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Media Create Sales: Week 30, 2016 (Jul 25 - Jul 31)

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
I'm thinking FFXVI isn't seen until 2020 or so, yeah. After all this XV business, the company very likely wishes to see how it fares before going forward, especially in the theater of budgetary concerns. They'll also want to see what, if anything, resonates especially strongly in the West.
 

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
Ōkami;213009774 said:
I think the only mainline Final Fantasy game to sell more in the US than in Japan is XIII.

Sales in Japan usually count to some 30%-40% of the total worldwide sales of a Final Fantasy game, and that was true for XIII too.

XV biggest problem in the west is one that Nirolak has highlighted numerous times, it's coming out right before one of the busiest periods of the year. In Europe is even coming a couple of days after FIFA and it just weeks away from games like Gears 4, Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2 among others. Most western attention is going there.

There's a bigger push for Asia and China this time, so there's that too, XV will be available to more people than any FF game before it.

Regarding preorders, I made a post about that some time ago, how preorders fair after Tales of Berseria come out will be more telling

I don't really think the people clamoring for FF15 have that much overlap with people who like FIFA, Gears, FPSes, etc.
 
You realise that require selling to close to one third of the PS4's install base in Japan right now..
Yeah, I think it can possibly hit 1M LTD.

Over 500k by the end of the year
I see.

Well, I think it is best we agree to disagree. We have pretty different expectations.

I'd be surprised if FFXV matched FFXIII and I believe that's around 6-7 million? I could see FFXV easily dropping a million or more customers.

I think it would be difficult for the brand to make up a million consumers in the West. The vast majority of JP series aren't becoming more popular in the West and 1 million is more than most Japanese games sell in the West at all.

I have no clue how Persona 5 will do.
That Persona question wasn't for you. :p

Even in this state, however, FF isn't most Japanese games. It will still blow most of them out of the water in sales. I think it is possible for FF to make it up in the rest of the world. This is assuming things turn out as poor in Japan as we are anticipating, of course. We shall see though.
 

MacTag

Banned
I'd pick option 4. Bring back Kawazu!

Don't worry, it will outsell 99.9% of Japanese third party games WW.
Unfortunately it also cost dramatically more than 100% of Japanese third party games. I also think DQXI might outsell it worldwide, which would be a first for the series since FFVII.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
If they shipped 5 million in the West and got an 85+ Metacritic score, plus around 800K-1 million in Japan, that'd still be a pretty reasonable reach and I think would set them up well for the future (assuming they try and actually iterate on the concepts they had success with...)

800K-1 million in Japan is a >50% drop from XIII and with that collapse there I can't see them coming close to 5m for west.

Times have changed a lot when it's considered granted XV will see a huge drop from XIII when last year in these threads many doubted FF brand was in decline in Japan and we shouldn't consider XIII-2 and 3 sales as barometer for XV.
 

NeonZ

Member
We don't know if Bravely Second would sell much better even if it received a bigger budget. It's a fine game with favorable reviews. What make you think another half million people would buy it if it had a few new dungeons? It's not uncommon for a direct sequel to get far worse sales on 3DS. Again look at SMTIV and SMTIV: F. The latter got butchered in charts despite being a better game.

IVF also was a budget sequel though. It fixed many gameplay issues from the original, but only has 4 new dungeons, 1 new Tokyo district area and in spite of using the same old 2d sprites for the demons, it has less new demons and less demons overall than SMTIV.
 

Oregano

Member
Yeah, I think it can possibly hit 1M LTD.

I see.

Well, I think it is best we agree to disagree. We have pretty different expectations.

That Persona question wasn't for you. :p

Even in this state, however, FF isn't most Japanese games. It will still blow most of them out of the water in sales. I think it is possible for FF to make it up in the rest of the world. This is assuming things turn out as poor in Japan as we are anticipating, of course. We shall see though.

Oh haha I just saw it when I quoted you.

I struggle to see FFXV substantially increasing over XIII in the west. It could happen if the game is amazing and reviews really well I guess.
 
Oh haha I just saw it when I quoted you.

I struggle to see FFXV substantially increasing over XIII in the west. It could happen if the game is amazing and reviews really well I guess.
No problem lol.

Yeah, that is reasonable. That boost from amazing reviews could prove very useful for FF. The problem is obviously whether it will get those reviews. I don't see it happening. It should score fine in general (maybe low 80 meta with 85 being max) but it probably won't be a big critical hit.
 

Eolz

Member
I'd pick option 4. Bring back Kawazu!


Unfortunately it also cost dramatically more than 100% of Japanese third party games. I also think DQXI might outsell it worldwide, which would be a first for the series since FFVII.

