Will FF13 outsell FF7

[darkchrono]

I read where FF13 sold 1.5 million copies (or units as they put it) in just four days. How does this compare to the amount of copies sold for FF7 when it was first released.

This may end up being the best selling Final Fantasy game to date.

[Slothy]

FFVII sold 2.3 million in it's first three days in Japan according to wikipedia. I can't see FFXIII touching the overall worldwide sales figure that FFVII set when it's all said and done. Even FFX and FFXII only managed a bit more than half I believe while being on the most popular home console ever.

[Christmas]

I dun know. It is a battle between Cloud and Cloud with boobs. :bigsmile:

It is pretty hard to determine! :bigsmile:

[Raistlin]

I dun know. It is a battle between Cloud and Cloud with boobs. :bigsmile:

The problem is that FF7 had Cloud and Cloud with boobs, and so therefore is doubly tough to beat.

[VeloZer0]

The problem is that FF7 had Cloud and Cloud with boobs, and so therefore is doubly tough to beat.

Touche.

Am I correct in remembering FFVII came out relativity early in the PSOne's life-cycle? I would imagine the current install base of PS3/360s is greater than that of the install base of PSOnes at the time. If we go by that then FFXIII should be able to win just because the market for video games has grown significantly in the last decade. Though I suspect the FFVII advertising campaign was much larger than what they have planned for FFXIII.

[Raistlin]

FF7 was released in 1997, about midway between the PS1 and PS2 releases. And you're right that today there is a bigger market for games, but I think the FF7 period was a highpoint for interest in Final Fantasy in particular.

[Bolivar]

Oh man can we please not bring sales talk into EoFF, this is like the last place on the web where we truly don't care.

That said, only time will tell. The market is undoubtedly bigger, but that market buys games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, not Blue Dragon and Valkyria Chronicles. But FFVII is a big blockbuster and always does huge in America, so we really have to wait and see.

[Depression Moon]

In it's first week in Japan, Final Fantasy XIII managed to sell over 1.5 million copies, and further more was able to push almost 250,000 PS3s. This means that about one third of all PS3 owners have Final Fantasy XIII. This number will probably increase over the next few weeks to over half.

While 1.5 million is not quite as high as the first week sales for Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII, their launch was at a time when PS2 sales were much higher.

For example, FFX launched when the PS2 sales were at around 5.5 million, making it's launch attach rate around 34.5%. FFXIII on the other hand launched with PS3 sales at around 4.1 million (~4.3 million now that FFXIII has launched), which means it's attach rate is around 34.8, which is essentially the same as for FFX. Final Fantasy X had a huge drop in it's second week sales going from 1.9 million, to just 0.25 million. It will be interesting to see how much of a drop FFXIII has, considering the fewer PS3s sold in Japan right now, FFXIII could have pretty good legs down the road, and could eventually catch up to FFX and FFXII.
Source: Examiner (http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-6894-Video-Game-News-Examiner%7Ey2009m12d21-Final-Fantasy-XIII-firstweek-sales-in-Japan-revealed)

[Slothy]

Oh man can we please not bring sales talk into EoFF, this is like the last place on the web where we truly don't care.

There is such a thing as not posting in the thread if you don't care. If the dude wants to have a discussion about FFXIII's sales then he's entitled to.

[Bolivar]

Oh man can we please not bring sales talk into EoFF, this is like the last place on the web where we truly don't care.

There is such a thing as not posting in the thread if you don't care. If the dude wants to have a discussion about FFXIII's sales then he's entitled to.

Well my post was supposed to be a little ironic because I jumped into the discussion afterwards... :p

Although I really belive that the recent introduction of industry-talk into video games discussion is diluting our dialogue and undermining what's really important to us as gamers. It's an opinion I have, and I'm sharing it in a discussion thread about it. I think that's about as germaine as it gets.

[ANGRYWOLF]

I think it will in time outsell FFVII.
A FFVII remake though would outsell any previous FF.

:)

[Wolf Kanno]

I think the real question is less about how many units are available to play the game as much as its more about whether FF is still relevant to today's market. As Bolivar kinda pointed out, RPGs don't really seem to be drawing the same level of fandom on next-gen consoles as they did in previous console generations.

I don't think it will sell very well unless SE really tries to pull out a VII style PR campaign (which signs are showing they really are not trying) to get the numbers they need. I still feel that FF no longer has the pull it did ten years ago, while still a milestone series I don't think it will make the numbers VII did unless SE can convince the consumer market that XIII will be another Gaming Revolution and something you don't want to miss much like VII did.

[Slothy]

I still feel that FF no longer has the pull it did ten years ago, while still a milestone series I don't think it will make the numbers VII did unless SE can convince the consumer market that XIII will be another Gaming Revolution and something you don't want to miss much like VII did.

