790K people bought Chrono Trigger DS (and other Square sales figures)

by Randy Nelson { May 21st 2009 at 7:15PM }

Note: numbers reflect 10k increments

Square Enix has released an accounting of its software sales for fiscal year 2009 -- which ended March 31 -- and remakes ruled. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, a refresh of the 1992 Super Famicom installment in the famous role-playing series, sold 1.35 million copies globally -- placing Dissidia: Final Fantasy, a new property, in second place with combined sales of 930,000 teeny-tiny UMDs.

Let there be no questioning of Chrono Trigger's lasting appeal: the DS re-release managed to make it into the hands on 790k gamers, many of which were no doubt buying the game for the second or third time since the 16-bit original's 1995 launch.

European gamers gobbled up Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII with half a million units sold in the territory, although the region came in third in overall sales for Square Enix. The US actually proved to be its most lucrative market with 1.69 million games sold, versus 1.51M for Japan. Part of the success in the West: The Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery, which sold better in the States than anywhere else.

[Via Siliconera]

Tags: chrono-trigger, chrono-trigger-ds, fy09, sales, sales-figures, software-sales, square-enix

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Gun Barrier @ May 21st 2009 7:18PM

We need those guys to buy gta:cw and madworld too lol.

Fernando Rocker @ May 21st 2009 7:23PM

Like I have said before: even Chrono Trigger debuted with less sales than GTA.

DS games have huge legs... I think that the DS is the system with the software with bigger legs that I have ever seen, kinda like the PS2.

GTA will be a million seller for sure...

And MadWorld is already at 250,000 worlwide. I bet it will be like deBlob and Boom Blox, and some other titles... it will reach the platinum status eventually.

Gun Barrier @ May 21st 2009 7:25PM

What I don't like though, is that titles like no more heroes and the like may have reached around 1mil, but the price of the titles dropped to 20 before they get there.

Rob @ May 21st 2009 8:28PM

That has more to do with the stores selling them then with anything else. They want them to move so they drop the price based on a formula they have. in the end they still have to give the money owed to the developer, so they get there money, it's just the store that gets less.

nofriendo @ May 21st 2009 7:20PM

So much for not making money on remakes huh?

tmacairjordan87 @ May 21st 2009 7:20PM

That's an extremely sad number for a port with almost 0 improvements. The only good thing that could possibly come from this is it would give them more incentive to do a ps3 remake of FF 7, but knowing Square-Enix they would just port the regular game over and add a new dungeon to call it "new".

Fernando Rocker @ May 21st 2009 7:24PM

0 improvements?

It has new endings... a new dungeon, a better translation, and all the animations from the PS1 version.

tmacairjordan87 @ May 21st 2009 7:26PM

Oh boy, new endings to a game that already had a billion to begin with.

Nook @ May 21st 2009 7:34PM

I agree, Chrono Trigger should have sold much more, and I think it will over time, unless they stop production and the carts become collectibles...maybe my SNES cart will regain some value.

25 hours in and things are getting really good.

The game is timeless. No pun intended.

Moptimus Slime (PhilosoRaptor is the new Keyboard Cat) @ May 21st 2009 7:36PM

they should do that, just to piss you off

Fernando Rocker @ May 21st 2009 7:39PM

Nook...

I think that tmac was "sad" about those numbers because it was a high number, not because he thought that it sold poorly.

But don't worry, he is the official Nintendo hater, so, his comment is not a surprise.

WREturns @ May 21st 2009 7:55PM

Hey, tmac, how do I reset my password if I've forgotten it?

tmacairjordan87 @ May 21st 2009 7:59PM

on ps3? No idea, I've never tried to do it before.

WREturns @ May 21st 2009 8:00PM

No, on Joystiq. Does anybody know?

Paviel @ May 21st 2009 8:24PM

"The game is timeless. No pun intended."

You're not fooling anyone. Of course that pun was intended, or you wouldn't have mentioned it. (Yes, I'm one of those pedants who think the phrase "no pun intended" and the word "literally" should be excised from the English language. So sue me.)

And 790k is a very respectable number, I think. It could have been higher or lower, of course, but that has always been and will always be the case.

