There once was a time when Square Enix was my favorite publisher – I would buy anything they did and generally ended up happy. But then they started losing their touch and making weird decisions. They seem to be finding their feet again, and I’m beyond excited for all the Final Fantasy XV announcements they made, but the sales target might be a bit ambitious.
With all the delays in making Final Fantasy XV a reality, plus all the extra content, Square Enix has obviously poured in quite the investment. According to director Hajime Tabata, that means a hefty sales requirement. During a press conference, he explained that the game needs to sell ten million units worldwide over the entire life-span of the game in order to recoup the investment.
That’s quite a number of units. Just for some context, Square Enix said that Tomb Raider had to sell five million units to break even. They eventually exceeded those expectations, but only after the release of the definitive edition brought the units sold to six million.
I adore Final Fantasy, and it’s definitely a key franchise for Square Enix, but is it more popular than Tomb Raider? Without an imminent PC release, can Squeenix expect to hit those kinds of sales figures on consoles alone? At the last announced figure, the PS4 had sold 36 million units to consumers. I’m sure that number, plus the number of Xbox Ones, will continue to climb through the year. However, even if 60 million new generation consoles have been sold by the time Final Fantasy XV launches on 30 September, that means one in six gamers will need to buy the game for it to pay off. That’s a ridiculously high ratio.
Will they pull it off? Stranger things have happened. If any Square Enix franchise can do it, it’s this one.
Last Updated: April 1, 2016
Admiral Chief in New York
April 1, 2016 at 10:08
One in six?
Geez. this irks me.
Take the TR game, considered a “failure” because of sales, when in fact, it was a damn brilliant game.
A pity that games need to “sell well” to be a success (and yes, I realize the irony in that statement). Good sales means justification for money/time/effort spent and the investors will be glad, ensuring future games / company growth / rewards for people involved in making the game.
I get that it needs to be a success, but one in six? Sheesh
Umar
April 1, 2016 at 10:09
Don’t think it will happen. That said, Resident Evil 6 sold 7 million back in the day…Both Final Fantasy and Resident Evil are established names. We’ll see if it happens though.
Admiral Chief in New York
April 1, 2016 at 10:11
I hope it does, a lot of people excited about this. I hope that it lives up to their expectations
Umar
April 1, 2016 at 10:20
Well, I think it will be a good game, but selling 10 million is an insanely tall order
Hammersteyn
April 1, 2016 at 10:12
It will sell more than ROTR. Guaranteed
Admiral Chief in New York
April 1, 2016 at 10:14
I get ROTR every time I have KFC dunked wings…
[revenge of the ring-sting]
Hammersteyn
April 1, 2016 at 10:15
XD
Original Heretic
April 1, 2016 at 10:18
The Japanese markets eats these games up. I’m sure that the bulk of their sales for FFXV will come from there.
And I’ll also be adding one the international tally!
Greylingad[CNFRMD]
April 1, 2016 at 10:32
How does one come by a number like that, look, when you do your project planning and sales estimates, you’ll eventually get to the projected sales figure, there is no way around it but when your marketing team sits in front of you and the first guy you ask, “So, Peter, how many copies do you think we’ll sell?” And he replies with “Geaargh, Uurgh, Uhm, Billion, yes, uhm, yes, no maybe, 10 million, ok, 10 million, yes sir, 10…” then you know…
Admiral Chief in New York
April 1, 2016 at 10:40
They use Dilbert’s RNG app
http://assets.amuniversal.com/b0df1d50c9020133478a005056a9545d
Greylingad[CNFRMD]
April 1, 2016 at 10:43
HAHAHAHAHA!!!! Aah man, that’s perfect!!!!
Captain JJ the Isolated
April 1, 2016 at 13:22
Sad thing is, I don’t care how good Rise of the Tomb raider is. The timed exclusive pissed me off so much that I probably won’t buy the game until it’s on sale for cheap one day.
Cyberpunk 2077 million sold
April 1, 2016 at 15:37
Witcher 3 has nearly 10 million sold and it’s not been a year yet.
Final Fantasy is a big name in gaming and if the new one is any good, it will sell 10 million in it’s life time.
Kyle Myburgh
April 1, 2016 at 16:34
Witcher 3 released on pc though as well. At launch, just over a quarter of the sales were on PC 1.3 out 4 mil were pc.
CypherGate
April 2, 2016 at 08:07
China will be one of the key countries to help achieve their target.