Square Enix Aims For Six Million Plus Sales For Final Fantasy XIII
Yoichi Wada discusses sales and new IPs.
Posted Sep 29, 2009 at 13:41, By Anoop Gantayat
The special Final Fantasy XIII PS3 system on display at the Tokyo Game Show.
With Dragon Quest IX out of the way, Final Fantasy XIII is Square Enix's biggest game in the pipeline. The company apparently has high hopes for the title.
Responding to a Reuters interview on the 28th, CEO Yoichi Wada revealed that Square Enix hopes to see Final Fantasy XIII ship more units worldwide than its predecessor, PlayStation 2's Final Fantasy XII. This would mean shipments of over six million units.
He expressed hope that the recent PS3 and Xbox 360 price drops will help push the game's sales.
Wada also provided an update on Dragon Quest IX's sales state. Domestic shipments for the game topped the four million mark last week. Wada said that while he believes the game will top the five million mark this fiscal year, reaching the goal will cause pressure to Square Enix management.
There may be more to Square Enix than just Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. Wada said that the company has two to three titles that it hopes to be banner games to follow Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. "These could be released at the end of next year or the year after that."
He also told Reuters that Square Enix aims to have around eight IPs that could provide a continual influx of 2 million unit sales for the company. Development time is two years, so with eight games, they'd be able to have at least one release every quarter.
One thing to note in all this talk of banner titles and new IPs. Yoichi Wada was addressing Reuters as CEO of Square Enix Holdings, which also covers Eidos. He could very well be referring to titles developed outside of Japan rather than the next Tetsuya Nomura hit.
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Reader Comments (showing 8 of 8)
Reno @ 2009.09.29, 15:28
lol six million
anoop @ 2009.09.29, 16:21
You don't think it's possible Reno?
Or are you lolling at how low it is compared to the series at its peak?
jonnyram @ 2009.09.29, 16:54
Six million? It's very unlikely.
Japan might stretch to 1.5 million.
US would be lucky to reach that.
Europe the same.
Maybe 4 million total.
anoop @ 2009.09.29, 17:24
I think with the inclusion of the 360 it will have a chance.
I'm going to predict 2 million for Japan, 2.5 million for North America, and 1.5 million for Europe.
filly @ 2009.09.29, 17:33
6 millions seems a bit low to me considering FF7, 8, and 10 sold way more and they were only on one platform. But then again, PS3 + Xbox360 isn't in the same league as the PS1 or PS2.
This game better prove to be very profitable. I DO NOT WANT TO SEE KH3 on Wii...
Cosign @ 2009.09.30, 0:50
Here are some stats:
Final Fantasy 7 - 9.72million
Final Fantasy 8 - 7.86million (numbers still rising due to PSN)
Final Fantasy 9 - 5.30million
Final Fantasy 10 - 7.95million
Final Fantasy 12 - 5.11million
Now that we have a grounded perspective on the FF franchise, do you really think that Square-Enix' FF13 will NOT sell at least 6 million? That could only happen if FF13 was LESS appealing than FF9 or FF12 was (which it is not - it is more appealing imo) Not to mention that they have the biggest marketing push yet and the game launching on 2 consoles. Note that he doesn't SAY 6 million, he says sell at least more than FF12. Their predictions on the optimistic end of the spectrum is a Much More astronomical figure than you think.
anoop @ 2009.09.30, 0:53
FFXIII definitely has the appeal of an FFX. Saw lots of FFXIII cosplayers at TGS, mixed in with the many Yunas.
Reno @ 2009.10.01, 12:09
It definitely won't hit FFX levels... FFXII levels MAY be possible but that is really up to the market outside of Japan. Jonnyram's guess would be mine... 4 million worldwide for the title. I can't see this hitting over 5 million to be honest.