This is largely why I think FFVII did so well. At the time we had literally never seen anything like it and it, along with it's marketing really did seem to sell not only it, but the RPG genre as no longer being about stat sheets and only for the hardcore nerds. That combined with coming out when 3D was still new on a console that was a runaway success compared to it's competitors probably drew in a lot of people who had never given RPG's a shake before.

It did certainly cause the market and RPG popularity to explode, and FF has largely done very well since. Even the 5 million+ sales of more recent FF's are more than respectable, but the boom that FFVII had for seeming like a graphical and gaming revolution will probably never be seen again in the genre without something as revolutionary as the jump from 2D to 3D.

[Bolivar]

You know what else they did right? They knew their audience. I remember nearly every comic book I picked up at the time had a two page spread for either Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy Tactics.

Nowadays, the execs at Square Enix think getting Leona Lewis on the game will broaden their audience. That's a facepalm and a half.

[darkchrono]

You know what else they did right? They knew their audience. I remember nearly every comic book I picked up at the time had a two page spread for either Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy Tactics.

Nowadays, the execs at Square Enix think getting Leona Lewis on the game will broaden their audience. That's a facepalm and a half.

Actually Bolivar getting a young singer isn't actually that bad. The only stereotype that really holds true is that the vast majority of people who play rpg's are teenagers and people in their early 20's. So getting a singer who those individuals may listen to is a pretty good p.r. move. The comic book statement may of rang true ten or fifteen years ago before video games really took off. But these days gamers are so diversified that you will find people in practically every avenue you look at who likes to play video games.

[Rase]

Also didn't hurt that the out of the three commercials for FFVII not one showed gameplay, all but one split second was prerendered FMV, and it is never mentioned to be an RPG (oh, and the Aerith death was spoiled in one of the commercials). There's a reason for the stories of people returning FFVII because they didn't know the game had reading. :p

[Rad Bromance]

No.

I'm skeptical that it will even outsell XII, honestly. It seems like interest in the series has been gradually dwindling downward. I mean it's still a massively popular franchise and all, but unless this game does something to really stand out and get talked about a whole lot, I just don't see it breaking any records.

I have no doubts it will enjoy good sales though (as it already is).


Nowadays, the execs at Square Enix think getting Leona Lewis on the game will broaden their audience. That's a facepalm and a half.
Actually no, because the "audience" now is not the audience there was then. Far more people are playing video games today then there were then, and they're a far broader demographic. Using a mainstream musical artist, that actually sings in the country's speaking language, can do nothing but good as it is a name that will appeal to more people and garner more interest in something some people may have otherwise not cared about at all.

The only reason people are complaining about the Leona Lewis thing at all is because they are misguided "JAPAN IS SUPERIOR" fanboys, and after all the complaining about XII by said fanboys with XII still being a commercial success, SE now knows that they're not top priority, and that alienating their former fanbase isn't going to bankrupt them. Besides, I don't see how anyone could complain about "My Hands" with that abomination of a song that's being used for the Japanese version...it's quite bad, in my humble opinion.

I'd say SE has a pretty good grasp on how to cater to their current audience. :D

[BustaMo]

Kinda weird situation here. I mean FFXIII is being released approximately 12-13 years later than FFVII. Also there's more fans now than there was back than. But are we judging by like the first week sales, or month? And we still have to wait until the game is released in the U.S. and Europe as well.

So yeah it's a tricky situation, but I think once the game hits outside of Japan, FFXIII will sell more than FFVII's initial release.

[Momiji]

I seriously doubt it. I've already read a lot of articles about a lot of negative response in Japan about FFXIII, that it's incredibly linear, boring, and just doesn't feel like a Final Fantasy game-- or a game at all; a CG movie with RPG minigames, rather.

[black orb]

>>> I thought that FF8 sold even more than FF7..
I doubt that FF13 is going to outsell ff7/ff8, FF7 converted (and still converting) too many people into FF fans, and I think FF13 doesnt have that kind of magic..:luca:

[Rad Bromance]

>>> I thought that FF8 sold even more than FF7..:luca:
It sold faster, but not more, and remains the fastest selling FF title to date. FFVII has sold over ten million copies to date. Bear in mind that that's over a span of twelve years, but in FFVIII's ten years of release it's only sold a total of 8 and a half million copies.

That's pretty darn impressive either way though.

[VeloZer0]

And if you count PSN sales the number for FFVII is probably much higher. It has been in the top 10 weekly downloads from PSN for like 3 months.

[silentenigma]

Regardless of Square's marketing techniques, I think that the atmosphere and characters (at a glance) in FFVII are much more appealing to mainstream western audiences than those of FFXIII. FFXIII seems to overkill with extravagance while FFVII had a much more... down-to-serious-business tone.