Final Fantasy Series News and Updates Thread

[OL]

Yeah, it felt a bit clunky, but then the demo also doesn't explain much outside of a few button commands on the side of the screen. The blocking/dodging confused me a bit. If you're just waiting for an attack, holding the button down, then it works perfectly. But if you're in the middle of a combo and hit the block/dodge button just before an enemy attacks, you're gonna get your ass knocked the fuck down. It felt like I was missing something the whole time. Really needs some more explaining, or maybe I need to actually sit down and play the earlier demo that came with Type-0.

Also a bit disappointed at the really chuggy framerate and total lack of antialiasing on some things. It honestly looked more like a PS3 game to me, and I was playing on PS4. If I'm honest about it, I was actually more impressed with the graphics in FFXIII when I popped that it for a few minutes a couple weeks back. This one had some cool design elements, but the technical aspects are pretty disappointing in the demo.

[AnimeGamer183]

Same thing happened to me in the Type-0 demo with the whole parry dodging, I just ended up skipping that turtorial instead of trying to complete it because I could not get it right. The Type-0 FF15 demo really throws you into the fray with alot of options right away and I was basically over-whelmed, had no idea where I was really going most of the time, and the world was big and it took forever to run from point a to point b, or even just the markers on the map, it was a run fest and I just ended up putting it down. I hope the new demo/final game fixes alot of this cause I was mainly just over whelmed by how much was going on in that demo.

[Riku Rose]

The boxart for the regular edition. It will have a reversible cover which is the white background with the logo like past entries.

[Monkei]

That's pretty awesome.

[AnimeGamer183]

http://www.geek.com/news/square-enix-sa ... l-1651264/

Square Enix says Final Fantasy XV needs to sell 10 million copies to be successful



Square Enix is pulling out all the stops for the launch of Final Fantasy XV. During an event it held on Wednesday night, the company revealed that FFXV will have a number of tie-ins, including a five-part anime series on YouTube and a full-length CGI movie featuring the voices of some big-time Hollywood stars. A lot of cash is being thrown at this title, so it needs be extremely successful in order for Square Enix to recoup their losses and turn a profit.

Director Hajime Tabata said during a press conference yesterday that in order for Final Fantasy XV to be a success for Square Enix, it would need to sell 10 million copies during the course of its lifetime. Basically, it needs to sell more than any other Final Fantasy game ever released, save for Final Fantasy VII. For context, FFVII has sold 11 million units from 1997 to 2015 across a number of different platforms. If FFXV were to go along this same trajectory, it would sell 10 million copies by the year 2037.

There is absolutely no way FFXV is going to sell as much as the most popular JRPG of all time. I can respect Square Enix for having lofty and ambitious goals for their game, but this is well outside the realm of reality. Consider that popular games like The Witcher 3 and Metal Gear Solid V sold five and six million each, respectively. FFXV would have to meet the sales of games like Grand Theft Auto V or Call of Duty. Again, that isn’t going to happen.

I’m relatively sure that FFXV will be a successful game, especially if it turns out to actually be good. But 10 million copies sold? I don’t see that happening, and I’m sure no rational person does either. Stranger things have happened, though, so I guess we’ll see how it turn out. I’ll get back to you in 2037 with an update on sales numbers for the title.

LOFUCKINGL

Not even sure where to begin with this, but square is in for a huge let down. What on earth are they thinking? This is concerning, very concerning they actually think this may be possible. Not even sure what to say this is so ridiculous, smh sqaure... smh...

[Snakiest]

This is not news. I first read about it like 15 or so years ago that Square treated the FF series more like a prestige product to make a name for themselves and sell other games and related goods than earn money from it. They have other sources of income. This is a big PR project, and I hope the philosophy is back. FF13 was a bad FF and a bad JRPG, in my opinion.

[Riku Rose]

Tabata said the game needs to sell upwards of 10 million units over its lifetime. This has nothing to do with profitability, however.

In a statement issued to Famitsu, Tabata clarified the 10 million figure is nothing more than a goal for the team. He said the number is probably exaggerated but was put out to demonstrate the team’s lofty ambitions. “We’ve thought about what we need to do to achieve this number and tasked ourselves with this huge objective.”

