stopping at the next station

[Avarice-ness]

i don't think the series is in any trouble as of right now. First of all, the games are as popular as ever in Japan, and any bad turn in interest in the United States will not likely have an impediment on the health of the series.

Second, XII sold nearly as well as X and is one of the best selling games ever on the ps2. i don't think interest will be a problem. If you look at any site hosting the trailers to XIII and vXIII, and read the comments, the overwhelming consensus is that people are very eager for these games. One problem that may arise is the lower performance of the ps3 sales in the US compared to other platforms, but along with the other great games going to be released this year for it, i don't think it'll be a problem by then.

Sorry, the only thing that has been consistant with the FF releases after FFVII is the fact that a mass amount of the sales have happened in a months period or a short amount of time.
There's a reason that the FFXIII group is aiming at the nostolgia of the older games. Clearly the sales of FF games to date shows a scale of ups and downs, technically the FFXIII release should be an up because that's the pattern the sales are taking, but they won't risk that, so there's 3 FFXIII's and their aimed at old AND new players.

Here are the sales to date.

FFXII - 3.9 million

FFX - 6.6 million

FFIX - 4.6 mil

FFVIII - 6 million

FFVII - 9.5 million

FFVI - 2.55 million in japan, 550k in US for SNES,then 364k for anthology, not including GBA

FFV - 2.45 milion units on Super Famicom + 364k on the Anthology release. Not including GBA

FFIV - Almost 3 million copies including original and PSX release. Not including GBA

FFIII - 442500 units

FFII - Couldn't find stats

FFI - Couldn't find stats.

[Goldenboko]

That state actually looks like FF12 is doing good, be fair, the others where on the market much longer.

[Avarice-ness]

That state actually looks like FF12 is doing good, be fair, the others where on the market much longer.

There's no such thing as being fair with the numbers. xD

Most of FFXII's sales happened within a short amount of time, the one's that bought the game in this time where the fans. Saddly the numbers don't show sellbacks to places like gamestop, because there's a good stack of FFXII's there, and then some behind the counter. (I asked about the abnormal number and then was shown that there were infact more sellbacks) But still, after the fans buy it, all that's left is the general consumer that will try their hand a it. Everything just trickles downslowly until prices go down and people get it at it's lowest prices.

Not to mention there was a big stink with people because they got the special edition for 60 bucks and due to it's sales, the priced dropped down to 50 within a month. That alone should show how sales went. I was quite annoyed that I spent 60 bucks on something, reserved no less, only to have it's sale drop shortly after buying it.
Simple supply and demand.

The "basic" FFXII had a normal retail going rate of 49.99$ per game.
The "Collectors edition" FFXII had a retail rate of 59.99$ but then shortly later dropped to 49.99 along side it's "basic" counterpart.

Basic continues to sell, leaving the price at a stable 49.99$, The "Collectors Edition" does not, so they lower the price to get more sales because the numbers say it's not worth 59.99$.

Now back when the game came out, most gamers who were familliar with FF would have bought the "Collectors Edition" the one's who kept the basic from having a price drop where the one's who wanted to try the game out, or that felt the extra ten dollars was a waste.

I don't know about anyone else, but when I see "collectors edition" I don't expect the value to go down within a month or so, or even ever at all. All it ended up being was more money put into something that square enix thought would sale, and it didn't.

FFXII has been out for about a year and a half and the price is now 19.99 for a new copy, which means sales should be stabling out if not running dry. Give it a couple of years, it -may- have a couple more million, but still in the same ranks as FFIX and FFVIII in sales.

[Bolivar]

I think it's common knowledge that in the entertainment industry, or any contemporary market, really, the majority of sales will occur in a short period of time following its release.

So I'm not sure what you're trying to say, Avarice. FFXII is the 10th best selling game on the PS2; I think that's pretty amazing considering it's just over a year old.

I don't think the aim at nostalgia for FFXIII has much to do with sales or a crisis, either. The only things indicating that it is nostalgic is the theme of the crystals and the presence of the moon. VII had 4 crystals, VIII had a crystal, IX had a crystal, XI had crystals (5 i think), and XII has a crystal, it was just done more subtly rather than obvious.

