Do I need to get my eyes checked? Did Final Fantasy XIII, one of the most advertised, hyped games of the past four years, just get outsold by New Super Mario Bros Wii, LoZ: The Spirit Tracks, and that God damned "Miis make friends on the DS" game in only it's second week of release in Japan?
That's nuts.
Now, I know that Final Fantasy games aren't known for their long legs, but to see the mega-budgeted, mega-advertised game get outsold so quickly by three games that likely cost one tenth of what Final Fantasy XIII cost to produce just confuses me. All this time, I secretly thought that the PS3 and Final Fantasy XIII would end up conquering all of Japan, and they defintiely did... for a week. To see the game almost get outsold by a months old Pokemon remake teaches me how little I understand about Japan.
Hit the jump for the rest of the Japanese numbers for the week of Dec 21st. After checking them out, riddle me this; does it make sense for Square Enix to spend so much more money to produce the Final Fantasy games that they used to if they don't start selling more than they used to?
Jonathan Holmes is the most lovable Associate Editor on Destructoid. Catch him on videos, original editorials, and on back episodes of the Destructoid Show and MTV's Road Rules. Jonathan is a retro gamer's gamer.
Likes
Mega Man 2, Resident Evil, Katamari Damacy, Bit.Trip, Metal Slug 3
Meet the rest of the team
i remember the FFXIII statistic did not include any of the bundle counts either. i wouldn't be surprised if they ran out of copies. the PS3 also doesn't have as many users as the others but it should be high in Japan.
I am not surprised, I think it did very well. Considering how few PS3s sold versus Wii's. You would think that almost half of Japan would own a Wii, and the PS3 isn't close to that, but a PS3 exclusive still manages to compete against mother f'ing Mario on a most sold console? I think it did great.
@ kefkaesque- I've read that that Square Enix shipped 2 million copies of the game, so I don't think it's sold out.
@ Everybody else- The game is absolutely not a flop, but am I crazy for thinking that for the amount of money Square Enix spent on the game (for both marketing and actual development costs) that they might have been expecting it to sell for a little longer than this?
Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think they might be trying that crap they do with new console releases (Limit supply, send demand through the roof) to see if they can squeeze more sales out of it.
This isn't news. The game has sold almost 1.7 million copies in two weeks in ONE country, thats pretty fucking good. Then you compare it to the Nintendo freak show that is the Wii and DS in Japan. Yeah, nothing is surprising here.
"I think Final Fantasy games ALWAYS polarize people."
That pretty much hits the nail on the head. I've played final Fantasy, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X (not X2), XI and XII and my opinions on each can often be radically different from the next Final Fantasy person. It is seriously the most bizarre thing that you can either love/hate final fantasy AND you can love/hate an individual final fantasy game.
(side note: my personal favorite is XII because it dances around the Vagrant Story universe.)
Without knowing FF13's budget (do we know this?), it is hard to say whether this is a any type of failure at all. Going up against nintendo's heavy hitters is always going to give the impression that your title is not doing so well. When in fact, it might be a complete success.
Some numbers to break down. FF10 sold 3mil in Japan (8mil worldwide). FF12 sold 2.4mil (5.6mil worldwide). FF13 could easily fall in-between those numbers or just under FF12.
One of the higher budget games to come out in recent times was Killzone 2 (60mil).
FF13's budget is more than likely higher than that because of the 4-5 year development time.
FF13 retails for about $80 in Japan. Multiply that by its current sales and you have 135,200,000. Not knowing how much Square is actually getting out of that, it is still impressive. Assuming the budget is close or less than that, they have already pulled in their initial investment (with more sales to come I am sure). IN JAPAN ONLY.
They still have the rest of the world coming. Which, again without budget numbers, could well in fact be pure profit for Square. Seems like a good deal since it could go on to sell 4mil outside of Japan.
-SquareEnix sold 1,690,000 of FF13 for about $90 per copy (after JP/US conversion)
1,690,000 x $90 = $152,100,000
It didn't cost SquareEnix $152,100,000 to develop, manufacture and advertise this game and if it did it’s not much more then $152,100,000. Once they release FF13 worldwide they’ll be swimming in the BLACK. SquareEnix is happy with these numbers.
@deathxrebirth: You most have been written your comment while I was doing the same. Our numbers are a little different but our points are congruent. We agree completely.
It's not really that suprising. I mean, could any other developer take nearly half a decade to release a game, and then expect everybody to care like it's the next Harry Potter book? This game might have dominated the charts two or three years ago, but I doubt I'm the only person who doesn't give a shit about it anymore. Especially now that Square Enix has had enough time to screw up it's reputation with a bunch of trash games.
I'd rather see them make some more crazy awesome games on the DS. The World Ends With You was seriously one of the best rpgs I've played in years and it's on a handheld! SE... get back on that boat!