Worldwide? I really can't see that happening. FF is way, way more popular than DQ in the west, even when it's a "failure".
 

Aters

Member
I'm optimistic and I think FFXV will be received reasonably well (88 is my guess). The sale is decreasing for sure but it will pass 4.5 million in the first year. The Neo, Scorpio and Steam ports will carry it further but it won't reach FFXIII number (which is a very huge number by the way). I don't think we will hear anything substantial about FFXVI until 2020.

I think FFXIII benefits a lot from being basically the only AAA JRPG last gen. Despite all the issues, it's the only game that can tell you what an HD JRPG might look like. I think it can at least explain the Steam number. FFXV, good or bad, won't have this benefit since other AAA JRPGs are coming out.

IVF also was a budget sequel though. It fixed many gameplay issues from the original, but only has 4 new dungeons, 1 new Tokyo district area and in spite of using the same old 2d sprites for the demons, it has less new demons and less demons overall than SMTIV.

Precisely. But nobody says Atlus is idiot right? Even when they ruined their second most important franchise (sales wise, I'm looking forward to the game itself).
 

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
I don't know about not hearing anything substantial about FFXVI until 2020. My guess is 2018 for that but the game won't drop until 2020-21.

But then again, I really don't have any substantive rationale for that. Just a gut feeling. They're in a really interesting space right now; I maintain that XV's reception is going to dictate a fair bit about XVI. In this world, Final Fantasy simply can no longer afford to be a radical departure every iteration. Interest has declined; Square Enix is going to start really looking hard at what folks -- especially Westerners, I'd gauge -- think before making big decisions not only in design structure but expenses.

EDIT: I gave it another moment's thought, and, heck, I could see us not hearing anything until 2019. FFVII-R is going to be treated like the next big Final Fantasy... and rightly so, all things considered.
 

Sandfox

Member
I'm optimistic and I think FFXV will be received reasonably well (88 is my guess). The sale is decreasing for sure but it will pass 4.5 million in the first year. The Neo, Scorpio and Steam ports will carry it further but it won't reach FFXIII number (which is a very huge number by the way). I don't think we will hear anything substantial about FFXVI until 2020.



Precisely. But nobody says Atlus is idiot right? Even when they ruined their second most important franchise.

Apocalypse isn't even a numbered sequel so I don't get how you can say they ruined the franchise. Bravely Second on the other hand is almost assuredly not getting a sequel despite the first game being a hit the company could've built up.
 

Aters

Member
Apocalypse isn't even a numbered sequel so I don't get how you can say they ruined the franchise. Bravely Second on the other hand is almost assuredly not getting a sequel despite the first game being a hit the company could've built up.

You can view Bravely Default, Bravely Second and Bravely 3rd in the same way too. Just like FFXIII, FFXIII-2, LRFFXIII. Story wise they are direct sequels, but in the same time they are more like spin-offs. I'd say Bravely Second is a better than FFXIII-2 or FFX-2 as a sequel.
 

Kanann

Member
my guess is 1.2m for FFXV by the end of this year with ps4 neo bundle boosts and popularity

also 91 metacritic

just a wild guess, not a bet or anything professional.

edit: "DQXI will outsell FF worldwide" < I like this. LOL
 

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
You can view Bravely Default, Bravely Second and Bravely 3rd in the same way too. Just like FFXIII, FFXIII-2, LRFFXIII. Story wise they are direct sequels, but in the same time they are more like spin-offs. I'd say Bravely Second is a better than FFXIII-2 or FFX-2 as a sequel.

There's going to be a Bravely Third?
 

NeonZ

Member
Precisely. But nobody says Atlus is idiot right? Even when they ruined their second most important franchise (sales wise, I'm looking forward to the game itself).

The issue is that people don't expect Atlus will hold IVF's lower sales against the SMT brand, while it seems like Bravely Second's lower sales might kill the franchise.
 

Vena

Member
Precisely. But nobody says Atlus is idiot right? Even when they ruined their second most important franchise (sales wise, I'm looking forward to the game itself).

IV:A is a post-game add-on that could rather easily be called glorified DLC on a cart.

Bravely Second was a sequel to a much heralded series that surprised everyone when it (it being Bravely Default) did very, very well in the west. The sequel that BD got was a very literal "more of the same" to the point where much of the game... was exactly the same. I believe Nirolak even noted this months back when the game initially released in Japan: it wasn't a product that could or would expand the brand or do much to inspire an audience beyond fans, it was safe and cheap (and this has been a large part of the problem with many series in Japan now and a common point of discussion).

I mean, its actually sort of funny/ironic that for all of the "the west will save it", Bravely Default was actually one of the few Japanese titles to actually make it west and do very, very well in foreign markets. Most titles awaiting saving/saving *pending* are struggling to get haflway to triples and are sharing a bed with #FE (or below it, depending how you ballpark Aqua's numbers on it)...
 

