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[cw_sasuke]

YW3 might one of the biggest bombas of the year - still easily outselling next mainline FF though. What a time to be alive.

How is the YW Anime doing these days ? Would love to see some comparisons to the YW2 launch period. We know that Toy and Merchandise sales already tanked big time in the last 18 months.

 

[Aters]

While i agree that the devs is also on the fault here, i don't think some of the game i listed there is the problem of the devs here. Especially on Bravely Second. The developer actually mentioned their small budget even after all their success in the west which is just idiot move by SE.

DQMJ3 series had always been a guaranteed million seller. Thanks to the bad word of mouth from many of the fans due to palette swap monsters, the sales fall down badly. Budget may be finite, but u sure should know where to dedicate here rather than goes cheap and end up killing the brand u had been cultivating for soo long.

And also, i don't agree that DQB is doing absolutely well there. As they failed to reach that Minecraft market which is the main purpose of this Builders game.

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.

I won't say DQMJ3 would certainly sell over 1M even without the issues it has. DQ remakes were million sellers too, but not on 3DS. The market has changed, and DS numbers are much harder to pull off now.

Also I'd say DQB is a success, even when it doesn't shake the Minecraft domination. When every devs are making MH clones, they are not trying to replace MH, they just want to get a bite of the pie. Same thing happens here. SE wanted to ride the Minecraft wave and make some easy money, and they succeeded with a surprisingly good game (and it doesn't have a big budget either).

 

[BluePikmin11]

YW3 might one of the biggest bombas of the year - still easily outselling next mainline FF though. What a time to be alive.

How is the YW Anime doing these days ? Would love to see some comparisons to the YW2 launch period. We know that Toy and Merchandise sales already tanked big time in the last 18 months.

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.

 

[Vena]

Given the NA price drop, do we expect similar to hit Japan in the coming ~month~? (For the N3DS.)

 

[Greninja96]

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.

 

[Magicpaint]

I won't say DQMJ3 would certainly sell over 1M even without the issues it has. DQ remakes were million sellers too, but not on 3DS. The market has changed, and DS numbers are much harder to pull off now.

DQVIIr was a million seller though. Sold on par with the DS remakes. VIII fell short a little but circumstances were different given the existence of a cheaper mobile port.

 

[Kanann]

YW3 might one of the biggest bombas of the year - still easily outselling next mainline FF though. What a time to be alive.

How is the YW Anime doing these days ? Would love to see some comparisons to the YW2 launch period. We know that Toy and Merchandise sales already tanked big time in the last 18 months.

No hope for FFXV to sell more?

Why?

 

[DriftingSpirit]

YW3 might one of the biggest bombas of the year - still easily outselling next mainline FF though. What a time to be alive.

How is the YW Anime doing these days ? Would love to see some comparisons to the YW2 launch period. We know that Toy and Merchandise sales already tanked big time in the last 18 months.

"easily outselling"

What do you think the LTD will be for both?

 

[MacTag]

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.

I won't say DQMJ3 would certainly sell over 1M even without the issues it has. DQ remakes were million sellers too, but not on 3DS. The market has changed, and DS numbers are much harder to pull off now.

Also I'd say DQB is a success, even when it doesn't shake the Minecraft domination. When every devs are making MH clones, they are not trying to replace MH, they just want to get a bite of the pie. Same thing happens here. SE wanted to ride the Minecraft wave and make some easy money, and they succeeded with a surprisingly good game (and it doesn't have a big budget either).

I think the idea is that if it had a fuller budget B2nd might not have needed to be a content recycled direct sequel. It could've been more FFXII rather than FFX-2 to draw a parallel. And great example of how to approach and grow with a successful franchise sequel is what Nintendo did with Fire Emblem Awakening and Fates on 3DS. The platform aging isn't primarily why B2nd sold worse, it was the squandered opportunity on Square Enix's part.