Totally saw this coming.
There just hasn't been ANY quality to Final Fantasy games starting with X.
I mean, I've pre-ordered every Final Fantasy after VII, but this (and thankfully XII) I don't plan on getting till at least a few months after release.
PS. Awesome seeing PSP2 up there in #12 even after almost a month!
I enjoy the game quite a bit. I'm about half way I'm guessing and it's really good so far. I think everyone who wanted it, bought it the first week. It's happened with other big titles in the states, so it's no surprise.
Bummer. Does this mean the game is not all that good? I do not pay attention to sales much. Do video games sells act like movie sells? Meaning that a crappy movie can have a great first weekend and then plummet after that?
I think it was you guys were expecting a bit much. It's doing well enough, great maybe, but were you really expecting to be at the top for weeks on end doing gangbusters? Really?
Why people love to hype games, Final Fantasy ones in particular, this much is beyond me. Just let the game do it's thing and enjoy it.
While I'm all for jumping on the bandwagon telling Square (Enix and the Dragon Quest franchise are sacred calfs to me, sorry) to knock it off and make something new, the reasons above regarding our expectations are pretty solid. I mean, seriously, even if it's in fourth place, that's a LOT of copies.
But what this post is really about: "... a months old Pokemon remake ..." This isn't just any Pokémon remake, this is GOLD AND FREAKIN' SILVER we're talking about. I'm more excited about this than I was about Diamond/Pearl!
This isn't all that surprising. Final Fantasy is a series with a very large, but also very hardcore fanbase. Everyone one with the the slightest interest in the game probably bought it at the first opportunity available to them. Not to mention there only about 4 million PS3s in Japan. That means almost half of the people who own a PS3 in Japan bought a copy of this game in only two weeks. Thats still pretty damn impressive.
Well compared to Tales of vesperia which has sold about a half million copies in TWO YEARS this isn't bad at all, and besides everyone know with DQ9 selling like 4.3 million copies in japan alone they probably don't really care.
It's actually pretty sickening to see all the ridiculous excuses offered by desperate fans of the FF series here.
Maybe FFXIII sold badly because the focus of this series has been off for a long time? Bigger budget, better graphics, more cinematic isn't what a game should be. Those top three titles deserve their places more than this FF cashcow because they are the better games.
And it has sold badly, both as a game and as part of the FF series. There's no way to spin this. FF sells at least 75% of its games in its first week, so this is it for the title in Japan. It sold at around 180k this week, next week it will sell at 80k. It probably won't even reach 2M total sales in Japan. The series is in decline.
You're right, it IS pretty fail in here. Well, at least since Randolph showed up.
As for the article, I haven't been following the sales in Japan, so I've got no idea. I'm sure Square Enix is still lining their pockets with money, though.
@fwappage: Which is a statement I can get behind. I've never been a Final Fantasy guy (refer to my other post), as an outsider the franchise just seems to have stagnated. I picked up Final Fantasy Tactics Advance years ago, and I thought it was amazing (it is). I picked up FFTA2 near launch, and was disappointed to find that it was, in essence, the exact same game as FFTA, and when I picked up Tactics proper on the PS1, it too was essentially the same thing (albeit with a much heavier emphasis on story and strategy (good things)).
Square (and, throwing my heavy bias out the window, Enix too) has an intense stranglehold on one and only one thing: the traditional JRPG. From my perspective, it seems like they feel as if they strayed away from that, if they took just one step away from their massive fanbase, they would simply plummet into bankruptcy, when clearly that would not be the case, as shown by their occasional outings into non-FF/DQ games. While of course FFXIII (Christ that's hard to type now that I think of it–thirteen games in the series proper and bajillions of spinoffs; talk about an investment) sales probably won't be the one thing that brings Squenix into this brand new world of RPGs, it will hopefully be a step toward it. Maybe Versus and whatever that other XIII is will help out too.
That being said, even though it's just piggybacking on Monster Hunter's (completely deserved) popularity, FFXIV looks boss.
Japanese are a little bit dissapointed with this new installment in the FF series not because the game isn't good(it is actualy)rather because the game strays a lot from the FF universe.There are many elements that define a FF game that are not in this game.
FFXIII is an evolution in the FF series and it's pretty damn good but the changes are too many.
These numbers are good taking account of that and the fact that handheld games always did and will have the best sales in Japan since Japanese love videogaming "on the go".It's very popular there.Try go in the subway or bus and definetely you'll se half of the passengers along with a handheld
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
9:00 PM on 12.31.2009
| 
Seriously, most of the games they've been releasing have sucked.
Thats obviously why no one bought it.