Dopple Boppler @ May 21st 2009 8:27PM

I don't know, it would take so much time and energy to do a remake of a game as large as Final Fantasy 7 on PS3 it would be better to just make a whole new game. The reason all the Final Fantasy games before 5 keep getting remade is that it doesn't really take much time and effort to do so. The only reason I'd really want 7 remade is to see how gorgeous some of the locations would look on PS3, particularly Gold Saucer and Cosmo Canyon. It's a shame Advent Children didn't get to most of the more interesting locations, but then again I was ashamed for even buying the movie, so I guess it's not that much of a surprise.

Oh, and also, I never had the chance to fully play Chrono Trigger until the DS port (emulators are a no go with me), so I don't see how there's anything sad about it.

Cesaria @ May 21st 2009 8:35PM

Square denies up and down that a FF7 remake will happen. It's the only game of their 3D series I could see getting the upgrade, not to mention it would be free money. If they made a PS3/FF7 bundle availabe, they wouldn't be able to keep them on the shelves. That idea is on me, Sony/SE.

Manly Mcbeefington (Mr. ESC) @ May 21st 2009 8:57PM

WREturns Click on your nickname and then select edit profile.Then you can change your password.

To be honest I don't know what to think,the game is sweet and for a SNES game it has a crazy amount of detail with that said it would have been good if it would have received the FFIV treatment or more animations.If I hated something about these remakes is the lack of not in-game cutscenes.I'm about to finish FFIV and other than the intro you don't get another kickass CGI cutscene.

Seriously when did we get to the point where developers decide CGI cutscenes are bad? they are better than any in-game cutscenes.Well I hope Chrono has more animated cutscenes than the intro.

nofriendo @ May 21st 2009 7:22PM

Alot of people in North America bought Final Fantasy 4.

Josh @ May 21st 2009 9:30PM

Yeah, Europe, too. And in Japan it's basically nothing.

And of course, Dragon Quest sells like crazy in Japan and very poorly everywhere else.

cuteSAVAGE @ May 22nd 2009 6:38AM

Check the release dates and the dates in which this data was collected. Final Fantasy IV was released in Japan four months before the start of fiscal year 2009, and Dragon Quest V had only been available in the west about a month prior to it ending.

Guibs @ May 21st 2009 7:26PM

So I guess japanese don't really liked FFTA2 on the DS....

mr nimblewick @ May 21st 2009 7:33PM

And for good reason. So disappointed by that one.

Tamyu @ May 21st 2009 8:48PM

These figures aren`t for the life of the game - they`re for the 2009 fiscal year which started April 1st, 2008 and ended March 31, 2009.

FFTA2 was released in the 2008 fiscal year (October 2007) in Japan, and was old by the time April rolled around. Outside Japan though it was released in the 2009 fiscal year, so shows up on this chart.

It sold 320k in Japan, which is far from badly.

FFTA2 @ May 22nd 2009 10:11AM

FFTA2 WAS AWESOME
FFTA2 IS AWESOME
FFTA2 WILL BE AWESOME

THE WICKER MAN (BWF) (GT: Dalek Prime) @ May 21st 2009 7:26PM

Ewwww thank god. Wouldn't want them to do anything new with the franchise. :P

jrm @ May 21st 2009 7:28PM

Your analysis shows a complete inability to read bar graphs. The "total" figure you cite refers not to the total games sold, but to other titles.
Learn to do 4th grade math, then come back and see me.

nofriendo @ May 21st 2009 7:54PM

Tamyu @ May 21st 2009 8:54PM

You`re completely right.
The total figures for each region are those written to the right, and the figures in parentheses are the total figures for the 2008 fiscal year.

The "other" figures are for OTHER games not listed by title. At the very least it should be clear from adding up the figures from the other games that it cannot be the total. (Just the top two games knock the number over for the US...)

Japan is the most lucrative market with 5.19 million selling. The US, however, only sold 3.71...

Please guys - read the chart, and if you can`t figure it out have someone translate it for you.

Maverick Saturn @ May 21st 2009 7:38PM

See, that just prooves it...yes it does, Americans are officially more obsessed with gaming then us :D

I kid I kid

But it is suprising to see how Crisis Core sold.

And Square, isn't it about time you released Dissidia over here? I've been waiting for ages, keep me waiting any longer and I won't bother wth the bloody game ¬_¬

dgknight500 @ May 22nd 2009 3:49AM

Released in August

aj @ May 25th 2009 8:37PM

Europe appears to have loved Crisis Core. I don't know why that's so surprising to me. It just seems like Europeans don't ever play more of anything than we North Americans.