MacTag

Banned
Doubt DQXI will outsell it.
Worldwide? I really can't see that happening. FF is way, way more popular than DQ in the west, even when it's a "failure".
DQIX did 4.5m in Japan and 1.1m in the west. If DQXI matches that it could outsell FFXV if the game does as badly as some seem to think it will. And really DQXI might even sell more than DQIX overall given it's now multiplatform.
 

Kanann

Member
Yeah, DQXI has potential to do 4m jp and 1m ww with all ps4, 3ds, and nx version. Many will triple dip it. (No PC version until miracle happens)
 
I guess my main question would be what people are expecting out of the initial version of Monster Hunter Stories.

My vision of what an NX port would sell is notably different depending on if people are thinking more along the lines of 100-200K or 300-500K.

I think Stories 3DS will sell over 500k, well over that if the game is very good. But I don't see it selling a million on 3DS alone.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
800K-1 million in Japan is a >50% drop from XIII and with that collapse there I can't see them coming close to 5m for west.

Times have changed a lot when it's considered granted XV will see a huge drop from XIII when last year in these threads many doubted FF brand was in decline in Japan and we shouldn't consider XIII-2 and 3 sales as barometer for XV.
I just don't see a world where a core oriented RPG is going to be huge in both Japan and the West in 2016+. The taste has just diverged so much and consoles are in heavy decline in Japan while handhelds are the same overseas.

I don't really think the people clamoring for FF15 have that much overlap with people who like FIFA, Gears, FPSes, etc.
I agree, and that's the whole problem. You don't become a major success in the West without appealing to people who also like GTA, sports games, and FPSes like CoD/Battlefield.

There's a reason major WRPGs look suspiciously like shooters and open world action-adventure games.
 

saichi

Member
"easily outselling"

What do you think the LTD will be for both?

I would consider one selling 2x the units to be "easily outselling"

I don't know about not hearing anything substantial about FFXVI until 2020. My guess is 2018 for that but the game won't drop until 2020-21.

But then again, I really don't have any substantive rationale for that. Just a gut feeling. They're in a really interesting space right now; I maintain that XV's reception is going to dictate a fair bit about XVI. In this world, Final Fantasy simply can no longer afford to be a radical departure every iteration. Interest has declined; Square Enix is going to start really looking hard at what folks -- especially Westerners, I'd gauge -- think before making big decisions not only in design structure but expenses.

EDIT: I gave it another moment's thought, and, heck, I could see us not hearing anything until 2019. FFVII-R is going to be treated like the next big Final Fantasy... and rightly so, all things considered.

FFXV-II, FFXV-III, FFVIIr episodes... we will see as much FFXVI in 2020 as we see KH3 now.

***
All these talks about BD makes me think about TWEWY2.
 

Ryng_tolu

Banned
I still expect ~5 million worldwide for Final Fantasy XV.

Diablo 3/RoS: 30+ million
Skyrim: 20+ million
Destiny: Seemingly at least 12-15 million based on statements, least certain here**
Borderlands 2: 12.5+ million*
Fallout 4: 12 million (at launch)
Final Fantasy VII: 11 million
The Witcher 3: Nearly 10 million
Final Fantasy XIII: ~7.5 million
Dragon Age/Mass Effect: Both seem to be at about 5-6 million LTD on the biggest entries unless EA wants to give an update
Dark Souls 1: ~5.6 million
Bloodborne: 2 million

That list is a bit weird.

First, some numbers Are Sold in, while others Are Sold through.

Second, some Are very old numbers, like Bloodborne ( sep 2015), it is surely well Over 2 Million now after The New Version + usual Holidays sales, while others numbers Are seriusly just a guess...
 

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
No hope for FFXV to sell more?

Why?
Well thats just what the market looks like - they messed up a lot of good will with the FF main series last gen and Versus/XV has been a production mess so far. Even a perfect FF game would have a hard time selling more than 1.5m right now.

SE has been in damage control mode for the last 2 years for that game - throwing everything they have (demos, animes, mobilegames, shortmovies etc.) so somehow change the fact that will underperform.

Versus as a spin-off last gen would have worked better - i just dont feel like FFXV is the right response for the IP after they messed it up so bad last gen. XV sounds like a game you drop when the IP is already quite popular to begin with, not when people are already doubting its relevance.

