Final Fantasy XIII limit breaks Japanese PS3 software sales record

by Griffin McElroy on Dec 24th 2009 10:45AM

Are you shocked? Probably not, considering we all knew Final Fantasy XIII would make a killing during the initial week of its release. However, the magnitude of the game's success was still a little alarming. Within its first day on the market, it broke one million units, becoming the best-selling PS3 game in Japan. According to Media Create, the game had reached 1,501,964 units by the end of the week, which more than doubled the life-to-date totals of the platform's previous bestseller, Metal Gear Solid 4. It did so in just four days. Great googly moogly!

As you also might have expected, these unprecedented sales also boosted PS3 sales in the region for the week. The platform's sales leaped, much like a gazelle would leap, from 75,086 units sold to 237,086 units (an increase of 215.75 percent). That's an impressive upshot -- but we're not sure it deserves any gibberish exclamations.

Source

Tags: final-fantasy-xiii, japan, japanesehardwaresales, media-create, record, rpg, sales, sony, square-enix

Reader Comments (131)

Still waiting on my import copy to arrive... All the hate it's receiving is strangely making me even more excited.

Hate?

Nothing out of the ordinary - no FF after VII has launched without hordes of fanboys bashing it. The main criticism is the linearity, though I hardly consider that bad for a FF game.

Am I alone in thinking that Seph wasn't that great a villain? His lines were mostly just crazy semi-gibberish and laughter, and he wasn't exactly brilliant. (Maybe he should have killed you when he had the chance. Chances. How many times did he spare Cloud, again?

Come to think of it, the only characters in VII I really liked were RedXIII and Yuffie.

FFX was for the win.

A certain game forum site's FF13 forum is filled primarily with topics stating how much the gamers there hate FF13, including how linear it is, how it is not FF7's miracle child, and how FF12 was better.

Personally, I find them all to be wrong, but there's so much hate on there that people who actually like the game aren't bothering to post. I can't blame them.

As much as I don't like FF anymore, or jrpgs in general, people buying FF 13 and then bashing it for being too linear is beyond fucking stupid. It's a jrpg, what the hell were you expecting? Open world rpgs is a western staple, when has a FF game ever been non linear?

FF IV-IX = non-linear

Many people simply just want the world map back, me included. Being able to hop in some airship right when the game is near the end anyway is of no consolation.

You'd think that after a bazillion FF games, people would know what to expect. I don't mind it being linear at all, if that's the case.

What's next? People are going to complain books are linear too? Or that movies are linear?

Final Fantasy has always been much like a movie or a good book, to me. I don't even give a fuck about the gameplay all that much (don't get me wrong, I do enjoy it), it's the story that I'm interested in.

@edisinsane (PSN: edisinsane2)

None of those featured true non-linearity, the kind we see in Dragon Age or Fallout 3. Sure, you could hop around from town to town but if you wanted to actually progress the game and story, you had to follow the path the game laid out for you. Look at Dragon Age, for example. Every quest has different endings and ways of completion, very rarely does the game force you to do anything.

The fact that the first 6 hours of FFXIII is pretty much a straight line doesn't bother me at all. For one, FFX was pretty much the same way, but more importantly it tells me that the developers meant for you to have a very specific experience. Now wether that experience is any good or not, remains to be seen.

So it's official that Tmac has never played a PS1 Final Fantasy.

Books and movies are not an interactive media. Want your games to be as linear as a movie or book? Fine, go at it, but realize that Final Fantasy was once known for it's stories and ability to explore the world. This series is dead, point blank. You can have your flashy Final Fantasy book, I'm moving on.

On topic: Final Fantasy VI was the best ever. Kefka Palazzo was a sadistic bastard. Everything after Final Fantasy VI pales by comparison, even VII. If you don't believe me, play it. Just don't get the Playstation version they tried to screw up by throwing in stupid special effects and CGI movies.

"You'd think that after a bazillion FF games, people would know what to expect. I don't mind it being linear at all, if that's the case."

Well it could be that since the popularity of western rpgs that allow players to go through the story in a non-linear fashion, people want the same to be done for a Final Fantasy game. But then again, I don't think that kind of style would fit the FF games.

@Blank-mage
There's alot of elements of that game that is overrated.

Being linear has absolutely nothing to do with being interactive. That was one of the dumbest statements I have ever heard.

"So it's official that Tmac has never played a PS1 Final Fantasy"

Seems like we have different definitions of open world. Being able to go to different towns that don't do anything other than giving you a new shop to buy new stuff, is not open world.

