Final Fantasy XIII-2 Sales Show A Series In Decline?

There isn't that much initial hype with XIII-2, so I can see why sales seem to be lacking. People are so skeptical because of what happened with XIII that they are holding back on purchasing this upon initial release. I bet it's long time sales numbers will go up, but it won't be until either:

A) After lukewarm reviews, the price drops.

or

B) The game ends up getting a great aggregate review score, so people buy it full price some time after it releases.

The thing that helped FFXIII's sales so much was the sheer hype for it. Even though disappointment followed after the game was actually played, the people that were lining up for their day 1 purchase had no idea. I'm not saying it was a bad game, but the general consensus on XIII is that it's a disappointing Final Fantasy experience.

With XIII-2, they used the same engine and have less pre-rendered cutscenes, so it's not like they're going to be losing a profit on this one regardless.

Bonampak, chart those numbers on a bar graph and put a best fit curve to it. FF peaked with FFVIII and has been in steady decline since, with a truly precipitous drop with FFXIII-2.

If I was a business man looking at those numbers, I'd be really worried. Especially in the full knowledge that the sales lives of games are much more concentrated in the 1st week & 1st month than before with relatively lower long term sales than in the PS2 days.

Lifetime sales of FFXIII were more than FFVIII. FFX and FFVII are the only games to outsell FFXIII in the entirety of its lifetimes. Here is what I found:

FFVII: 9.8 million (includes international ed.)
FFVIII: 6 million
FFX: 6.6 million
FFX-2: 3 million
FFXIII: 6.2 million

I have a feeling that XIII-2 isn't going to sell nearly as well as its predecessor, but FFX-2 sold less than half of what FFX did in its lifetime as well, coming in at only about 3 million.

@ZenChichiri, you are saying that XIII-2 might've not sold well because the Japanese don't buy many games these days.

Then how do you explain other games selling quite well during their first week in Japan?

How do you explain Monster Hunter 3G selling 471,055 in two days?

Let's face it… S-E is solely responsible for those lackluster numbers. Not Japanese gamers. They had good reason to avoid XIII-2. And boy, did they…

lol, ok sorry, 13's characters sucked the story sucked etc. thus the reason i have no interest in the new one.
im sure they made improvements in the gameplay but as i said, without good story and good character development it gets no purchase.
will i play this game? maybe but i will not pay for it.
(sorry but the cast sucks they lack character, completely)
the story of the 1st was pretty stupid and i have no interest, so this one (if they are similar which i think they are from what ive seen. so ill try it out if a friend buys it) but for the most part, ill be skipping.

sorry square, but they have lost me until they start listening

lol, dont hold yur breath, vs 13 aint coming. but if it does its no longer exclusive. who knows, maybe they renamed it 15 so they can go multiplat.

I'm just surprised they are unveiling the next FF installment, rather than talk about vs. 13 at all. That tells me it's on the back burner at least.

VS 13 was introduced in 2006……

its almost 2012……

It better be as good as ff 7,8,9,or 10 but knowing SE's current state, I doubt it.

lol, Jawknee

vs13 will not come out unless they can go multiplat.
its called business, too much time and money has been spent already.
i mean you are optimistic, but im pretty sure this is what is happening.

@Jutter

let me explain,
versus has been in development for too long and that means too much money has been spent.
now with that being said they will not be able to release it exclusively on PS3.
(I know it sux but thinking with a business mind, which they are. it does not make sense, they need to reach the largest audience possible)

so there are a few options of what is going to happen:

A. it goes multiplat
B. it is canned
C. it will be renamed and announced for the next gen of consoles. (AKA PS4 & xbox 720) (This may also be the reason why the engine may have been dropped or replaced.)

thus the reason as i say, it is not coming out this gen and if it does it will be multiplatform.

its quite obvious at this point.

remember guys, we are just the fans, we want it to be exclusive because we want it to kick ass on our console of choice, but looking at their point of view, they screwed up and they need to make money to keep afloat.

sorry, but its business… it sux sometimes

lol, oh jawknee,

keep up yur optimism buddy.

but remember i said this,

i see this happening too often and we will see

@Mamills I'm not sure of this. The development time could be thanks to all the waiting the team has done. They had to create a specific engine for the game and wait for a lot of other reasons. If those are the only reason's I'll spot The Last Guardian which has been in development for quite a while as well and there is absolutely no chance of it going multi-plat.

Most exclusive PS3 games use specific engines for the console. We have no idea that this engine isn't multi-plat but it would make sense. The PS3 is harder to develop for when using Multi-plat engines. Unless the game is lead on PS3 it will look and run better on the 360. I'd even say the same if Crystal Tools lead on 360.

The poor sales shouldn't come as a surprise to them seeing as no one really demanded for a sequel to Final Fantasy XIII.

Last edited by VampDeLeon on 12/22/2011 10:56:16 PM

I don't think that SE will get the right message from this decline. It requires too much faith to believe they would.

I'm starting to get used to the fact that we may never see another Final Fantasy rpg.

