Final Fantasy XIII Sales Plummet
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Jan 2, 2010 02:23 JST
- Tags: Final Fantasy, Marketing, PS3, Rankings, RPG, Square Enix, Wii
Many have been disappointed by the news that blockbuster RPG Final Fantasy XIII’s sales have slumped rather sharply, with it dropping to fourth place in the crucial Christmas sales period.
The weekly versus total sales for the December 21-27 period:
1. New Super Mario Brothers – 506,000 / 2,440,000
2. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks – 297,000 / 297,000
3. Tomodachi Collection – 227,000 / 2,317,000
4. Final Fantasy XIII – 189,000 / 1,690,000
5. Pokemon Heart – 125,000 / 3,465,000
Being beaten by a six month old title after only a few weeks is not exactly the performance which was hoped for, though it is at least doing far better than the nearest PS3 title.
In other RPG news, the Tales of Graces beta is shaping up to be the worst selling Tales “mothership” title ever, with 143,000 copies sold to date, not even surpassing the beta version of Vesperia.
| 
Dead or Alive Ero-SFM Doubly Dirty
Flying Witch “Cute But Boring…”
Phantasy Star Online 2 Phantastic: “What About the West!?”
Shounen Maid “A Fujoshi Delight”
Terra Formars Live Action Web Drama Announced
Dragon Quest Heroes II Quite Monstrous
KumaMiko Lovingly Innocent
Aqua Onahole Parody Hopefully Moist
A-Size Classmate Profusely Petite
One Day With Maria Raunchy & Romantic
The Reject Demon: Toko Chapter 0 Raises Its Voice
Hai-Furi in Troubled Waters
Star Fox Zero “Pandering To Kids!”
Kiznaiver Shares Its Pain
Love Live’s Koi ni Naritai Aquarium PV “Will Sell Thousands!”
Skimpy Kataigou Figure
Ellen Baker’s Illustrator: “Keep It Clean!”
Bullet Girls 2 Goes At It From All Angles
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization A Real Grind
Koutetsujou no Kabaneri Immensely Gruesome
Goddess of 2ch “Another Bathing Beauty!”
Tantalizing Hestia Cosplay Busts Out
Kashiwazaki Sena Cosplay Pure & Innocent
Minami Kotori Casino Girl Cosplay Takes No Chances
Shimakaze Cosplay by Ema Sakura
Harley Quinn Cosplay by Miyuko Colorfully Crazy
Sonico Ero-Cosplay by Yuka Hoshikage Super Sexy
Kasugano Sora Bunny Girl Cosplay Absolutely Admirable
Goddess of 2ch: “Barely Legal Beauty!”
Highly Yuri Tenryuu & Tatsuta Cosplay by Garo & Usagi
Well yeah, many people have already bought it. The same thing often happens with album sales.
and many people already bought the new super mario brothers
That and Zelda are far more casual games, so they appeal to a wider audience. Though I'm not sure about Tomadachi Collection.
Also, is this worldwide sales or Japanese sales?
Japanese only. It's probably a mix of what you said and bad word of mouth.
Also # of DS > # of PS3. Everyone who was going to buy it bought it. Everyone was waiting years for FF XIII so when it came out they bought it the same day. A DS title like new super mario bros. didn't have droves of people waiting for it to buy it the same day. Now Pokemon on the other hand........
It's New Super Mario Bros. Wii according to the original article.
lol, they make a piece of shit and wonder why it don't sell. they probably haven't even played it yet.
I think its cuz of children getting those games for xmas. hardcore fan got it first release while kids have to wait till they get it as a gift. thats just my thought tho.
Yeah... the sales are not the numbers people that are buing them... its the big markets and retailers that are counted here... the first 250 000 is sold fast.. but after that they need go to consumers
this would be WORLDWIDE.. due to the fact importing is fairly common.. u can bet a small percentage are importers.
I'm still going to give it a try as I've been looking forward to it and I feel the complaints are minor to me. I mostly play RPGs for the story so if I like this one then I most likely won't have a problem with the gameplay. All this bad news has been a buzzkill for this game as I was hoping to play through another great game after ME2.
Same.
I play for the story, not some crazy innovative battle system. So if the story is good then it was worth it.
if you look for story then prepare to be dissapointed, i play many SE RPG and many of them has 'Throw away the story at the end-game, we got the money anyway!' syndrome.
seriously, i will avoid any SE RPG!
You already know the synopsis of the game and from the trailers you can tell it's an over the top melodrama....
im so glad someone else pointed out the 'throw away story at the end-game'... its bugged me since ff8!
Then you probably never played FF 10.
Well, if many people buy the game initially, it will follow with lower sales as time goes by..