Also DQVII sold over million on 3DS and was the only real mainline remake. DQVIII was a conversion with a recent mobile port while the Monsters remakes were part of a subseries, but even then they came pretty close to a million anyway. Way closer than Builders did at least.

 

[noshten]

"easily outselling"

What do you think the LTD will be for both?

What are your expectations?
YK will easily pass a million, at this point I don't even think XV would be close. If XV manages a million I'd be amazed, the pre-orders are ded

 

[MacTag]

If FFXV can't pass a million in Japan I think PS4 is done for there. That sends a clear signal throughout the Japanese industry. Sort of like MH3 on Wii.

That said I think FFXV will definitely clear a million. By how much is in the air but I'll be shocked if it doesn't.

 

[Greninja96]

How is Pokemon Sun and Moon pre-orders doing?

 

[Oregano]

I think Nirolak nailed SE in a previous thread. Bravely Second could have done better but it doesn't really matter to them, Joker 3's performance is a bigger concern but now that they have Super Light on mobile that doesn't really matter either.

 

[DriftingSpirit]

What are your expectations?
YK will easily pass a million, at this point I don't even think XV would be close. If XV manages a million I'd be amazed, the pre-orders are ded

~1M. Maybe a bit above that. I don't think the pre orders are the best gauge for predictions. We'll see though.

 

[Asd202]

If FFXV can't pass a million in Japan I think PS4 is done for there. That sends a clear signal throughout the Japanese industry. Sort of like MH3 on Wii.

That said I think FFXV will definitely clear a million. By how much is in the air but I'll be shocked if it doesn't.

What? Most AAA developers making games for PS4 are targeting the western market. FFXV is no different.

 

[Asd202]

Dobule post.

 

[Oregano]

What? Most AAA developers making games for PS4 are targeting the western market. FFXV is no different.

I imagine even if they're targeting the west losing a million Jp customers is still a sixth or more of their audience and that assumes their western sales will stay at the same level.

Theres only so much the importance of the domestic market can be downplayed.

 

[DriftingSpirit]

What? Most AAA developers making games for PS4 are targeting the western market. FFXV is no different.

Plus, why would they drop what will be one of two active platforms domestically? Even if things do underperform or what not, they don't have much choice but to stick with PS4.

I imagine even if they're targeting the west losing a million Jp customers is still a sixth or more of their audience and that assumes their western sales will stay at the same level.

Theres only so much the importance of the domestic market can be downplayed.

So what are you suggesting will happen if that turns out to be the case?

The Japan market is basically null and void. There isn't even anything to downplay.

 

[Oregano]

Plus, why would they drop what will be one of two active platforms domestically? Even if things do underperform or what not, they don't have much choice but to stick with PS4.

So what are you suggesting will happen if that turns out to be the case?

The Japan market is basically null and void. There isn't even anything to downplay.

The Japan market represents a third of Final Fantasy's audience. If that disappears then I'm not sure what they should do because there's no easy answer and that's what people downplay when they parrot the "focus on the west" soundbite.

It would be a fundamental existential crisis and it would need Square Enix to completely re-evaluate what the FF brand even is.

That goes for the wider industry too of course, not just Square Enix.

 

[noshten]

~1M. Maybe a bit above that. I don't think the pre orders are the best gauge for predictions. We'll see though.

XV is going to get the majority of its sales at launch so if there was really 1 million people interested in picking it up we would have seen such a trend with the preorders.

We don't even need to look at preorders, just the fact that at the launch of the last mainline FF series PS3 had sold more than twice the amount of PS4 units out now. Simply put the large porition of the audience isn't returning to consoles and unless you have a very high addoption rate of existing owners it would be extremly difficult for XV to even get close to previous entries.

XV will be closer to P5 than to YW

What? PS3 was at 4.2 million LTD when FFXIII launched, PS4 is at almost 3.1 million now. There was no where near double the amount of PS3's sold at the time of FFXIII's launch as there are PS4's sold now. PS4 is selling at basically the exact same pace that PS3 did.

