Current Events > It's kinda crazy how poorly FF16 sold

(+) Yeah! (+)

Storm_Shadow posted...

When that one SquEnix guy said Americans want to hear a British voice cast

God, Square needs new leadership. They're doing such boneheaded things.

Darkninja42 posted...

Fun gameplay from the Devil May Cry team.

IIRC thats not the case. To my knowledge, they got the combat director who was in charge of Nero, but not an entire team.

The proverbial "DMC5 at home"

Storm_Shadow posted...

Limey/10

When that one SquEnix guy said Americans want to hear a British voice cast, I was all like "You trippin', bruh." And I ain't playin' no guy named Clive.

Xenoblade's voice actors being British has been phenomenal (minus Rex). Maybe they're trying to capture that magic?

It sold pretty well, but even one of the devs said in response afterwards that despite good sales, they could not remain single-platform.

It's the fifth best-selling PS5 game. But not everyone has a PS5, and it had the budget of a multi-platform game.

Hayame_Zero posted...

It's the fifth best-selling PS5 game

that makes it even more crazy. PS5 really has been a flop

They need to make them more like the NES/SNES era games and not these weird futuristic action adventure monstrosities.

Storm_Shadow posted...

Limey/10

When that one SquEnix guy said Americans want to hear a British voice cast, I was all like "You trippin', bruh." And I ain't playin' no guy named Clive.

What works for Dragon Quest might not work for Final Fantasy. Then again, Dragon Quest is still turn-based.

They thought the franchise was still a system seller I think. XIII was probably the last time it was (ironically)

Mad-Dogg posted...

It really is time a part of the final fantasy fandom needs to accept that FF16 while trying new ideas just flat out wasn't all that interesting as a final fantasy game.

The PS5's sales in general has proved again.....and again........and again.........and again etc., that exclusives just isn't that huge priority no more for those that play on a playstation. Every other game/IP that is finding success on the PS5 like resident evil, monster hunter wilds or elden ring for example isn't held back by being on a console with "few exclusives, too expensive", but for some reason this is something that is supposed to really hold back sales for FF16 in particular?

If the PS5 was that much too blame for the game's sales, why hasn't the game automatically flew off the shelves when ported to the PC? I don't even buy the "well it has to release at the exact same time" excuse, there has been plenty of PC releases that came out way later than the console counterpart that will still sell great because the game is a quality game people really want to play. (Red dead redemption 2 and rockstar's other console first releases for example).

Did you miss the part where I listed other reasons

solosnake posted...

that makes it even more crazy. PS5 really has been a flop

Not really. It's currently last for Playstation, but is close to surpassing PS3 and Xbox 360, and has outsold several Nintendo consoles and portables (NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, 3DS, Wii U).

I guess it can join FF7 Rebirth in the "mediocre sales due to no one wanting this" camp.

Hayame_Zero posted...

Not really. It's currently last for Playstation, but is close to surpassing PS3 and Xbox 360, and has outsold several Nintendo consoles and portables (NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, 3DS, Wii U).

This is also a particularly strange gen because games never really stopped coming out for last gen hardware. You could buy a ps4 on the cheap and still have experienced quite a large portion of the new games coming out

The ps5 is also on similar pace to the ps4, so its definitely outselling the ps3.

There are multiple reasons why FF16 didn't do well but it being a third party dedicated home console exclusive is definitely part of it. PS5 might not be a complete flop but most of their and Xbox players are less keen on buying new games than playing live service.

https://twitter.com/Griggity/status/1892977812371312827

https://www.eurogamer.net/live-service-games-continue-to-dominate-accounting-for-40-of-time-spent-on-ps5-and-xbox-in-us-last-month

Players are still very much focused on a handful of live-service games, as over 70 percent of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S players in the US played at least one of the top 10 live-service games in January.

Further, more than 40 percent of all playtime in the US in January across those consoles was spent on those same 10 live-service games.That's according to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, based on Circana's Player Engagement Tracker. "Used to be that players would jump from big game to big game to some other games but they were most often moving to something new that they purchased," he surmised. "Now, the live-service games suck out a ton of available time, and it's hard to beat free if it's good."

More:
https://www.thegamebusiness.com/p/bringing-your-games-to-other-platforms

Were way beyond the point where people will swap game consoles for exclusive games, says Circana games boss Mat Piscatella.

Speaking on The Game Business Show after the release of the latest Circana market data for the US, Piscatella discussed the success of Forza Horizon 5 and Stellar Blade.