At best, they give you an airship at the end to go around doing stuff you missed out on. That's their version of a second chance to prepare for the end. It's not exactly Fallout 3 or anything.

@Traceur_Ryuk: Just curious, but how would something you're unable to interact with be able to change direction in a meaningful way? Other than having a game that plays itself. And yes, I'm strictly speaking about games.

@lameduck

You do realize that those FF games that were made before the playstation trilogy are just as linear as the games that came after them right? I mean you do know the difference between linear and non-linear storytelling right?

And just how is Fallout 3 any different in that sense? You go around, talk to people and do side quests. Also I don't even bother talking to people in Fallout 3 or the Elder Scrolls because they look and act like mindless zombies with terrible voice actors.

"Also I don't even bother talking to people in Fallout 3 or the Elder Scrolls because they look and act like mindless zombies with terrible voice actors"

That has absolutely 0 to do with what we're talking about. If we were talking about voice acting, then no one would play jrpgs because none of them have good acting.

We were talking about open world games, and how people are trying to claim the old FFs are open world. Having a world map doesn't mean the game's open world. You can't go around doing anything you want or going anywhere you want, you can't play the game how you want to play it.

Like I said, in these games the world map is linear because as the story goes on you're going from 1 location to the next in a line. For example, in FF7 you can't go from Midgar to Rocket Town. You go to Midgar, Kalm, Chocobo Ranch, Caves, etc etc until you get to Rocket Town.

(You're kind of a pro at this whole Internet arguing thing, huh?)

True, but once you get the airship you can go around and do all kinds of side quests. I don't even care if a game is linear or not, as long as it's good.

It doesn't bother me in the older games either. My personal preference for current games is open world, but the whole original point to this was:

Who buys a FF game and then bitches that it's too linear? It's a big "durp" moment for those people.

^ Yep, tmac's right. However, part of the hate from people is that it changes quite a few of its conventions to a more streamlined process.

This Final Fantasy, as far as mechanics are concerned (we can sit here and argue about storyline, but it's Christmas Eve!), is a very different take on older ones.

You should give this one a try, tmac, you'd be very proud of its innovation (especially one game mechanic that's similar to Dark Cloud's weapon system).

"Like I said, in these games the world map is linear because as the story goes on you're going from 1 location to the next in a line. For example, in FF7 you can't go from Midgar to Rocket Town. You go to Midgar, Kalm, Chocobo Ranch, Caves, etc etc until you get to Rocket Town."

Technically you could go to locations out of order, but unless you do something in a certain order, you cannot progress. That is the main difference between a game like Dragon Age and a game like FF. You are always on set path in a story that can't be changed (and I'm not talking about side quests). That's what makes FF a linear experience.

"You should give this one a try, tmac, you'd be very proud of its innovation"

I will most likely be gameflying the 360 version for achievements, but I can tell you now don't bet any money on me actually enjoying it. I already know everything that happens in the game, and the story is typical very predictable jrpg cliches.

"Technically you could go to locations out of order"

Actually you couldn't.

@Wiizer: so you're saying the people complaining are just nostalgic doucebags... Every final fantasy game does something that breaks the mold of traditional JRPGs which is why they're the best. (Also I completely forgot it's Christmas eve, need to do last minute shopping)

"so you're saying the people complaining are just nostalgic doucebags... "

Oooh... I need to write that down... LOL, well not everyone is, but I've been having to fight some trolls on this one.

They sincerely believe that this game is the worst because of these few negligible changes.

I mean, come on, it's Final Fantasy, these changes don't kill an entire game.

About Sephiroth:
"(Maybe he should have killed you when he had the chance. Chances. How many times did he spare Cloud, again?"

I don't think you guys actually understand a great chunk of the story. You don't actually meet Sephiroth most of the time. It's Jenovas pieces being controlled by Sephiroth's will and acting like him. That's why when you see him you fight Jenova, and not his real self. His real body was stuck in the canyon behind the protective force field most of the game.

He still made it clear he could kill everyone at any time. Or could make Cloud kill everyone at any time. And for being locked away in a crater, he still had quite a bit of influence, don't you think? Enough to throw materia at you and laugh, anyway.

@Big Fat

I don't know that I agree with that philosophy. People who like to play traditional JRPGs want exactly that: a traditional JRPG. They don't want a shooter or action game with RPG elements. I think it would be a huge mistake to make a Final Fantasy game (the patriarch or JRPGs) homogenized with western RPGs. Final Fantasy isn't the series that SE needs to experiment with in that regard.

