions while highly rated games sell peanuts.
Because most people are morons? Does that answer satisfy you?
 

BlackTron

Member
The FF brand is insanely strong and endearing. Enough so, that this remake can still show a fine turnout despite their many missteps.

Now imagine how big FF could be, if they didn't mismanage the series.
 
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JeremyEtcetera

Unconfirmed Member
The FF brand is insanely strong
Now imagine how big FF could be, if they didn't mismanage the series.
Mismanage is a weird way of putting it. There's a different team and a different goal on almost every single FF so it literally is a case by case basis when it comes to quality. It's not like other series.
 

Poplin

Member
JRPGs are sadly no longer mass market. They had a moment in the late 90s where FF7 opened up the genre to casual/mass audiences, but its been in steady decline ever since. I dont really imagine any JRPG in todays market would move 10M units. At least not without also checking more mass boxes like "open world" and "emergent" and a bunch of other stuff I have no appetite for.
 

Lethal01

Member
The game sold great and went on to have massive success from both critics and fans of the original and people coming into the series just to play it. It sold enough to undo the damage of the massive failure of Avengers and that they have started milking it HARD (and I love the milk).


You really need to just ignore the comments happening in gaming forums because whenever you leave them you realize that despite half the people in here saying it sucks, the vast majority thought it was fantastic.

However, if you think that it's on the level of Grand Theft Auto and Fortnite you may be out of the loop when it comes to gaming. It's a giant game in a giant franchise... But the top of the top are in a whole other realm of mainstream appeal.
 

kiphalfton

Member
At some point SE said the game ff7 remake has sold digitally and shipped 5 million (shipped isn’t sold through).

Since then we’ve heard nothing about how many units the game has sold? Is FF as a series on decline? Was the original ff7 really that massive to begin with? Last time I checked life to date sales of og ff7 were 10 million and that’s what 24 years?

Allegedly 5 million for remake doesn’t seem a lot for a game that’s supposed to be massive.
Maybe once the reception of remake came out and news of the kingdom hearts hack job people thought nah not for me. I’ve played og7 many times, with remake felt no reason to play it again despite its fun battle system.

Can you be a little bit more specific what you mean by the bolded? Are you talking about KHIII, or FFVII being a ripoff of KH. If it's the latter, it doesn't play anything like KH (which I think is a travesty imo).
 

Kumomeme

Member
dont forget, the impact of the previous title in the franchise, like since FFXIII to FFXV and KH3 has turn off lot of fans. lot of people believe square cant make good game anymore. sure, FFXIII and KH3 sold 5m, FFXV also sold almost 9m. but these game has very mixed reception compared to numbered title before that. this made lot of people 'cautious' over new title from the franchise that square release.

but still the game should received very well. we dont know latest sales figure number and how long it will keep making profit. FFXV for example already almost 5 years and the sales figure might be still increasing. not to mention FFVII so far only still on PS4.
 
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At some point SE said the game ff7 remake has sold digitally and shipped 5 million (shipped isn’t sold through).

Since then we’ve heard nothing about how many units the game has sold? Is FF as a series on decline? Was the original ff7 really that massive to begin with? Last time I checked life to date sales of og ff7 were 10 million and that’s what 24 years?

Allegedly 5 million for remake doesn’t seem a lot for a game that’s supposed to be massive.
Maybe once the reception of remake came out and news of the kingdom hearts hack job people thought nah not for me. I’ve played og7 many times, with remake felt no reason to play it again despite its fun battle system.
No, they just fucked up the marketing. I'm a huge fan of FFVII and even I wasn't interested in the game. I mean, you announce it in 2015, then you show nothing for years, just the news that it's going to be episodic. That let down a lot of people who were planning to buy it day one, including me. Why would I buy it if it's an incomplete story and you took 5 years to make just one episode?

Then all the sudden you go all out in 2019 after 4 years, but you keep quite again. The hype was dead by the time the game released. There wasn't a marketing campaign and I believe the game was shown in total like 4 times in 5 years.

It's a shame that the marketing department wasn't on par with the game because it turned out great, it usually is the other way around. That's why I believe Square put the game on PS plus so soon, so people could play it and realize this is a great game and buy the next chapter.

Take me for example, I wasn't planning on buying it until the next episode but now I'm even going to buy PS5 version with yuffie DLC for $70.
 
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Mabdia

Member
Well... What can I say? The original was huge, really huge. But SE is pissing on fans since FFXIII. More than 10 years and the old fans haven't have a single game that deserves the name of this beloved franchise. Damn! I was a fanboy of Square Soft and I used to say that if they released a game on a single plataform, I would buy that plataform.

Yet, nowadays, I almost just don't care enough about Square Enix.

I mean... We got the remake on Plus march 2nd, yet I played more than 100 hours of a FPS (and I hate FPS)/Wrpg(and I hate Wrpg) with a complete bug fest that is Cyberpunk 2077 (really loved the game). SE should have done a 1:1 real Remake instead of a hack'n'slash reboot. The only thing that the reboot have for it is that the graphics looks good, yet they have done a poor job at it.

The fanny part of all this, is that the only thing that the 1997's is inferior to the remake, is when we talk about graphics. And the saddest part is that by the looks, using FF16 as an example, is that they will fallow the path that they are now and FF will be just an Monster Hunter with some Final Fantasy iconic monsters.
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
Don’t think it’s anything special but it sold well originally and now people have nostalgia for those old days. That’s all it is. It’s not the greatest game to ever have existed. It might have done something for the RPG genre but whatever I can show you 20 other games that done the same.
 
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