Microsofts Forza Horizon 5 was published on PS5 in April, having initially launched in 2021 for Xbox and PC. The PS5 release helped the game reach No.3 in May in the US, and was still going strong at No.6 in June. Its now the 11th best-selling game of the year in the country and one of the best-selling PS5 games of the year worldwide.

Meanwhile, Stellar Blade was a PS5 exclusive from 2024 that transitioned to PC in June this year. As a result, the Sony game rose from No.185 in May to No.5 in June in the US charts.

Weve been seeing this now for about a year or so, Piscatella said. Every month youre seeing a game pop up thats been gone for a while. And youre like, how did that happen? Well it came out on another platform.

People who buy a hardware system these days, theyre doing it because of the ecosystem, because of their friends list. Youre not going to get people to transition consoles because of exclusives anymore. Were way beyond that point.

People are entrenched into their systems. And bringing the content to them is the only way to win. And that is what everyone is doing, except for Nintendo they tend to do their own thing. Even they could benefit from it, but of course they wont, thats not their MO.

Although Nintendo sticks with exclusives, its worth noting that The Pokmon Company is increasingly releasing its games across mobile and Switch platforms, including the upcoming Pokmon Champions and the newly released Pokmon Friends.

Piscatella believes that in a market as competitive as this one, going to where players are is proving essential.

In the US at least, the Top Ten live service games suck up half of all gaming time every month, and every other game has got to fight for the remainder. So, bringing that content to where people are is the only way youre going to be able to win in an environment like were looking at right now.
Forza being this strong thats great. That really bodes well for its next iteration, if they come out day one across systems. Every game finding its way to more stores and ecosystems that is how youre going to survive and win.

Mat Piscatella: "I've been talking about this issue in video games for months. Low income consumers had already been getting phased out of buying hardware. Now we may (are lilkely to) see the same thing McDonald's is, with middle income consumers also getting squeezed. Same conditions, same behaviors." Bluesky

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/fortnite-biggest-competitor-new-game-analyst

Speaking with Greg Miller on Kinda Funny Games about everything going on across the gaming industry, Piscatella laid out some sobering figures for the video game audience in the U.S, pointing out that 30% of players won't buy a game this year.

The players that do? Only 12% of them are buying a game once a month. The vast majority of players buy only one or two games, meaning free-to-play games like Fortnite are fighting every new release for attention

https://www.installbaseforum.com/forums/threads/industry-q-a-mat-piscatella-answers-your-questions.3249/#post-289443

The availability of Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, GTA, COD, etc is far more important to a platform today than exclusive content. Sure, exclusive content still has its value, but nowhere near the level it used to. And for 3rd parties, there's just no reason to make a single platform exclusive unless that platform holder is going to provide the investment and support necessary to dramatically lessen the risk of overall development. Making games available on several platforms, and even device types (Mobile, PC, etc) helps provide more bites at the apple, and less dependance on one audience or manufacturer. The bets are so big now and carry such tremendous risk (so often now one release is make-or-break for a studio) that there's really no option to place the entire bet in one place. Again, not unless some platform holder pays a lot of money for it.

Sega which includes Atlus and Persona has outright said that their recent success comes from being multi-plat rather than staying locked to one system as they used to be.

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/persona/as-the-persona-and-yakuza-series-fly-beyond-20-

million-sales-each-sega-says-its-jrpg-successes-are-thanks-to-the-power-of-multi-platform-releases/

_____Cait posted...

Did you miss the part where I listed other reasons

I already acknowledged the losing interest point with my other post, and actually can agree with that one.

s0nicfan posted...

It shipped 3m the first week, not sold 3m. It sold around 370k units the first week in Japan. The 3m and 3.5m numbers aren't for the same thing.

https://twitter.com/finalfantasyxvi/status/1674016160306823170

While I very much enjoyed FFXVI? I extremely prefer turn based and sincerely hope 17 goes back to it.

To be honest, the only thing I remember about the game was someone on the dev team trying to justify why there wasn't any black characters in the game lol.

Mad-Dogg posted...

Says who? lol

FF16 just wasn't all that interesting as a final fantasy game.

I'm always seeing people claiming they are still on ps4 and calling ps5 a useless generation

Mad-Dogg posted...

So when it got ported to other platforms like the PC and the xbox finally, did people's interest in the game just up and evaporate for this game?

Its wild this keeps getting repeated while being a PS exclusive did not do a single thing to stop something like persona 5 from being a huge success when it got ported years later to every other platform.