@ Blank-Mage:

I know I'm late to the party.. I haven't been home for 3 days and I just woke up.. You didn't like Cid from VII, though, Blank?? :O He was my favorite character from VII. Cloud, I actually kinda don't like:/

I'm not as big a fan boy for VII as most.. not sure what people see in it above other FF's for narrative. Perhaps due to it being on ps1 and it being a lot of people's first FF game is the only thing I can think of.

@ Magresda:

You are going to love it when it arrives:) I got mine much sooner than expected and it's amazing:) Granted I'm generally an SE/FF fanboy so.. I'm a bit biased:p

@tmac

FF7 was the first game I played where you could do anything you wanted, you didn't even have to care about the storyline once you got so far in the game.

Chocobo breeding?
Chocobo racing?
Excavation digging?
Battle Arena?
Golden Saucer itself? lol
Wutai Tower?

To say it wasn't open world in that sense is just silly.
I spent hour after hour breeding chocobos and then racing them etc.

@BigFat

Dude, you're sounding a little ignorant. Just wait and play it for yourself. A 5 year cycle doesn't mean the devs were shut up in a cave for that long.

This isn't Epic Games, they let their devs experiment with the series because it was long due for a change. And it's not even that big of a change!

Just play the game and you'll be glad you did.

@Sordid

Ah, I forgot Cid. Good call, my bad.

So if my favourite FF game is IX, and I didn't like X, will I like this one?

@LameDuck: "but realize that Final Fantasy was once known for it's stories and ability to explore the world. This series is dead, point blank. You can have your flashy Final Fantasy book, I'm moving on."

Well if the series is dead and broke the 1 million mark first day... i cant imagine what would happen if it were actually a series that was "still-alive"! >.<

FFIX WAS YOUR FAVORITE?! THIS IS MADNESS!

No, nevermind, it's just me being a prick again.

Just because something sells doesn't mean it's good or not dead. I think we have proven that with the zombie PS2 and rap.

Put a turd in a tube, add a catchy hip-hop song to it, "bling" it out, and every moron on the block will have their turd in a tube. Same with FFXII, from what has been said. It's been going down... down... down... and down. There is no end in sight for this series to stop slipping. Their ideal of new and innovative is flashier CGI and overly complicated skill unlocking. Even the character design is starting to be reused. A red-headed, female Cloud? Surely you jest, Square. I want story AND adventure, not an on-rails RPG.

did we expect any less? I was honestly thinking it would do 2 million, but my guess is that it will hit that before the end of the year over there.

The really interesting thing? I doubt it will do that on the 360 in the US the first week.

Your telling me that a jrpg is going to do bad in america on an fps centric console?
I would have never guessed. You should be patcher the ceo, then maybe you might be news.

@BxG: its not even that, I mean sure other JRPGs haven't done shit here, but that was mostly due to them being limited to a Action/shooter heavy console. No matter how much MS gets other game types on the 360, it still has a certain audience, and thats the people that like the Halos and the MW2's, etc with RPG & sports people and a FEW JRPG people. Just like the Wii has its casual audience that won't go anywhere and the PS3 has its audience of people that LOVE games with story and that go against the grain, that won't sell MILLIONS AND MILLIONS but are STILL GREAT games.

But this is FINAL FANTASY 13. The "END ALL to the PS3 since it was announced on the 360"....yet it won't do on 360 here what it did on PS3 there. The ONE thing all the 360 fanboys said would be the NAIL in Sony's console coffin and they won't even gobble it up like that...the SAME ones that say "Japan Doesn't Matter" when more and more its proving that it DOES, if it didn't MS wouldn't have even bothered to release the 360 over there

The Best selling RPG on 360 next year is going to be Mass Effect 2. Period.

wait, i dont get what your saying here. people on the 360 dont like story/rpgs? and only like halo/MW2?

personally i have more RPG's for my 360 than anything else. Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Dragon Age origins, Fable 2, Lost Odyssey ect... and next year the 3 games im looking forward to most are God of War 3, Fable 3, and Mass Effect 2. all 3 with pretty big stories, and 2 of the 3 are 360 games. Mass Effect series having some of the deepest story in the industry, i would argue its far deeper than you get in a jRPG.

I really don't understand the point you are making about FF13 sales on 360. I think you're trying to do a console war type thing, but I'm not following.

