Square Enix expects Final Fantasy XIII sales to exceed 6 million

by Randy Nelson on Sep 29th 2009 3:59PM

Speaking to Reuters Japan, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada told the news service that the publisher expects Final Fantasy XIII to sell more than its predecessor, which has sold close to six million copies worldwide since its release in 2006. According to Andriasang, Wada remarked that he's hopeful recent price cuts on PS3 and Xbox 360 will drive up sales of the game when it arrives in Japan on December 17 and the rest of the world next spring.

Considering XIII is this console generation's first traditional Final Fantasy installment, we don't imagine Square Enix will have any problem moving units. After all, to hit the six-million-sold mark, only about 11 percent of the combined worldwide PS3 and Xbox 360 userbase will need to buy a copy.

[Via Andriasang]

Source

Tags: final-fantasy, final-fantasy-xiii, Microsoft, sales, square-enix, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (64)

This comes as no surprise

I expect them to exceed 6 million in Riverside, CA alone and the population there is only 2,100,516.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division

A clever satirical joke about lllegal immigrants?

Well, I guess it could be. Didn't mean to, just thought that I'd over emphasize on how many copies are going to be sold...

ya i knew he wasnt that cleaver. he was insinuating people were going to buy multiple copies.

"cleaver"
Oh my.

Is it safe to expect it's actually delivered next spring?

June 20 or 21 at the moment.

Check Amazon and GameStop.

That's just barely cutting it for Spring considering the summer solstice is June 21st of 2010.

That seems low and I hope that if its good that it will sell close to 10 million.

6 million easy.....

The words "Final" and "Fantasy" almost guarantee this.

ff12 sold 5.6 million. so there goes that theory.

how many games do you think Infinity Ward will sell if they titled their game:

"Final" Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 "Fantasy"

or

Call of Duty. FINAL! Modern Fantasy Warfare 2

@Latin_Trident

*puts finger to mouth*

6 BILLIION!!!!

MWAHAHAHAHAAHA!!!!!

Just the bundle will exceed 6 million.

I won't be one of them, but enjoy yourselves.

Obvious news is obvious news.

Hasn't each Final Fantasy iteration since VIII been steadfastly losing sales? It will be interesting to see how many 360 owners buy it. If the 360 manages to sell 3 million then I think its safe to say 6-10 million is in the realm of possibility.

Final Fantasy X sold approximately 8 million, which was the same as FFVIII. Final Fantasy XII only sold over 5 million which was definately down, but that was released in 2006, which was when the next gen systems were coming out. The PS2 also saw several FF games (FFX, FFX-2, FFVII DoC, FFXI, and FFXII). By the time XII came out, people were probably a little tired of it. With this being the first game to be released this gen, I think it will match X and will sell close to 8 million in the end. Just a guess though.

I've bought 4 copies of Final Fantasy X, 1 full price, 2 for $20 and 1 for $13, and I've convinced 7 people to buy it. You're welcome Square Enix! I like to think I made a significant impact in that 8 bajillion copies you sold....

Wait..... aw shit nevermind...

^Final Fantasy games are like the food at McDonalds, only an idiot buys it twice.

I wouldn't doubt that at all.

I won't be buying it though, I'm one of the 3 people in the world who doesn't like Final Fantasy.

@CaramelZappa. You're actually one of the 4 people who don't like FF. I've never actually said I don't like it until now since it's never come up. I've only played 7 and though i beat it, I didn't like it. I also don't like the fact that so many male characters look a lot like women. It's weird.

I honestly think it will reach 6 million just on PS3. Just in japan.

No FF game has ever sold even 4 million in Japan. No offense, but history and logic say you're way off.

I was going more for 2-3 million in Japan

I plan to buy one game for each console in my rooms at home. I only have one room. the bathroom.

Time to start hoarding gil.

Although, I've been hesitant about the series since FFX. We shall see.

I hope I don't start a flame war here, but by your statement are you saying that FFX made you hesitant or was it all the FFs after FFX?

The short answer is, starting with FFX.

