I don't think a huge bump is in the cards, they probably peak at 20k-25k this weekend. If this was gonna pop on Steam it would have way more today.
Another PC port that'll flop? Final Fantasy 16 debuts on Steam with 1470 player count
- Thread starter Puff
- Start date
PC gaming in a nutshell, so much talking online... little people actually buying the games
They put every penny they have into their hardware!
What is left goes into Microtransations, in their live-service games.
There is indeed a certain overlap between Xbox and PC Gamers.
If 3m on PS5 doesn’t make SE happy, I doubt 1m on pc is “fine” for them, given the price difference also.
3M is not fine, bombed. Crying for months about the game.
500k is fine.
Sound reasonable
500k is fine.
Sound reasonable
How much do you think that port costed to Square Enix?
Probably anything over 500k LTD will be profitable.
But maybe that will not make them help... maybe they are expecting something like 1 million or more.
Whatever it sold on PS5 had nothing to do with how Square Enix feels about this PC port sales.
That is what you guys are missing here.
FFXVI sales underperforming on PS5 compared to others FFs doesn't mean it will underperform on PC compared to others FFs.
Apple to orange.
Like I said... iPhone sales on Brazil doesn't need to be equal to iPhone sales on US to be a success... each place has it own metrics for success.
So different standards?
The entire game development costs are thrown on Playstation 5 so 3 million is a failure.
PC is just port costs so even 500K is a success.
Let’s call this game a sales failure because of PS5 even if 90% of sales were on PS5.
if it means anything to you, as a PC gamer
the only Xbox console I own is the Xbox 360, of which I purchased used for $30 at a market. I have purchased only one single game on it since then: Infinite Undiscovery
The game development needs to be paid by the original release.
The port development needs to be paid by the port.
Whatever they profit (that can be used to recover the original dev costs… not the case of FFXVI PS5 that probably paid the dev costs already) they will be happy.
That is how it works with all games that doesn’t have multi platform releases.
Or do you believe Sony is porting their games to PC thinking in surpass PS5 sales? That is crazy… they want to pay the port and make profit from it.
Not really.
Companies like Square-Enix shoot themselves in the foot with their staggered strategy because
1: They already start talking about future ports before the initial version is even released, and
2: Their stagger is between two platforms with increasingly similar player demographics, meaning the effect of (1) amplifies a case for people to skip the initial release and wait for the port when it's at a price they want. Also...
3: Due to ease and scale of piracy on at least one of those platforms the game comes to later (PC), any amount of the potential customer base for the port could just "find ways" to access the game through alternative means. This is an inherent risk non-GAAS titles have on the platform, especially from a publisher a cross-section of PC gamers have deemed "antagonistic" towards their preferred platform.
So with those three things being true, it was forever stupid for Square-Enix to think the initial PS5 version would cover the main development costs through sales, if sales disappointed them. But the reason for that is because Square-Enix (either accidentally or on purpose) created the conditions to artificially suppress PS5 sales of the game to begin with!
If the PS-Version can't cover the cost, nothing can.
PC-Sales are only a fraction of every game they release. (Needing Denuvo to not totally bomb!)
Xbox barely buys JRPG/Asia-Games (or games in general).
Only Switch makes sense, for additional revenue.
What I don't understand is why sony funds marketing costs when people anyway will buy FF on PS. I would understand Xbox doing that but PS?
That money could be used for first party games.
That money could be used for first party games.
Sony should have bought SE, and make FF fully exclusive.
Most FF/SE Fans are PS/Switch-Players.
First you are assuming the PS5 version didn't cover the costs... it probably already did.
No company in the world expect to sell only the units to cover the costs... if you do that then you are set to have a failed business.
That doesn't mean it sales was good... the opposite it sales were lower than what you expected from a FF game.
Square Enix expected the PS5 version of the game to paid the bills and give some amount of profits... that amount of profile is probably based in what they internally expect the game to sell (full price and discounted over the years).
They probably even have a line graph showing what they expect from minimum to maximum that goes showing decreasing in sales year by year.
If the game falls below that minimum line it is indeed considered under-performing (it doesn't matter if it covered the costs or not... if it didn't it just make it a failure and not just under-performing).
The PC port is a late release... it goal is just to make profit over the game.
If a company does indeed reach the point to try to use a port profit to cover original devs costs then they are in desperation... like near bankrupt.
Their goal with the PC port is to cover the cost of the port and have an additional stream of profit.
They don't expect to sell millions when previous FFs games on PC just peaked at 1 million.
Trying to compare sales of PS5 version with PC version to define under and over performing is dumb.
PS FFs used to sell over 5 million (the biggest near 10 million).
PC FFs used to sell around 1 million (the biggest game reached 2 million).
Nobody, not even Square Enix expect PC version to sell like PS5.
That is just iconera fan fiction.