This sounds true, but it doesn't work like that in the real world, alot of people wish to wait 'till a friend can tell them what it's like, or some customer reviews appear, people also just want to buy it from an actual shop rather than online, or pre-order, and shops run out, aswell as online retailers, and it takes a while for them to re-stock for more people to buy it. What this shows is that people bought it first week for it's name, but now that friends have it, and they've possibly had a go for themselves, they don't want to buy it. These sales figures really are better showing of the merits of the game, or any product, than the first week sales. I'm ofcourse not saying the game is necessarily bad, but the sales figures clearly show it is over-priced for it's quality, and it's price is not much higher than other games out at the moment, which shows quite simply that it's not great either, or atleast not well suited for it's target audience.
Your are looking on this subject from a western or American point of view. The second hand market is a huge factor in Japan and the title is already stockpiling in stores. Most online retailers have already lowered the price by 1,000 Yen.
But at least the second hand retailers currently buy it at almost the same price it is sold in stores.
Heh, I find it funny how when Nintendo releases a big title they always hold out on copies during the Christmas season so people fight over em :p
and that is why Nintendo is swimming in money.
Looks like us X360 owners don't need to anticipate this title. Not worth the hassle and hype.
And its still the best RPG out till yet.
After all the Fail RPGs(West and J-RPGs) this was the needed savior.
Now everyone waits for Versus =)
The Western People are probably waiting for some crap like Mass Effect or other Unreal Engine Gorilla games.Shooter where the People talk aka W-RPG xDDD
The best RPG out there? Uh, no it isn't. Go play Lost Odyssey, kid.
did u say Lost Odyssey? HAH!! that game was a complete crap dull-fest, with one of the lamest stories i've ever seen.
Disc 1: this lame looking bad guy wants to become immortal
Disc 4: this lame looking bad guy wants to become immortal
Not only was it boring as f*** but the story progression was extremely uninspired and unoriginal, so NO, having played FF13, it got me hooked from the get-go
You mean you're blaming a game for actually having a plot and sticking to it? That's just short-sighted and stupid. In no way shape or form was it a boring game, and the only people who think that are fools who place expectations on a game before they play it, and then when the game isn't exactly what they expected, they thrash it like petulant children.
The game was wonderful, and exceptionally atmospheric. The world breathed, and the characters were far more likable than many many other RPGs. People lose track of the fact that story progression slows when the player slows it down, not because the game did something wrong.
In the end, most people who whined about the game were the same idiots who complained about having to read 1000 Years of Memories: morons.
nee 1k years of memories are good, those people should go and read books instead of playing video games. they dont know what is a good related story is.
Besides the wonderful dreams and story, I loved the little loli character and Sarah's boobs
no, its more like 1000 Years of Memories was the ONLY part of the writing that was good, and Sakaguchi didn't write it. unfortunately he wrote everything else that that was far from good. maybe YOU people should read some books to get a better view of judging actual good writing.
+1 for 05:19 Anon. This is a solid argument.
I speak english fluently, and work with many non-native speakers, and yet I do not understand what you are saying; may I ask what your native tongue is?
I'm not waiting for either of your options, for I know of Ar Tonelico 3.
HA HA HA HA HA HA!
No.
Really now? Best RPG? The needed savior?
Well, why don't you go ahead and name a few things what make FF13 the best RPG then? Seeing as it's so good, it can't be hard at all, right?
Best RPG? Maybe if all else you've played is Halo.
The rest of us have actually played a few RPG's and will have a favorite that won't be budged.
And a higher number just plain aren't retarded enough to call a game we've never played the best ever.
The "best RPG out till yet" is, without a shadow of a doubt, AZEL: Panzer Dragoon RPG. Everything else just bites.
Sales plummet?
First of all, people tend to preorder Final Fantasy, so it is only natural that in Japan sales would plummet a few weeks after it's release.
Secondly, it hasn't even come out in America. :p
What is up with the editors on this site constantly bashing this game? I've heard nothing but great things from everywhere else. Only on this site are such things said.
It's fine if this site wants to have a different opinion, and say some negative things - but there have been about a half-dozen articles only in this past week.
Every hear of the word overkill?
In fact, the drop-off rate is fully consistent with previous Final Fantasy games. And it stands to reason that most interested would pre-order the title, given that the firstpress included the FFXIV code.
The reason Artefact keeps posting this and spinning it in this way is the same reason as always: because people keep taking the bait.
In fairness the majority of non-shill media coverage of the title in Japan is focused on the shortcomings of the title, so it is not exactly a manufactured phenomenon.
Well, something similar could be said for most popular franchises that have a loyal following. There's nothing to focus on *except* on the perceived shortcomings because the fans just *expect* it to be good. And of course, it's easy to just dismiss anything that isn't negative as "shill" too... The anatomy of every fanboy war ever...
Anyway, the main point here is that, as always, stats can be used to support whatever conclusion you want. You could take the same data presented, and make an article that begins...
"Final Fantasy XIII fans are reassured by Japanese second-week sales figures of the game which, despite having dropped-off significantly, are consistent with historical trends for the franchise. This suggests that the vocal criticisms of the game expressed in certain online circles have not had any discernible effect on game sales."