(and now for the long answer)

FFX was the first to make me question my blind loyalty to the franchise (which hooked me with FF6). It took awhile, but I warmed up to X.

FFX-2 reinforced my questioning of the direction the series was taking. The plot was ludicrous, but the battle system more than made up for that fact and made it an overall decent game.

FFXI was online and that's just not my thing.

FFXII seemed to have mixed reviews as far as the battle system goes. To be honest, I only played the demo and really didn't enjoy it. Since that time I've gotten the Wii and a 360 so I've been away from what I consider the main series for quite some time.

@ AsherR

I don't know about him, but X made me hesitant. One of my least favorite games in the series. The characters were annoying, and it was just too linear. (Though I could have stomached the linearity had I not found the characters to be so awful).

That's why I'm a little worried about XIII. I'll buy it day 1 because It's final fantasy, but its giving me some X vibes which I don't care for.

Glad to hear that from both of you. I could have liked X a lot more. I liked certain aspects of it, but the ending for me felt way easy and phoned in. I didn't like characters much at all. I like 2 of them a fair amount and that's about it.

Gewurz, I agree with you that X-2 had a really fun battle system, but I just couldn't get through it all. I really want to try again though.

I actually like what XII did changing the focus of the plot. I still never beat that one either. I've really been meaning to go back through that one.

But yeah, for me personally, X was one of the weakest FFs. I see so many people that adore it though. Still had good aspects though. I loved the Sphere Grid.

And XIII will be a Day 1 purchase for me as well. From what I've seen, I'm starting to get my hope back for the series.

It will sell that in japan alone. :D

This is the first game i'm looking forward to in a long time.

personally i think their low balling the number of sales they expect to get with FFXIII, i just have this sneaking suspicion that they going to sell over 8 million copies of the game

Nice picture Joystiq. I get it they picked the picture of the male protagonist looking surprised as a reaction to the 6 million sales prediction. You never fail to impress me Joystiq editors with your clever parlor tricks!

Male protagonist?

That's a man?....

I think Japan seriously needs to make a few bald, gruff, space marine characters.

They cant have space marines the helmets would mess their hair up.

I can't tell where the sarcasm ends and where the mistakes begin in any of these posts...

Nope, the person who made this comment was just trying to be stupid, and he succeeded. That's Lightning, the main FEMALE protagonist.

It will definitely sell well, especially in Japan, or as I like to call it Final Fantasy Land.

Hey Joystiq, you forgot the "No Shit Sherlock" tag.

Final Fantasy sales figures according to wikipedia:

VII 9.9 million (december 2005)
VIII 8.15 million (march 2003)
IX 5.3 (march 2003)
X 6.6 (january 2004)
XII 5.2 million (march 2007)

So XIII would have to sell more than IX and XII basically and quite similar to X.

It's the first FF of this generation will will sell like mad. Although it has to battle through SE's reputation of RPGs on the Xbox

*Points finger at Infinite Undiscovery, The last Remnant and Star Ocean*

How did they cock up SO so much.

Yeah I too think being the first FF of this console generation will boost the sales. Also it will be interesting to see will the setting of larger total console base (ps2) vs multiplatform (ps3/360) have any effect on sales.

yeah it will sell very great in japan just like dissidia and crisis core and FFX but maybe over that who know's japan is FF land and more! i be picking up jp version since am heading to japan be with my gf this nov24 -jan10 launch party!

Sales better exceed 6 million with all the money they spent on this

Of course I wish them all the success they can have. I would love them to sell that many copies. The snarky side of me, however, says that they could probably improve their odds of selling that many copies if they had released the demo with Advent Children Complete instead of tossing us a trailer.

6 million sounds about right for non-Japanese sales, Japanese sales should add 2+ to that amount.

Remember that the interest in Japanese games has been on the wane on PS3 and 360, as some of the comments from the Inafune article would indicate.

it can go much over if the game is good. Im pretty sure all FF fans are looking a jolt of a good final fantasy game cause the last few have been kinda bad compared to some of the earlier ones like 7 and 8.

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Square Enix expects Final Fantasy XIII sales to exceed 6 million

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