Well this is even more worrying in that case, I though PS3 had sold much more at FFXIII launch. So I guess Japanese PS4 owners simply aren't interested in XV

And what do you think P5 will do?

Over 500k by the end of the year

 

[L~A]

Nintendo eShop Top 10 (August 1 - 7)


Nintendo 3DS

(N) Etrian Odyssey V: The End of the Long Myth (Atlus) [04.8.2016]
(-1) 02. Pokémon Yellow Version: Pikachu Special Version (Nintendo, Virtual Console) [27.2.2016]
(-1) 03. Pokémon Red Version (Nintendo, Virtual Console) [27.2.2016]
(N) 04. Dragon Ball Fusions (Bandai-Namco) [04.8.2016]
(-2) 05. Pokémon Blue Version (Nintendo, Virtual Console) [27.2.2016]
(N) 06. 3D Puyo Puyo 2 (SEGA) [03.8.2016]
(-2) 07. The Battle Cats POP (Ponos) [31.5.2015]
(-2) 08. Cube Creator 3D (Arc System Works) [15.7.2015]
(-5) 09. Pokémon Green Version (Nintendo, Virtual Console) [27.2.2016]
(B) 10. Super Mario World (Nintendo, Virtual Console) [04.3.2016]

Wii U

(=) 01. Xenoblade Chronicles (Nintendo, Wii Download on Wii U) [27.7.2016]
(N) 02. Zero ~Makoto Kurenai no Chou (Nintendo, Wii Download on Wii U) [03.8.2016]
(N) 03. Super Paper Mario (Nintendo, Wii Download on Wii U) [03.8.2016]
(-2) 04. Rhythm Heaven Fever / Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise (Nintendo, Wii Download on Wii U) [27.7.2016]
(-2) 05. Minecraft: Wii U Edition (Microsoft Japan) [17.12.2015]
(-2) 06. Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo, Virtual Console) [27.7.2016]
(=) 07. Splatoon (Nintendo) [28.5.2015]
(N) 08. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo, Virtual Console) [03.8.2016]
(N) 09. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky (The Pokémon Company, Virtual Console) [20.7.2016]
(-2) 10. Dragon Quest X: Mezameshi Itsutsu no Shuzoku Online (Square-Enix) [30.3.2013]

https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/c/article/6c61aecd-59e6-11e6-9b38-063b7ac45a6d.html

 

[DKHF]

XV is going to get the majority of its sales at launch so if there was really 1 million people interested in picking it up we would have seen such a trend with the preorders.

We don't even need to look at preorders, just the fact that at the launch of the last mainline FF series PS3 had sold more than twice the amount of PS4 units out now. Simply put the large porition of the audience isn't returning to consoles and unless you have a very high addoption rate of existing owners it would be extremly difficult for XV to even get close to previous entries.

XV will be closer to P5 than to YW

What? PS3 was at 4.2 million LTD when FFXIII launched, PS4 is at almost 3.1 million now. There was no where near double the amount of PS3's sold at the time of FFXIII's launch as there are PS4's sold now. PS4 is selling at basically the exact same pace that PS3 did.

 

[DriftingSpirit]

The Japan market represents a third of Final Fantasy's audience. If that disappears then I'm not sure what they should do because there's no easy answer and that's what people downplay when they parrot the "focus on the west" soundbite.

It would be a fundamental existential crisis and it would need Square Enix to completely re-evaluate what the FF brand even is.

That goes for the wider industry too of course, not just Square Enix.

Well, what do you figure the WW LTD will be? Because I think the rest of the world could make up for Japan.

I don't think everyone else can lean on the west/rest of the world to make up for Japan but I think FFXV can do it because it already engaged the worldwide market with previous entries.

Basically, I'm saying Japan will collapse out of FF but it won't be a "crisis". Not with what the rest of the world will be bringing in.

XV is going to get the majority of its sales at launch so if there was really 1 million people interested in picking it up we would have seen such a trend with the preorders.