@ Everybody else- The game is absolutely not a flop, but am I crazy for thinking that for the amount of money Square Enix spent on the game (for both marketing and actual development costs) that they might have been expecting it to sell for a little longer than this?
also, inb4 trolls using this to proclaim how bad the game they haven't played sucks... oh wait
I dont really want to play another modern FF.
You know, they´re slow, the battles are boring, leveling up takes forever...
I spendt 100 hours on Final Fantasy X. This is a mistake i wont make again, seriously.
Want JRpgs? Try atlus. They produce cheaper and funnier games. All this Final Fantasy drama is too 90´s for me.
"I think Final Fantasy games ALWAYS polarize people."
That pretty much hits the nail on the head. I've played final Fantasy, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X (not X2), XI and XII and my opinions on each can often be radically different from the next Final Fantasy person. It is seriously the most bizarre thing that you can either love/hate final fantasy AND you can love/hate an individual final fantasy game.
(side note: my personal favorite is XII because it dances around the Vagrant Story universe.)
...I'm just jaded and burnt out on RPGs though.
Some numbers to break down. FF10 sold 3mil in Japan (8mil worldwide). FF12 sold 2.4mil (5.6mil worldwide). FF13 could easily fall in-between those numbers or just under FF12.
One of the higher budget games to come out in recent times was Killzone 2 (60mil).
FF13's budget is more than likely higher than that because of the 4-5 year development time.
FF13 retails for about $80 in Japan. Multiply that by its current sales and you have 135,200,000. Not knowing how much Square is actually getting out of that, it is still impressive. Assuming the budget is close or less than that, they have already pulled in their initial investment (with more sales to come I am sure). IN JAPAN ONLY.
They still have the rest of the world coming. Which, again without budget numbers, could well in fact be pure profit for Square. Seems like a good deal since it could go on to sell 4mil outside of Japan.
-SquareEnix sold 1,690,000 of FF13 for about $90 per copy (after JP/US conversion)
1,690,000 x $90 = $152,100,000
It didn't cost SquareEnix $152,100,000 to develop, manufacture and advertise this game and if it did it’s not much more then $152,100,000. Once they release FF13 worldwide they’ll be swimming in the BLACK. SquareEnix is happy with these numbers.
And their movies have been better?
There just hasn't been ANY quality to Final Fantasy games starting with X.
I mean, I've pre-ordered every Final Fantasy after VII, but this (and thankfully XII) I don't plan on getting till at least a few months after release.
PS. Awesome seeing PSP2 up there in #12 even after almost a month!
have you played the game? if not, why are you bashing it?
Hilariously though, if you were to remove the "Final Fantasy" tag from the game, it would probably get much higher scores and acclaim.
Why people love to hype games, Final Fantasy ones in particular, this much is beyond me. Just let the game do it's thing and enjoy it.
But what this post is really about: "... a months old Pokemon remake ..." This isn't just any Pokémon remake, this is GOLD AND FREAKIN' SILVER we're talking about. I'm more excited about this than I was about Diamond/Pearl!
Maybe FFXIII sold badly because the focus of this series has been off for a long time? Bigger budget, better graphics, more cinematic isn't what a game should be. Those top three titles deserve their places more than this FF cashcow because they are the better games.
And it has sold badly, both as a game and as part of the FF series. There's no way to spin this. FF sells at least 75% of its games in its first week, so this is it for the title in Japan. It sold at around 180k this week, next week it will sell at 80k. It probably won't even reach 2M total sales in Japan. The series is in decline.
It's so high because people are buying duplicates.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/26637/Opinion_2009__The_Last_Days_of_the_Japanese_RPG.php
@fwappage: Thank you, I totally agree. Not sure about the numbers, but everything else I understand.
As for the article, I haven't been following the sales in Japan, so I've got no idea. I'm sure Square Enix is still lining their pockets with money, though.
Square (and, throwing my heavy bias out the window, Enix too) has an intense stranglehold on one and only one thing: the traditional JRPG. From my perspective, it seems like they feel as if they strayed away from that, if they took just one step away from their massive fanbase, they would simply plummet into bankruptcy, when clearly that would not be the case, as shown by their occasional outings into non-FF/DQ games. While of course FFXIII (Christ that's hard to type now that I think of it–thirteen games in the series proper and bajillions of spinoffs; talk about an investment) sales probably won't be the one thing that brings Squenix into this brand new world of RPGs, it will hopefully be a step toward it. Maybe Versus and whatever that other XIII is will help out too.
That being said, even though it's just piggybacking on Monster Hunter's (completely deserved) popularity, FFXIV looks boss.
FFXIII is an evolution in the FF series and it's pretty damn good but the changes are too many.
These numbers are good taking account of that and the fact that handheld games always did and will have the best sales in Japan since Japanese love videogaming "on the go".It's very popular there.Try go in the subway or bus and definetely you'll se half of the passengers along with a handheld