I think that this has a lot to do with the betrayal that Japanese gamers felt over FFXIII. It wasn't a good FF game at all, and wasn't a JRPG. A good game in it's own right, but not what it should have been. Japanese gamers bought blindly last time, this time they are cautious.

As for the 360 version, I know why SE bothers, and so does everyone else, it's called a contractual obligation linked to a dumptruck of money.

Yes, because the beating they are taking in the stocks has moer to do with the way they are handling their home market and key franchises than anything else, and the mis-handling of those things traces back to the total BS represented by their early exclusivity contracts with MS, and their more recent exclusivity waffling. They have no clarity of vision and have become distracted by the short term financial baubles that are on offer rather than the long term, but less sexy, business success that they once had.

Fane it didn't remain excluvie in Japan. Square Enix released the 360 version with extra content in Japan not long after it released in the West.

MS paid a crap load of dollars to SE to publish xiii-2 in japan. FFX has 7 playable chars, FFXIII has 6 playable chars, FFX-2 has 3 characters and FFXIII-2 has 2 characters with pokemons. FF series is all about the different characters and they way you organize your party, not changing clothes and catching pokemons.

Beastmaster has been around since FFV in various FF games. It was also sort of in FFT (Mediator could do the same thing). I remember FFXI well. Blue Mage was also fantastic. I was a Red Mage. It was alright, and I could solo lots of things (although it often took time), but in a party… well…. lets just say as a RDM you -NEVER- had trouble finding a party.

Read it again.

The whole thing.

i dont think its entirely down to fans being disappointed with it and the original.
XIII sold so well because 1 it was the first FF in a new generation, 2 it was the first FF in such a long time, and 3 it was the first game to use the crystal tools engine.
its not exactly surprising to see its predecessor sell less, especially when its only 2 years later, and was originally suppose to be DLC.

I must be the only one here who has pre-ordered FF13-2. I don't care what anyone im going into the release of Final Fantasy XIII-2 with open mine and giving it a shot.

Never thought I'd see this day, but I do think its too early to judge this titles sales numbers since I think we can all agree that the first game left a bad taste in most east and western FF fan's mouths. Its normal that a person to be cautious after a bad experience and FF XIII must be like a car door that slams shut on your hand on the scale of bad experiences. To be fair I still haven't tried XIII but the fact that I hear more negative things than positives about this installment has made me hold off a purchase till I almost forgot XIII even existed with all the other great games that have came out since then. One day I will have to try it, but its going to have to wait till I am done with Disgaea 3 and also after I buy and finish 4. Yes S-E, I would rather play that than buy XIII, I revel in nostalgia and Disgaea brings that in spades. Unlike some companies that forget what they they spent years doing to appeal to those that would outright ignore the series just for it being turn based (I remember my older cousins heckling as they watched me play VII for the first time). Now it only seems to be acceptable to do that if it is HD remake…… how is it possible that we love what you have created more than its own creators? What will it take to wake up S-E? The FF X HD remake selling better than XIII-2 in day 1 purchases? That actually sounds like its possible with this news, which is #$*%in alarming. Maybe your just trying to make the fighting system as complex as the stories with the better technology thats available, I don't know, but it still needs to be tweeked if the franchise is in this shape.

Last edited by evilmunkie on 12/23/2011 6:45:49 AM

FFX-2 only managed to sell less than one half as many copies as FFX and that was a direct sequel to an extremely well liked Final Fantasy game so I'm not so sure we can infer much from this. Plus 13-2 is a sequel to a game that got a mixed reception at best.

If FF15 comes out and struggles then I would say the series is in decline for sure. I don't think anybody, including Square themselves, expected 13-2 to light up the sales charts. Square only shipped about half as many copies out.

From a quality viewpoint I think the series has been in decline since after FFX.

Last edited by Excelsior1 on 12/23/2011 6:53:47 AM

The FFVII PSN release sold more in it's first week. Just sayin'.

Anyways, this is a lose-lose situation for fans anyways, so whatever. Here's how it is:

We think it should happen like this: SE makes big sales on sequel, it shows continued brand loyalty and people will complain. SE makes bad sales then HA they learn their lesson and go back to the old ways.

BUT, it was NEVER going to work that way. HERE is the way it actually happens and will happen. And it's why it's best to just roll with the punches and accept FF for what it has become (as wishing for old days won't help). As promised… here's the way it is:

SE makes great sales, that means people obviously like the NEW way FF is made! SE makes poor sales, then it isn't because of the changes… it's because people don't like FF anymore. (From SE's persepctive, of course)

SE, guaranteed, will not see this as fans wanting them to go back to their old ways. They will see this as a reason to move even further away from it in order to boost sales. They truly believe the old mechanic is archaic. There's no way, even if consumers speak with their wallets, that SE will go back to their old ways.

My friends… we either need to accept that FF is no longer our favorite franchise and just enjoy them for what they are and BUY, or like Japan, stop buying into it and be prepared for the FINAL final fantasy.