Because it was also on ps4. Unlike ff16

I pre-ordered it with the cool map and steel case.
I still havent played more than 4 hours of it. Like, its not bad but I lost interest pretty quickly. I might pick it back up after I finish rebirth (trying to clear out my backlog).

It doesn't look that interesting to me. I'm waiting for the DLCs to go on sale before playing it.

TMOG posted...

I lost all interest the very second I heard it was an action game and not an RPG. It also didn't help that Yoshida defended the all-white cast by saying it's not realistic to have minorities in the game.

FF17 really needs to go back to being a turn-based RPG.

Diversity is just not a value that Japanese developers care about, and given the fact that most of the time when they make the attempt it turns out to be exaggerated or stereotypical, I'm fine with that.

Prestoff posted...

To be honest, the only thing I remember about the game was someone on the dev team trying to justify why there wasn't any black characters in the game lol.

Once the game came out and people saw what a lot of the themes of the plot were, I think most gave them a pass lol. Although they probably should've just said that was the reason from jump.

FF13 turned me away from ever touching the series again. It's not anything like the series I grew up loving anymore. Atleast Dragon Quest still gives me that.

Zikten posted...

Because it was also on ps4. Unlike ff16

But those games sold great when they finally got ported years later on the PC, switch and xbox. That was the point I was making, not that it was exclusive to the PS4 originally. Why didn't FF16 do the same when it eventually became available on the PC and then finally the xbox if the game being on the PS5 only was that big of a reason why it didn't sell as well?

Zikten posted...

I'm always seeing people claiming they are still on ps4 and calling ps5 a useless generation

Those type of people are morons and is in a constant state of reassurance, lol. The games might not have changed much and sony exclusives aren't much of a thing like they used to be, but it has always been pure cope to deny just how much the technological improvements jumped with this generation transition. Those people you are seeing don't matter.

Mad-Dogg posted...

Those type of people are morons and is in a constant state of reassurance, lol. The games might not have changed much and sony exclusives aren't much of a thing like they used to be, but it has always been pure cope to deny just how much the technological improvements jumped with this generation transition. Those people you are seeing don't matter.

Except we really haven't seen games change much. Graphics haven't had a generational leap(partly due to the shift to RT and just monumentally bad timing from this generation), they're seeing more games struggle and require fixes which was previously a PC exclusive problem, and not to mention the remake/remaster problem is straight up on main street.

I have seen this console gen push a ton of casual gamers straight in to mobile gaming, honestly.

Like games were still being released on PS4 fairly regularly until last year, and they also started talking about end of life for PS5 last year, so we're likely in the endgame for it.

R_Jackal posted...

Except we really haven't seen games change much.

Yeah.......I know.........that is why I said that they have not changed much.

I'm not seeing a lot of games struggling that they require fixes on the console side. Optimization issues is vastly a PC side problem for the past few years. Like even as jank as both monster hunter wild and wuchang was there was nothing on the console side for these games that actually needed cyberpunk style fixes for the games to actually run, so I disagree with this one. I also don't understand the remake/remaster thing, since we have had a consistent amount of new game releases this generation beyond remakes.

Whatever casual gamers that you see moving on to mobile gaming, the reality is that this has done nothing to slow down current generation console sales and people are still actually buying PS5s to play whatever it is they are playing. The games that are played the most may not be the ones you or I care for, but they are being played. And a lot. They sure aren't buying PS5s to stare at them.

*Posting this not for getting into sales number crap, just to show that yes........normal people are playing sony (and microsoft for the game pass players) consoles, which for some reason people are trying to pretend its dying or already dead.*
https://gamerant.com/ps5-total-sales-august-2025/
https://bsky.app/profile/matpiscatella.bsky.social/post/3ltjup5pvdt2j

Mad-Dogg posted...

Yeah.......I know.........that is why I said that they have not changed much.

I made to say "there either" but too late I suppose.

The technical aspects of games to the average player on a console are considerably worse this gen, all the troubles are usually seen as regression instead of progress.

R_Jackal posted...

I made to say "there either" but too late I suppose.

The technical aspects of games to the average player on a console are considerably worse this gen, all the troubles are usually seen as regression instead of progress.

There is a entire world outside these niche forums or reddit idiots screaming into the void. The average casual player is actually enjoying the technological progress the recent consoles brought, or else something like the PS5 would not have done as good as it does. And yes, this goes for nintendo players too.......people actually bought switch 2s to play their legend of zelda breath of the wild, tears of the kingdom, and especially pokemon scarlet and violet much better than the switch 1 ever could, right alongside playing mario kart world and DK bonanza. This cannot be denied what with the uptick in zelda breath of the wild+tears of the kingdom+pokemon sales when the switch 2 dropped.