We don't even need to look at preorders, just the fact that at the launch of the last mainline FF series PS3 had sold more than twice the amount of PS4 units out now. Simply put the large porition of the audience isn't returning to consoles and unless you have a very high addoption rate of existing owners it would be extremly difficult for XV to even get close to previous entries.

XV will be closer to P5 than to YW

And what do you think P5 will do?

 

[Nirolak]

The Japan market represents a third of Final Fantasy's audience. If that disappears then I'm not sure what they should do because there's no easy answer and that's what people downplay when they parrot the "focus on the west" soundbite.

It would be a fundamental existential crisis and it would need Square Enix to completely re-evaluate what the FF brand even is.

That goes for the wider industry too of course, not just Square Enix.

I don't think this is a very hard option set to break out honestly.

In your scenario, presumably Final Fantasy XV goes to ~500K or less in Japan, and fails to move more than 3 million in the West, making the current budget/budget trajectory unfeasible.

Their options become:

1.) Ship FF16 as an f2p mobile game because that's the only thing with any chance of making even 30% of a mainline Final Fantasy's historic revenue while focusing on the domestic market.

2.) Make a WRPG and aim 100% at the Western market. Perhaps just hand the whole mainline series off to Eidos Montreal or another Western developer since getting 10+ million copies of your AAA action RPG in the West is something five different WRPG developers are doing. If we go down to 5 million, we had Deus Ex 3 doing 3.5 million on PC alone, along with a lot more developers hitting the target.

3.) Shitcan the series as a flagship franchise and just make budget-conscious games to milk what value is left in the brand.

4.) Stick head in sand, proceed as is, hope next game by new team leads does better.

 

[DriftingSpirit]

Or yeah, they'll just figure out what to do next with the brand. Devs had/will have to adjust and SE will just do the same if shit hits the fan. I don't think it will hit the fan at this moment though.

I am sure the Media Create thread for FFXV will scream fire either way. I'll wait until WW shipments/sell through for that.

 

[Kanann]

I don't think this is a very hard option set to break out honestly.

In your scenario, presumably Final Fantasy XV goes to ~500K or less in Japan, and fails to move more than 3 million in the West, making the current budget/budget trajectory unfeasible.

Their options become:

1.) Ship FF16 as an f2p mobile game because that's the only thing with any chance of making even 30% of a mainline Final Fantasy's historic revenue while focusing on the domestic market.

2.) Make a WRPG and aim 100% at the Western market. Perhaps just hand the whole mainline series off to Eidos Montreal or another Western developer since getting 10+ million copies of your AAA action RPG in the West is something five different WRPG developers are doing. If we go down to 5 million, we had Deus Ex 3 doing 3.5 million on PC alone, along with a lot more developers hitting the target.

3.) Shitcan the series as a flagship franchise and just make budget-conscious games to milk what value is left in the brand.

4.) Stick head in sand, proceed as is, hope next game by new team leads does better.

I ll go with 4.)
And new team is from DQ development division ala Naoki Yoshida.

1 is too quick, 2 is possible but I want Eidos to make a spin of title first, 3 is nightmare please don't you all dare thinking about it

But I think FFXV will not fail SQEN

 

[Oregano]

Well, what do you figure the WW LTD will be? Because I think the rest of the world could make up for Japan.

I don't think everyone else can lean on the west/rest of the world to make up for Japan but I think FFXV can do it because it already engaged the worldwide market with previous entries.

Basically, I'm saying Japan will collapse out of FF but it won't be a "crisis". Not with what the rest of the world will be bringing in.

And what do you think P5 will do?

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.

I don't think this is a very hard option set to break out honestly.

In your scenario, presumably Final Fantasy XV goes to ~500K or less in Japan, and fails to move more than 3 million in the West, making the current budget/budget trajectory unfeasible.

Their options become:

1.) Ship FF16 as an f2p mobile game because that's the only thing with any chance of making even 30% of a mainline Final Fantasy's historic revenue while focusing on the domestic market.