This isn’t the first time Tabata has spoken on the challenges of his game. Previously he expressed his desire for XV to surpass Final Fantasy VII – a high goal to bring in new audiences, sales and more.

http://www.novacrystallis.com/2016/04/f ... a-success/

[AnimeGamer183]

In comparison Final Fantasy VII the most profitable game in the series, has sold 11 million over its life span on its various platform releases, meaning square is expecting similar numbers to FFVII with FFXV. Clearly their expectations are way to high, my buddy pointed out that square does have a reputation for this though, as they did the same thing with Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs, and Hitman. When will they ever learn?

http://www.destructoid.com/tomb-raider- ... 9692.phtml

[Riku Rose]

Their expectation may be high but those games clearly turned a profit as they have since had sequels and Sleeping Dogs had a sequel in development. What is considered an internal success and what you publish as a success to your investors are two very different things. When your company loses money you have to explain why to your investors and the answers are normally not even close to the real reasons, they essentially passed the blame.

They clearly have reasons to believe that the number is achievable or they would not have said anything. Believe it or not they have analysts working at Square who're more qualified at determining these numbers then yourself.

For starters the fact they held a press conference for the game shows they're throwing some weight behind it in terms of marketing. It'll probably be the biggest marketing push for a Final Fantasy game ever leading up to launch. There was even ads playing in London tube stations advertising the press conference they was hosting, I've never seen advertising like that for a video game before. For XIII the only thing I remember was the odd ad on TV. I imagine they will show this game at E3 and then keep the hype going up to launch in a similar approach to what Fallout 4 did.

People at Square will also be looking at games like Fallout 4 and Witcher 3 which each sold between 10 and 12 million copies. They are both RPG's which had a ton of marketing behind them and Final Fantasy as a franchise has more name power with the public then the both of them.

Then you can just look at FFXIII. The game sold about 6.5 million copies on the last generation of consoles, this was when there was less 360's and PS3's on the market then there currently are Xbox One's and PS4's. There are also strong rumours that XV is coming to PC and XIII sold 500,000 copies on Steam when it came out 3 years later and was hated everywhere. The PC market is a huge one at the moment with even obscure RPG's like Valkeyria Chronicles doing well in terms of sales years after it's original release. Even the remaster of X/X-2 sold about 2 million copies and that was an almost 15 year old game repackaged that divided the fanbase back in the day. Those numbers along with the 5 million current subscribers on FFXIV which is rising show the franchise is in a healthy position.

Common sense also dictates that them saying this is nothing but advertising. If they say they think they can sell more then VII people are going to report on it and people will think that Square must have reason to believe they have something special.

Will they hit 10 million? I don't know. Do I think it's possible? Well someone more qualified then myself at Square has obviously seen the research to believe it's possible.

[OL]

When will they ever learn?

What exactly do they have to learn?
Ten million is a projected goal over the coarse of the game's entire market lifespan (meaning it could be over ten years for all we know; as long as it's available in some form and continues to make sales, that lifespan extends. FFVII, in that respect, is still alive, as it continues to sell).
They're not hoping for ten million over the next couple years. Obviously, that'd be silly. They aren't that stupid.
Like it says in the quote Riku posted, ten million units over its lifetime has "nothing to do with profitability". The game is practically guaranteed to be profitable as it is. There's no way they spent over half a billion dollars making it (ten million times sixty bucks -- the price of a new game -- is $600,000,000), so they aren't risking much of anything. They're just setting long-term goals that they hope to eventually achieve.

But hey, any excuse to call them stupid, amiright?

[AnimeGamer183]

Any excuse to try to call me stupid seems to be the game being played around here as well, im not buying it either.

Apparently they have to learn to not make such lofty goals, was that not obvious? They let themselves down with TR SD and HM, and they are at it again, its not like im making this shit up.

At any rate, taking out the word profitable and putting in sales goals doesnt change the ridiculous number of 10 million, which is what this is really about, although thank god it would not take that much to turn a profit for this game because they would be in the hole big time. I realize that this was their long term numbers and I understand how they work and as i already compared the Final Fantasy VII numbers if you read my post above. Square is making themselves look stupid, im just relaying the information and stating my opinion: 10 million life time goal for this game is not going to happen.