Isn't this topic inherently wrong? Just type FF16 sales on google and it literally states that it's sold 3.5 million copies.

"The initial sales figure of 3 million was reached during the game's opening week."

Best FF game since 12. Loved all the different combos you could use.

15 is better, bit its also pretty good now.

Part of it is due to how slow releases are these days certainly. How many years was there between Ff1 and FF10, and how many between ff10 and ff16?

SpiritSephiroth posted...

Isn't this topic inherently wrong? Just type FF16 sales on google and it literally states that it's sold 3.5 million copies.

"The initial sales figure of 3 million was reached during the game's opening week."

3.5 million copies sold is extremely bad for a production that cost as much as FFXVI did (it's a modern AAA title after all), and SE themselves have claimed it underperformed IIRC.

They were expecting it to be a massive hit, the sort of game that would take the gaming world by storm. In the end it sold only 300k more copies than niche turn-based RPG Persona 5 (3.2 million) and sold a whopping half the amount of copies that Persona 5 Royal sold (7.2 million), both of which had far smaller budgets.

M1Astray posted...

3.5 million copies sold is extremely bad for a production that cost as much as FFXVI did (it's a modern AAA title after all), and SE themselves have claimed it underperformed IIRC.

They were expecting it to be a massive hit, the sort of game that would take the gaming world by storm. In the end it sold only 300k more copies than niche turn-based RPG Persona 5 (3.2 million) and sold a whopping half the amount of copies that Persona 5 Royal sold (7.2 million), both of which had far smaller budgets.

What you said is true.

What TC said is false.

Mad-Dogg posted...

Those type of people are morons and is in a constant state of reassurance, lol. The games might not have changed much and sony exclusives aren't much of a thing like they used to be, but it has always been pure cope to deny just how much the technological improvements jumped with this generation transition. Those people you are seeing don't matter.

I don't think he's saying they're right about the quality of the PS5 itself, but pointing out his experience that PS4 players adopted PS5 much slower than every other gen aside from PS3 which there is some statistical truth in. Half of PSN users were still on PS4 just last year during the PS5's "latter stage of its life cycle".
https://kotaku.com/playstation-4-5-sales-network-psn-users-ps5-ps4-sony-1851481409

I think my perspective on game sales are skewed. Selling only 500k in a two year period strikes me as shockingly bad, but games get celebrated for selling only a few million at launch, so maybe it's fine?

SpiritSephiroth posted...

What you said is true.

What TC said is false.

OP stated they didn't sell 1 million copies after the first week sales. It sold 3 million in week one and then only 500K after that first week.

MNThunder posted...

OP stated they didn't sell 1 million copies after the first week sales. It sold 3 million in week one and then only 500K after that first week.

You have better reading comprehension than me. Thanks for clarifying >_>

SpiritSephiroth posted...

You have better reading comprehension than me. Thanks for clarifying >_>

No problem it could have been worded better.

The PS5 exclusive excuse is weak. It wouldn't have sold well on Xbox because nothing sells well on Xbox any more. Less than half the install base of PS5, and most of those people stick to Gamepass. The game wouldn't have run on Switch. No amount of compromises could have gotten that done. When it came to PC as year later, it sold poorly. Rebirth released on PC a year later and did quite well. People just weren't interested in 16.

Mad-Dogg posted...

There is a entire world outside these niche forums or reddit idiots screaming into the void. The average casual player is actually enjoying the technological progress the recent consoles brought, or else something like the PS5 would not have done as good as it does. And yes, this goes for nintendo players too.......people actually bought switch 2s to play their legend of zelda breath of the wild, tears of the kingdom, and especially pokemon scarlet and violet much better than the switch 1 ever could, right alongside playing mario kart world and DK bonanza. This cannot be denied what with the uptick in zelda breath of the wild+tears of the kingdom+pokemon sales when the switch 2 dropped.

I think you misunderstand people buying new things for applauding progress, especially with classic franchise, or people just wanting their shit to work.

Nobody is applauding the Switch 2 on it's technological progress outside of those "terminally online screaming into the void" types because the Switch 2 is still technically worse than a lot of people's phones.

They already had to make changes to MKW because the average player didn't like the gameplay loop or what the open world was offering after the first week or so.

DK Bananza is cool, I'll grant that, but it's working with tech that should've been standard for gaming a decade ago when the industry decided to abandon it(PhysX).