2.) Make a WRPG and aim 100% at the Western market. Perhaps just hand the whole mainline series off to Eidos Montreal or another Western developer since getting 10+ million copies of your AAA action RPG in the West is something five different WRPG developers are doing. If we go down to 5 million, we had Deus Ex 3 doing 3.5 million on PC alone, along with a lot more developers hitting the target.

3.) Shitcan the series as a flagship franchise and just make budget-conscious games to milk what value is left in the brand.

4.) Stick head in sand, proceed as is, hope next game by new team leads does better.

Thanks Nirolak. I meant there wasn't an easy answer because the first two options are high risk(/high reward). There's no obvious path to equal or greater success.

Spoiler

Square Enix would go with option 4.

 

[Orgen]

If FFXV doesn't sell more than 1 million in Japan then I don't see the game having a chance to sell 5 million WW

 

[Chris1964]

West so far follows Japan at sales trend for FF. If series see another drop in Japan things won't be very different WW. The drop just may be not as big as in Japan.

 

[1st Course]

FF XV should do very well in the west (being an action based rpg + open world). I wager there will be a PC too sometime later which should help prop sales up.

 

[Kanann]

Does Persona 5 have potential to do 400k+?

FFXV will sell 10m in 2020

 

[KillerMan91]

Kinda weird thought that soon Deus Ex is probably the biggest RPG series of Square lol.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

Kinda weird thought that soon Deus Ex is probably the biggest RPG series of Square lol.

Well the new DE does look like it will be a much better product than XV so probably not a bad thing. I'm pretty positive DE will slay XV when it comes to reviews and reception.

 

[Oregano]

Kinda weird thought that soon Deus Ex is probably the biggest RPG series of Square lol.

Are you sure it won't be the famed WRPG series Hitman or Tomb Raider?

 

[Principate]

~1M. Maybe a bit above that. I don't think the pre orders are the best gauge for predictions. We'll see though.

You realise that require selling to close to one third of the PS4's install base in Japan right now..

 

[Nirolak]

I would say my definition of doing well in the West would be 5+ million copies based on how other flagship console RPGs do.

Here is the list I compiled out when we had The Witcher 3 thread. It was based on the last official statements from the companies who published the games, mostly by digging through press releases and financial results. It overwhelmingly focused on newer games, but for some of them I used historical peaks due to confounding factors (like Dark Souls 2 was rather clearly a bump in the road between 1 and 3 due to development and generational issues).

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

*To note, Borderlands as a series has since passed 26 million copies, and the first game only got to 6 million the last time it was reported, so that number might be lowballing it. That was the last direct number for Borderlands 2 itself however.

**For Destiny, Activision has most recently reported it out as nearly 30 million registered players. I would be surprised if it was only 12-15 million in total sales, but I'm sticking with my previous lowball.

If mainline Final Fantasy can't be competitive with the bottom tier of that list with a $100+ million development budget multiplatform open world action RPG, it's not living up to the expectations and potential of the genre.

 

[Ōkami]

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

 

[Oregano]

Obviously FF needs to go the Fire Emblem route and add Waifus. FFVII had romance options and it was the most popular game in the series. Can't argue with that.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

^^ you've mixed sales data and shipment data.

If FFXV can't pass a million in Japan I think PS4 is done for there. That sends a clear signal throughout the Japanese industry. Sort of like MH3 on Wii.

That said I think FFXV will definitely clear a million. By how much is in the air but I'll be shocked if it doesn't.

Don't worry, it will outsell 99.9% of Japanese third party games WW.

 

[Edge_Maverick]

The biggest threat (imo) for FFXV was releasing close to another big RPG series that is destined to sell millions as well and could get more attention (for example Mass Effect Andromeda, a new huge Bethesda title, etc.).

Right now S-E could avoid everyone by making FFXV the only AAA open-world RPG that's coming soon. Maybe they are just lucky, but I don't see September 30th being a bad date for its release at all. It's actually a very strategic one if everything goes according to keikaku (this also means plan). Reception will be, as expected, the most important thing for the game. Even others S-E titles might benefit from a well received XV, especially WoFF.