[Avarice-ness]

I think it's common knowledge that in the entertainment industry, or any contemporary market, really, the majority of sales will occur in a short period of time following its release.

So I'm not sure what you're trying to say, Avarice. FFXII is the 10th best selling game on the PS2; I think that's pretty amazing considering it's just over a year old.

I don't think the aim at nostalgia for FFXIII has much to do with sales or a crisis, either. The only things indicating that it is nostalgic is the theme of the crystals and the presence of the moon. VII had 4 crystals, VIII had a crystal, IX had a crystal, XI had crystals (5 i think), and XII has a crystal, it was just done more subtly rather than obvious.

I'm only comparing FF sales to FF sales, not FFXII sales to PS2 sales. The reason comparing FF sales to FF sales than FF sales to platform sales is because doing that would then over shadow the PSX from the PS2 because a majority of the sales were from FFVII which would then, in numbers, look like the ONLY good final fantasy is 7 and that all the others fail in comparison, which would be true. Not to mention, PS2 games will be going off the market soon, so comparing the PS2 sales in general to lets say, SNES sales would make the PS2 look bad. Therefore, if the ps2 looks bad and the only think keeping FFXII from looking good is the fact it's on the PS2, the general response will be "Yeah but as a system it's sales were low"

I read the nostalgia part in this.

http://forums.eyesonff.com/final-fan...al-shadow.html

If it has old factors that were put into the fondation of FF, I'll buy it. If it's something "New" and "EXTREME" I won't. Therefore the nostolgia factor does give some sales.

[Aerith's Knight]

I think FF is not as big as it use to be, it's ashame because I am a big fan of the games as I'm sure you all are ofcourse. Nowadays everyone's playing multi-player, first shooter or statistical games. Final Fantasy is losing it's classy factor, they need something new, something different that will make other gamers that usually don't go for games like FF be interested. At the moment Halo 3 is the big game of the year and I hope that it will not crush FF XIII like a bug. I love the stories and romance but the world is changing. I think I shall now shut up since I feel I've blabbered a bit too much.

lol check the other guys.. you barely registered .. you should talk more

anyway i havent played the newest yet, but FF has a lot of options. I think the hardcore gamers are a bit annoyed at the change in stories, becuase they already adjusted to the ps1 series, and now they are changing the story so that there is no main character. But isnt that more realistic? Not one hero and an entourage, no dozens of heroes, all with their part in the story.

Whether realistic is something we desire as FF fans, is still up for debate.

[Bolivar]

I think it's common knowledge that in the entertainment industry, or any contemporary market, really, the majority of sales will occur in a short period of time following its release.

So I'm not sure what you're trying to say, Avarice. FFXII is the 10th best selling game on the PS2; I think that's pretty amazing considering it's just over a year old.

I don't think the aim at nostalgia for FFXIII has much to do with sales or a crisis, either. The only things indicating that it is nostalgic is the theme of the crystals and the presence of the moon. VII had 4 crystals, VIII had a crystal, IX had a crystal, XI had crystals (5 i think), and XII has a crystal, it was just done more subtly rather than obvious.

I'm only comparing FF sales to FF sales, not FFXII sales to PS2 sales. The reason comparing FF sales to FF sales than FF sales to platform sales is because doing that would then over shadow the PSX from the PS2 because a majority of the sales were from FFVII which would then, in numbers, look like the ONLY good final fantasy is 7 and that all the others fail in comparison, which would be true. Not to mention, PS2 games will be going off the market soon, so comparing the PS2 sales in general to lets say, SNES sales would make the PS2 look bad. Therefore, if the ps2 looks bad and the only think keeping FFXII from looking good is the fact it's on the PS2, the general response will be "Yeah but as a system it's sales were low"

I read the nostalgia part in this.

http://forums.eyesonff.com/final-fan...al-shadow.html

If it has old factors that were put into the fondation of FF, I'll buy it. If it's something "New" and "EXTREME" I won't. Therefore the nostolgia factor does give some sales.