The YW anime still gets about 3 million views per week I believe. It's still going strong. It had a special weeks ago during YW3 release which grabbed 5.4 million viewers.
It's not millions, its percentage. The ratings that get posted every week is specific to Kanto region only. yokai watch had 3.1% watching the episode of the Kanto region last week.
Thanks...so anyone knows how this compares to the YW2 height of the anime ?
"easily outselling"

What do you think the LTD will be for both?
YW3 will crawl his way to 1.3M, FFXV will barely to sell above 1m and Persona 5 will get to 800k-ish when it all said and done.
 

Sandfox

Member
Well thats just what the market looks like - they messed up a lot of good will with the FF main series last gen and Versus/XV has been a production mess so far. Even a perfect FF game would have a hard time selling more than 1.5m right now.

SE has been in damage control mode for the last 2 years for that game - throwing everything they have (demos, animes, mobilegames, shortmovies etc.) so somehow change the fact that will underperform.

Versus as a spin-off last gen would have worked better - i just dont feel like FFXV is the right response for the IP after they messed it up so bad last gen. XV sounds like a game you drop when the IP is already quite popular to begin with, not when people are already doubting its relevance.



Thanks...so anyone knows how this compares to the YW2 height of the anime ?

YW3 will crawl his way to 1.3M, FFXV will barely to sell above 1m and Persona 5 will get to 800k-ish when it all said and done.
In it's prime when YW2 came out the anime was hitting 6-7%
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
I just don't see a world where a core oriented RPG is going to be huge in both Japan and the West in 2016+. The taste has just diverged so much and consoles are in heavy decline in Japan while handhelds are the same overseas.

I don't disagree but if FFXV faces a massive decline in Japan, western sales won't stay flat from XIII.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I don't disagree but if FFXV faces a massive decline in Japan, western sales won't be stable.
As I said earlier, I'm not personally expecting it to do well. I just think there's a theoretical product you could make that succeeds in the burgeoning overseas RPG market while not making a huge impact in Japan.

We actually have a good example of that with Dark Souls and even Fire Emblem is pretty stacked toward the overseas market.

Looking at FFXV though, I see a product that really wants to succeed everywhere, but has awkward clashes with consumer taste in each market instead. I'm assuming they're hoping to power through that on brand power, but I don't think that's really there anymore.

That list is a bit weird.

First, some numbers Are Sold in, while others Are Sold through.

Second, some Are very old numbers, like Bloodborne ( sep 2015), it is surely well Over 2 Million now after The New Version + usual Holidays sales, while others numbers Are seriusly just a guess...
It's a last publicly stated number list that lets us see what the bottom is for reported RPG numbers and get a sense for where a game might want to hit in a broad sense for the type of numbers Square Enix would ever consider sharing.

I guess I could wave a magic wand around instead and magically hack all their databases to figure out an exact sales number for them, or I could ballpark what a multiplatform RPG's trajectory looks like and then look at the most similar case using extra details if/when Square Enix actually does share some data. The general trend here though is huge, growing success with an eventual floor of around 5 million for major $60 console RPGs. There's a huge gap once we start getting to stuff like Risen, but those are games with very different economics.

I had Bloodborne in there so we can see an exclusive RPG near launch for future potential Horizon questions.

I made this before The Division though so we could add yet another game in the 5-10 bucket and it had over 4 million in the launch day shipment.

Edit:

Oh I think I get what people keep freaking out about.

I don't care about the stack ranking here. That's totally whatever. It's the sales trend and the health of the genre.
 
As I said earlier, I'm not personally expecting it to do well. I just think there's a theoretical product you could make that succeeds in the burgeoning overseas RPG market while not making a huge impact in Japan.

We actually have a good example of that with Dark Souls and even Fire Emblem is pretty stacked toward the overseas market.

Looking at FFXV though, I see a product that really wants to succeed everywhere, but has awkward clashes with consumer taste in each market instead. I'm assuming they're hoping to power through that on brand power, but I don't think that's really there anymore.


The main problem this game is facing is unfocused developpement and budget. Movie, OVA, smaller downloadable titles. It's going to have a lot of troubles to break even.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
The main problem this game is facing is unfocused developpement and budget. Movie, OVA, smaller downloadable titles. It's going to have a lot of troubles to break even.
If their goal is to break even instead of to restore the Final Fantasy brand to prominence then they've already thrown in the towel and will presumably be making the next game with a 150 person team and a 3 year development cycle while hoping to ship 2-3 million units as it fades into obscurity.

Tabata has stated the team's aspiration as making the best selling Final Fantasy ever though, so I'm guessing their goal is prominence.
 

L~A

Member
Media Create:

New3DS LL 24,123
PS4 16,469
Vita 10,005
New3DS 6,403
Wii U 4,435
PS3 1,120
3DS 804
3DS LL 219
Xbox One 45

Etrian Odyssey V: 92k
Dragon Ball Fusions: 77k
 
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