Same data, different context, different spin. Somehow I think you'd get way less comments that way, though... Anyway, all in good fun. :p
Oh my, this one is great.
While its true that saying "sales plummet" isn't very appropriate given the current data, and that it isn't much different from that of preceding games of the franchise, criticizing the evaluation of the game's shortcomings by the players is out of question...
When a magazine like Famitsu praises practically every aspect of the game while the players and less famous reviewers find unbearable shortcomings in the first 4 to 8 hours of play, you can clearly say what is shill and what is not.
We are talking about a game company that was capable of delivering masterpieces on a super nintendo system...
Expectations of a top tier rpg worked on by hundreds of people of the same company and with a millionaire budget is the least to be expected!
To justify disappointment because of this is ridiculous... High expectation can make people unsatisfied with parts of the game system or the story itself, but are not enough to make someone say the game is boring and linear from the start, for hours of play!
SE gloated in interviews, saying they wanted to make FFXIII for a broader public... and isn't this called selling out? Instead of thinking about making a revolutionary game like Square's policy once was, they're first thinking about selling as much as possible...
People like Sakaguchi left exactly because they refused to create games for marketing alone and such is the result.
To be fair, I'm not trying to dismiss the criticisms. However, it would be much more surprising if there were *not* this sort of vocal criticism out there for such a popular, mainstream franchise. Everything popular has its critics. The discerning fan would be wise to consider the criticisms and see if the points raised are likely to have a major impact on their enjoyment of the game. But you also have to sift through what is actually fair and valid criticism, and what is just sour grapes and/or personal preference. Why Sakaguchi left, or whether they've "sold out", or whether parts of the game are linear... these may or may not have any impact on a given person's enjoyment of the game. And all that has nothing to do with the sales figures, which has nothing to do with the criticisms to begin with. In other words, this whole exercise is about peeling back the layers of spin to get closer to the truth. Doubtless that there are some true statements coming from all directions.
It deserves all the negative comments it received. It's still a correct game, and you can have fun with it no problem.
oh so overkill, well that wouldnt explain why it's total of sales is still low
then it means you don't visit enough sites, specially about games, since it seems to a be a general agreement on the web that FFXIII isn't what people expected it to be...
Gamers' expectations are their own worst enemy. I never ever look at reviews, I can tell by the cover of the game, or random commercials I see, how a game will feel. And from that, I say "All right, I'll try it out for what it is." As soon as someone says "I wanted another (insert game here) then they are already uselessly biased. Expecting one game to be another is so blatantly obviously foolish that it's unbelievable.
Play a game on its own merit, and you will never really be disappointed. Other games will probably be better, and you can say that, but that doesn't mean it won't be fun for what it is.
I thought ff13 was awesome
but the general opinion you say? Have you asked what everyone thinks about this game? No you haven't, you've simple openened your ears to the haters and nothing more.
People who like the game usually just keep quiet and play it.
People who hate it jump on every messageboard trolling and posting hate, it always the haters who have the loudest voice.
Fuck the haters, they're all tools anyway. They still bought the game and will buy the next one, this is what happens when you let 12 year olds kids post anonyomously, most the haters probably don't even have it, especailly as most the haters can't even fucking understand japanese.
sure because they don't give their reasons or anything, sure because i never played a ff before and know what it means to be linear...
hey guess what! FFX was my favorite.... NOT! can you guess why or do i need to draw you a straight line?
worse than being skeptical is being a fanboy and if you love a game just because, then you are a fanboy, if you can't judge a game before buying it then you are completely blind... sure the experience may be different, it can even surprise you, but if you can't see why a game fails when everybody points it then you are plain stupid..
God, this is half of what makes games fail the way they do these days. Retarded 12 year-old children decide they hate the game from screenshots and a few negative comments, MONTHS before they even have a native release and could play the game, and then they spread shit all over the internet about how it's going to be the worst game ever. The level of ignorant filth about unreleased games lately has been astonishing...
That said, Final Fantasy XIII shipped 1.5 million copies in its first week in Japan alone. In the Playstation 2 era, that would be grounds for making it a $20 Greatest Hits title right there. Just because a game does not have the legs of god damned Mario and Zelda (New Super Mario Bros on the DS is in the top 10 EVERY MONTH despite being out for years) does not make it a bad title by default. 4th place in sales at Christmas is NOT a bad place to be in.
07:18 makes a good observation.
You've heard nothing but good things everywhere else? Specify where because I've seen nothing but negativity on gaming forums surrounding this game. Artefact isn't bashing the game, he is merely giving us the "otaku" opinions from Japan.
Amazon.co.jp's review on this game has plenty of one star ratings because they are simply not happy with it. Don't tell me you think that Artefact magically convinced those people in order write write a negative story about FFXIII.
Like you said, the game isn't out here yet so the only way we will ever find out is by actually playing it. Until then, Artefact is going to post what is going on in Japan because that's what this site is geared towards.