I don't think numbers would make 7 look like the ONLY good FF - 3 million sales for the older ones and an average of 6 million for the newer ones - those are incredible numbers for a 20-year-running series. it might just look like 7 is the best of the bunch, although most consumers know (believe it or not lol) that just because something sold more doesn't make it better. Although many will confess that they consider it to be an indicator to the quality.

Even so, 4 million copies after a little over a year is a great number - when it gets to be as old as FFVIII is now, I could definately see it stalling out at 5-6 million, especially since most ps3s are backwards compatible, and more non-sony buyers will be purchasing ps2s now that the cost is about to plummet. The series is doing great, even when you compare FF sales to FF sales. You could even say "especially" considering it seems to have bounced back from the setback in IX.

Which brings me to my next point. Although "nostalgia" will be a factor for you, I, again, seriously doubt catering to "old" fans will come as a result of a sales decision. The "old" fans you describe seem to be an American-only audience. Not only that, but out of the fraction of FF fans that discuss it online, they consist of only a fraction of that number, I doubt a minority of a minority of their foreign fanbase will have any impact on marketing decisions. As I said in my OP, its a japanese game, and our responses will be less influential on the series. As popular as it is here, FF is vastly more popular in Japan. Don't forget their most popular gaming magazine (gaming magazines also being more important there than they are here) had its readers rank FFX and FFVII as the #1 and 2 games of all time.

Also, every FF has had old factors from the foundation of the series. FFIX is absolutely not the only game with references (they all have them), it just used it as a central theme. In fact, it was with FFIX, when they attempted to go back to the roots of the series, that the series suffered a major setback in sales, which it seems to have recovered from with X and XII. The series has thrived on doing something "new", almost every game has contributed soemthing new to it every time. Change is central to the series, and is arguably what has allowed it to continue on all these years and become as popular as it is today.

[Serapy]

Well, Avarice-ness. If FF13 is going to be very awesome, I'm sure you would be quite tempted in buying it

[Avarice-ness]

Well, Avarice-ness. If FF13 is going to be very awesome, I'm sure you would be quite tempted in buying it

Not really, I've lost my passion for FF games after 9. It faded in FFVIII and I had it in FFVII during the time it was new and cool, My love for FF peaked at age of 9 when I got FFVI on the SNES then played my friends FFIV on the SNES. I played FFXII for a while, then just stopped. Like litterally stopped, I was fighting, grinding, fighting, grinding, then just saved, turned it off and havn't turned it on since. Been about 3 months now and have no intentions of turning it on.

If anything, I'd rent it and assume my sister will let me use her PS3 to play it, but other than that, it could be the best game ever (as most FF's are called when they first come out) but I'll wait about a year til it's released to see if it really is.

[Hazzard]

I'm sure XIII will relight your fire, Avarice, and be your only desire. To play.

[Northcrest]

I would laugh if they stopped at Final fantasy XXX

[Necronopticous]

As long as Tetsuya Nomura is heading the series it is essentially already over.

[Bahamut2000X]

As long as Tetsuya Nomura is heading the series it is essentially already over.

Somewhere an angel just got it's wings.

[Yuffie514]

I hope it keeps on going through generations and generations of fans and gamers alike. I don't find a problem in where it's going at the moment, although my experience with some of the newer series have been short-lived compared to the PlayStation age...

[Wolf Kanno]

They'll keep making them till they stop making money or some third party company buys them out and liquidates them. (looks at Sony and Microsoft).

XII has restored some of my faith in the series but I can't say I'm fond of the team working on XIII (the taint of X still burns!). I'm taking a wait and see approach with it. Half of what little anyone has heard of it intrigues me, the other half makes me shudder in despair but I'll wait till I play the game. Though that may be a long time from now. I just wish SE would stop beating around the bush and release some decent info about the game. I hate how we have to wait till the game is released in Japan to get any info anymore...

Due to the way the project is working I wonder if the main FF team is going to change again. Nomura looks like he's more interested in personal projects and I thought I heard Kitase wants to work on other projects as well. Course this is pure speculation based on things I haphazardly remember from sources I can't recall being credible.