The key is to make "Final Fantasy" a very relevant name once again, and this also ties to 2017, since it's the 30th anniversary. That's XV mission for me.

In any case, if XIII, a game with poor word of mouth could still climb to 7.5 million, I wonder what a greatly received XV could achieve (perhaps nothing, but I like to be optimistic lol).

 

[Celine]

I think the only mainline Final Fantasy game to sell more in the US than in Japan is XIII.

XIII sold in US more or less the same as it did in Japan.
Same could be said for X which sold slightly more in Japan only due to re-releases (budget line and international version account for about 400K).

In any case, if XIII, a game with poor word of mouth could still climb to 7.5 million, I wonder what a greatly received XV could achieve (perhaps nothing, but I like to be optimistic lol).

XIII was released when the Final Fantasy brand was still seen as strong and valuable, in fact it shipped 5 million units out of the gate.
The following games in the Lightning trilogy couldn't muster same luxury.

 

[Edge_Maverick]

XIII was released when the Final Fantasy brand was still seen as strong and valuable, in fact it shipped 5 million units out of the gate.
The following games in the Lightning trilogy couldn't muster same luxury.

You're right, but what I mean is that even with that bad reception and the fact that XIII's legs were kinda weak it still could reach a respectable number in the end (Steam release for example is around 500k~600k iirc and for a divisive game like XIII, I think it's actually great ~ it's also not the best port around).

Now, the FF "name" is not as relevant as it once were, so that's why I'd like XV to succeed so we can see how high the series can go nowadays in terms of sales (at least until FFVIIR comes.. but I bet XV's reception will be relevant to it as well).

 

[Nirolak]

^^ you've mixed sales data and shipment data.

It's true some of those are sold-through, but that's an even easier bar for Square Enix to hit since almost all of those are shipments.

It should not be a hard bar to hit for a relevant product.

 

[Arzehn]

Those living in Japan: has the marketing train even started for FFXV yet? Billboards anywhere?

 

[Chris1964]

XIII was released when the Final Fantasy brand was still seen as strong and valuable, in fact it shipped 5 million units out of the gate.
The following games in the Lightning trilogy couldn't muster same luxury.

When you overship something you can't expect to have the same faith with sequels.

 

[MANUELF]

I expect a brawl sized debut for FFXV but it will barely be a million seller

 

[Celine]

It's true some of those are sold-through, but that's an even easier bar for Square Enix to hit since almost all of those are shipments.

It should not be a hard bar to hit for a relevant product.

How (if) it'll hit the bar is also important or to put Square Enix words (in 2013 after years of overshipping):

http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/20130527_01en.pdf

 

[Nirolak]

How (if) it'll hit the bar is also important or to put Square Enix words (in 2013 after years of overshipping):


http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/20130527_01en.pdf

For their profits, I agree, but I feel the objective of the game at this point is to ship a well reviewed title that sells as many copies as possible in an effort to make a stronger brand for the future.

 

[Celine]

For their profits, I agree, but I feel the objective of the game at this point is to ship a well reviewed title that sells as many copies as possible in an effort to make a stronger brand for the future.

Absolutely agree with you and Edge_Maverick (it was also his point), I'm not confident though.

 

[Nirolak]

Absolutely agree with you and Edge_Maverick (it was also his point), I'm not confident though.

I share your pessimism. I'm expecting it to review in the high 70s or notably low 80s and not sell especially well. My scenario is more what I think Square Enix's strategic goals should be if we assume they had a great product.

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...)

As it stands I'm expecting the series to get handed off to a new set of leads and for them to make massive changes with a game that doesn't ship until the PS5. If it's Yoshida's division like the person above speculates, maybe a strong online component will be part of the pitch with something like full campaign co-op. That tends to go over very well overseas, but wouldn't push the game into traditional MMO territory which can be quite sales limiting and painful for singleplayer fans.