[OL]

Apparently they have to learn to not make such lofty goals, was that not obvious?

No, actually. Not obvious at all.
The whole intent of business is to make lofty goals and to do whatever you can to meet them. I don't honestly see how there's anything wrong with them saying "we hope it does this well in the long run." That's kinda sorta what business is all about.

[AnimeGamer183]

Are you saying you think the 10 million number is realistic for FF15? Cause my entire argument is that its not, not the fact that they are making any kind of goal at all which is what it seems like you think I mean. 3-5 million, maybe even 6 or 7 life time might be feesable, but 10 just seems a bit too high for me.

[OL]

That figure is for it's entire market lifespan which, as I said, constitutes the entire length of time that it remains available for sale from Square themselves. FFVII is almost 20 years old, and they still sell it digitally, making more and more profit over time.
As long as this game remains available in some form, the numbers will keep adding up. So ten million, as a goal over a completely unspecified amount of time (which could be another twenty years for all we know)?
As long as it's actually a good game (and they do clearly have faith in it as such), I don't think it's unrealistic at all.

[AnimeGamer183]

We will just have to agree to disagree on that then. I would just like to remind everyone how incredibly difficult it is to move millions of copies of anything. But there are some other points I would like to make and compare some numbers.

Firstly everyone probably already knows that JRPGs arent exactly the sellers they used to be, seeing an especial decline over the last few years, even for supposedly "AAA" JRPGs, the most recent being Xenoblade Chronicles X, granted that game did not come out on the PS4 which has many times the install base of Wii U, and the fact that Final Fantasy is a bit of an exception to the general JRPG rule.

I wanna talk a bit about FFXIII sales for a second (seeing as it was the last relevant main entry and most recent to compare), from what I hear the life time sales of the game are right around 7 million units and that game is out on consoles and PC and its been around for 6 or 7 years now, not bad honestly. Now judging that FFXV could do similar numbers or better (assuming FFXV gets released on other platforms later down the line, which its almost certain to be on PC at some point in the future) we still have a 1-3 million potential gap assuming it even reaches the sales of XIII or surpasses them. I question where the rest of these copies come from, unless the game ends up being absolutely great and adored like no other FF since maybe XII or X? Re-releases and remasters generally arent huge sellers like new games are so when and if they release them in the future after the inital release it will always be marginal numbers compared to the first launch.

Now I want to talk about the potential marketing and demographics of Final Fantasy XV. There are aspects that I think could make this game sell better in the west, Square has chosen to take a more Western development cycle with huge open world to traverse in the vein of western series like The Witcher and Elder Scrolls series, i'll even throw in a comparison to Xenoblade Chronicles X because FF15 takes a few things from that game as well. What I am unsure about is whether or not this Western Development approach could counter act the japanese inspired aspects of this game, I mean it is still Final Fantasy and its definitely still a JRPG, its kind of like japanese story characters and world thrown onto the blue prints of a Western developed game no? And this entire aspect is what makes me not sure how the game will actually perform, too western for the japanese game loving fans, and perhaps to japanese for the western game loving fans? It almost seems like there is a slight conflict of interest, and there is a whole other argument with square about developing for a "world market", what they tried to do with games like Last Remnant a while back etc.

I am just saying there is alot of room for concern regarding FF15, I am also concerned for the lack of female characters in the game, and there is alot of things I like when I watch these trailers and play the demos but then there are things I am equally put off by about them rendering me indifferent and especially considering the history of this series of the last 10+ years I cant help but be cautious going into it although part of me is still plenty excited about what it will ultimately be. Square has made mistakes and there is definitely something to learn if they try to project their games to sell X copies and they continue to get it wrong by a large margin which is the case, absolutely there is something to learn there in that regard. I dont hate Square, but I do think they are forgetting they need to regain fan trust and establish new fans with FFXV which it seems like they can at least have some success in one of those categories, but stating 10 million publicly was probably not a wise choice and a bit to grandiose a number if you consider all these factors.