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ May 21st 2009 7:38PM

Damn....by comparison those 360 exclusives look like shit.....

azr_ @ May 21st 2009 7:41PM

Other = total? O_o

Anticrawl @ May 21st 2009 7:44PM

My girlfriend bought me a copy.

jrm @ May 21st 2009 7:52PM

Why was I voted down? The figure clearly states that the 1.51 and 1.69 million figures are for other titles. If this isn't clear enough on its own, Dragon Quest V and Dissidia sold a combined 2.13 million in Japan, reading off the totals given, exceeding the alleged 1.51 million cited in the article above. What's worse, the total figures are given explicitly (albeit in Japanese, but clearly enough to anyone who can do basic math) at the right of the graph as 5.19 and 3.17 million in sales for Japan and North America, respectively.

Dr Dre @ May 21st 2009 7:55PM

I have never seen Chrono Trigger on the shelves in Australia. The game apparently had an incredibly small production run and is now deleted. You can't complain about poor sales if you have nothing to sell to people who want to buy it.

j.howlett @ May 21st 2009 8:22PM

hey SE, it be cool if you had some ps3 sales up there

devilsei @ May 21st 2009 8:42PM

Eh, f**k SE, the way I see this, is its a response from the C&D order thrown at CT:CE and other fan-gamees (which are really no different than what you can find on newgrounds and such).

They just showing "Look how many copies of CT: DS we sold, this wouldn't of happened if CE released" type of crap.

I know i know, crazy conspiracy theorist is crazy, but I'm in a mood where I want things to burn.

Manly Mcbeefington (Mr. ESC) @ May 21st 2009 8:46PM

Oh yeah,I'm stuck in Chrono Trigger and I have to go grind happy in FFIV to defeat the final boss.

Normally I would have bought any Ds game with a total score of over 9.0 like Chinatown wars but to be honest I was never a fan of the GTA series with the exception of IV,yeah I'm in the minority that liked the dramatic story.I mean not even Eric Cartman could sold me on the GTA franchise.

Dissidia sold more units than Crisis Core? That's just weird.

Finally Is Dragon Quest V worth buying? I mean is the story really good or a standard "The Hero of bullshit with the Deux ex Machina sword goes and kicks The Evil [Noun] in the nutts"?

Levi (God Hand Defense Force) @ May 21st 2009 11:04PM

I finally finished DQV a few weeks ago. I thought the story was great for the most part and different than most typical JRPGs. But 3/4 into the game, the story almost drops off entirely and you have to do a lot of level grinding before completing the last dungeon. I thought the game was pretty epic for a 15 year old JRPG, but that damn ending was pretty anti-climatic.

The magic balancing was weird too. The two members of your party that have healing magic are also your strongest fighters. The other party members that are strong with magic only have status and attack magic. It was a little annoying, but not game breaking.

Meh @ May 22nd 2009 10:33AM

"Normally I would have bought any Ds game with a total score of over 9.0 like Chinatown wars but to be honest I was never a fan of the GTA series with the exception of IV,yeah I'm in the minority that liked the dramatic story." Same here, but CW had some good dialogue too (except for one mission, when it's clearly written by someone else - and hey, he's in the credits! - who tries too hard to be funny) and I really liked it :) Get.

Michael T @ May 22nd 2009 12:03PM

Mr. ESC: DQV is excellent. Probably my favorite in the main DQ series, for whatever that's worth. I've actually played it to completion twice (once to marry Bianca, once to marry Deborah).

Gemma Atkinson @ May 23rd 2009 6:26AM

"Dissidia sold more units than Crisis Core? That's just weird."

These figures are for the fiscal year 2008, not the total sales figures of each game. Crisis Core was released in 2007 in Japan for instance. In total, it sold 1,92 million units worldwide.

zombiejesus @ May 21st 2009 9:33PM

and I wasn't one of them ;)

Donald @ May 21st 2009 10:08PM

Your loss.

esposch @ May 22nd 2009 4:28AM

Any info on TWEWY?

Adolph @ May 22nd 2009 12:53PM

I just bought Chronno Trigger a week ago and I am LOVING the game.

Kdiggy @ May 22nd 2009 5:37PM

Let's see, I bought

FF IV
FF VII: Crisis Core

Will be getting:

Dissida
Crono Trigger

Hey Square, wanna know why your sales are down over 30%? Because you don't release good console games anymore. Also I'm still waiting for an answer on the PS3 version of The Last Remnate.