You vastly underestimate sunk cost and community as a deciding factor. I'm a PC gamer because... I've been playing on it since DOS and virtually all my friends are there. Also got a Switch because I could play with them. Nowadays it's also library carry over.

It's not just "look at the tech!" Which even to this day most people just don't care compared to this issues, graphics will not have another monumental leap as in the past, so it's kind of moot.

DodogamaRayBrst posted...

I think my perspective on game sales are skewed. Selling only 500k in a two year period strikes me as shockingly bad, but games get celebrated for selling only a few million at launch, so maybe it's fine?

the games that sell a few million at launch usually don't have budgets the size of movies. Expedition 33 is a game that came out of relative nowhere, with not even 1/5th of the marketing of FF16, launched day 1 on gamepass, and STILL sold 3.3 million copies in 33 days lol

I haven't played it, but that's because:

1. I have a massive backlog.
2. It's a Square game, so (presumably) it's gone on sale for like 20% off, like once a year.
3. I still have to work through X, XII, XIII and XV first.

Whoever decided that the entire last half(or what felt like the last half) of the game being played in some ugly ass dim and drab overcast skies, needs to be fired.

Well, that sucks, the story was incredible and I lament that it did not resonate with a lot of people, I usually dont bother with codex entries but this game had me ravenously reading all that terminology shit because the characters, NPCs and the world felt really well fleshed out and I just wanted to learn more.

R_Jackal posted...

I think you misunderstand people buying new things for applauding progress, especially with classic franchise, or people just wanting their shit to work.

Nobody is applauding the Switch 2 on it's technological progress outside of those "terminally online screaming into the void" types because the Switch 2 is still technically worse than a lot of people's phones.

They already had to make changes to MKW because the average player didn't like the gameplay loop or what the open world was offering after the first week or so.

DK Bananza is cool, I'll grant that, but it's working with tech that should've been standard for gaming a decade ago when the industry decided to abandon it(PhysX).

You vastly underestimate sunk cost and community as a deciding factor. I'm a PC gamer because... I've been playing on it since DOS and virtually all my friends are there. Also got a Switch because I could play with them. Nowadays it's also library carry over.

It's not just "look at the tech!" Which even to this day most people just don't care compared to this issues, graphics will not have another monumental leap as in the past, so it's kind of moot.

So let me get this straight........I posted the article yes, something like a PS5 is consistently selling, and always has. Yeah, there is an appeal to buy new shiny thing and yeah no one is denying this one, but after all this long time do you genuinely, truly believe no one barely cares about the performance increases from the PS4 to PS5 transition (you know, get better framerate and looks a bit better for the same games in the ecosystem. Its funny because PC gamers upgrade their CPUs and GPUs for the same reason, but in bizarro world this group of gamers is supposed to be completely different from people on the console side), and its all about "to get shit working". Like, there is some unseen massive group of PS4 games that is just not working at all, and thus they have no choice but to upgrade......yep, this is the only reason for those type of sales.........kind of delusional crap is this?

When it comes to the switch 2, bro, there is only like 2 brand new native switch 2 games from nintendo theirselves released at the exact moment that is attention grabbing (mario kart world and DK bananza), a huge part of it's appeal for owning one right now is to play older switch 1 games with brand new native switch 2 versions for the performance increases, or replaying switch 1 games that has uncapped framerates and resolution scaling. Are we really pretending there isn't a ton of social media posts and videos talking about just how much they are liking the improvements to pokemon scarlet and violet? My brother is the perfect example of the type of people that bought a switch 2 and is just happy their pokemon isn't running rough. Now the nintendo games that is arriving later is also a big part of that appeal, but playing older releases better is just as big a reason for many people.

The average gamer outside of niche PC gamer ecochambers on the internet do not give a shit if some sort of smartphone, touchpad, or PC gaming device is more capable. If I were to ever tell my bro "hey, did you know the switch 2 is still technically worse than a lot of people's phones!", he is going to look at me and go, "oh.......ok. Ok".

This is how I know you are exactly one of these void yelling types of people I am talking about because you are stuck in that "everyone vocal online is a PC gamer, thinks in comparisons to some PC gaming device, and no one buys console devices for a good reason/pretend all their games is blue-screening and so they upgrade for them to work again" mentality.

Again, there is a entire world outside of spaces like this one.

Square's problem is they keep budgeting games like they'll sell 15 million copies and then make them exclusive to an install base of like 2 million people on a good day.

Like

Even if ff16 were the perfect game every ps5 owner is not going to buy 5 copies. That's not how things work.

That being said, still did okay, I think. Pretty solid 8/10 spectacle fighter with bad pacing.