FF13 is the first multiplatform game that I'll be picking up for PS3. It's not because I will only play JRPG's on a Japanese platform, or because I think Sony rules the universe. It's because the game was developed on PS3 as the lead platform, it actually benefits from Blu-Ray, and there is no online component.

@ BxGT - It's still FF, and carries the branding that will have it selling like hotcakes. As far as FPS centric console? I really dislike FPS games, and own tons of games for my 360; which is also my favorite console this gen. I imagine there are lots of similar folks out there, so the pigeon-holing seems a bit silly.

"The Best selling RPG on 360 next year is going to be Mass Effect 2. Period."

As it should be, since it will be the best RPG next year on any console or PC.

I don't get the that 360 is for FPS games just because there are alot of FPS' on it, the internet is full of porn, doesnt mean i use the internet exclusively for porn.

not trying to start anything, I'm just sayin. I didn't say 360 don't like RPGs as thats been proven wrong with the likes of Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect. I said that JRPGs don't do shit on 360. Which is factual. I look at "Tales of Vesperia" selling more on the PS3(in Japan alone) than 360(globally).

And I like Copa's reasoning. For people that own both consoles the ONLY reason to get it on 360 over PS3 that I can think of would be to add to your gamerscore.

I thought Joystiq was a porn site.

Yeah I'm not following the "360 gamerz only play FPSz" thing here. It's just that less gamers play RPGs and those types of games in general. PS3 RPG sales are no better. Dragon Age moved twice as many units on the 360 as the PS3.

Likewise, Mass Effect moved enough units for them to throw gobs of money into Mass Effect 2. It, and Fallout 3 on the 360 each moved as many units as LBP or any of those other non-shooter genre games on the PS3 did, which all couldn't touch the number of units of MW2 or MGS4 moved on the PS3.

So couldn't you just as easily make the argument that PS3 owners only by FPS games too, if that's the argument you're trying to make against the 360 based on the numbers?

The top 6 selling games on both consoles are shooters. On both consoles, 7 out of the top 10 games are shooters. It's just that shooters sell better in America, on both consoles.

As a minor note, I recall reading somewhere that Gamestop had more FFXIII pre-orders for XBOX 360 than for the PS3. Couldn't tell you if that's accurate or not, but, food for thought.

I wouldn't be surprised if they do. It's very very rare nowadays that a ps3 version outsells the 360 version of a game. Fanboys can argue back and forth about disc swapping, and what platform was the lead....but regular people don't give a shit about that, and don't even know anything about it.

They just buy for the console that they play the most.

I love my 360 and all but if they come out with a ff xiii limited edition ps3, i will buy it immediately! I love my 360 but I will buy a limited edition ff13 ps3!

| 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.

Breaking News

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days

Vita 'UMD Passport' won't be offered in US 213 comments
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate 150 comments
David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update] 106 comments
EA's Origin has signed up 9.3 million players since launch 103 comments
Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear 94 comments

Final Fantasy XIII limit breaks Japanese PS3 software sales record

Reader Comments (131)

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 10:48AM Magresda said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 10:49AM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 10:57AM Magresda said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 11:16AM The Blank Mage Returns said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 11:28AM WC said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 11:37AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 11:49AM edisinsane said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 11:52AM MystileArmor said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 11:59AM Magresda said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:02PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:06PM AUserName said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:07PM Vegeta has a ps3 said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:09PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:10PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:14PM AUserName said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:15PM Vegeta has a ps3 said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:16PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:23PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:28PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:31PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:31PM Wiizer said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:33PM Vegeta has a ps3 said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:37PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:38PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:43PM Wiizer said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:49PM Dark Archon PSN Archonik XBL Dar said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 1:57PM The Blank Mage Returns said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 2:11PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 2:26PM Sordid State of Eclairs said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 2:41PM den69 said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 2:57PM Wiizer said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 3:19PM The Blank Mage Returns said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 4:33PM Railgun said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 8:05PM Morisato said

Posted: Dec 25th 2009 1:35AM I AM IRONHIDE said

Posted: Dec 25th 2009 1:58AM AUserName said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 10:49AM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 10:54AM bxgt said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 11:13AM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 11:30AM SmilinGoat said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 11:32AM copa said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 11:33AM MarkezJM said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 11:44AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:02PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:02PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:03PM Bubbameister33 said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:07PM Vcize said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:28PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:33PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:40PM latin trident said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Battleship movie adapted into FPS by Double Helix

Featured Stories

Portabliss: Time Ducks (iOS)

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate

Portabliss: Sticky Bees (iOS)

The most popular postsin the last 7 days

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days