90 percent drop is normal for rpgs. With that said, the PS5 installed base to software ratio doesn’t make sense. Over 5 million consoles sold is plenty fine for a game like rebirth to do well IMO. At this point the lack of PR from SE is concerning to me and makes me think rebirth may have underperformed some.
It's basically like the early PS2 days in Japan, where the hardware was selling like crazy, but software wasn't selling in proportion. Most Japanese were buying PS2s in the first year for its DVD playback.
Except for PS2 that resolved by the second year it was on the market as the in-demand games finally came out and steadily kept coming. The PS5 is in its
fourth year and seeing a similar problem as PS2 in its
first year, which is abnormal. The most likely culprit is a simple one: PS5 just doesn't have enough (exclusive) software to the tastes of most Japanese gamers, whereas it seems like Nintendo does.
However I'd be curious what proportion of Japanese PS5 owners are primarily using it for PS+ and F2P games; they could have a much higher concentration of such users vs. other markets, and that could explain the relatively low software sales for new releases (alongside there just not being enough new exclusives catering to their tastes).
I simply cannot understand how people are not buying Rebirth. Even if you never cared for the original and even if you haven't played the Remake first, it's such a good game on its own.
Look at it this way: if you're of gaming age in Japan, chances are you're out and about regularly. You probably can't even find a PS Portal because supply seems insanely low, so what point is there in buying a 100+ hour JRPG that you can only play when you're at home? And when you're
at home, you mainly only have enough time to change clothes, maybe watch a half-hour of TV, eat a meal and go to bed?
That's the lifestyle of a lot of Japanese school-age and working-age people nowadays; being asked to commit dozens of hours a week at home sitting at your TV to play a console game isn't something they can actually do with their schedules, so there's probably not much point in them buying the game.
If the PS Portal supply situation were a lot better in the region, though, I think that'd probably help with sales of big games like Rebirth, since you can now take your gaming session with you on the go. Sneak in a half-hour here and there during breaks, while in commute, etc.
Its the biggest drop.
Not only that but unlike XVI it did not have special editions PS5 hardware to inflate week 1 sales leading to a bigger drop in week 2. And in terms of relative numbers, it's not going to catch up, it's too far behind at this point.
FF7R Part 3 is going to be supremely low I feel, we already knew there would be diminishing returns due to the trilogy being sequels(there's historical precedent for that with X and XIII) but its still unfortunate to see.
I don't know what Square Enix's target was for this game as far as early sales, but looking at a few markets, it would seem that Rebirth sold less than XXVI in the same timespan unless US/NA showed up noticeably stronger for FF7R2.
If there in fact isn't an exclusivity deal set yet for Part 3, I can see S-E doing Day 1 for PS5/PC there and, depending on what time the game launches, PS6. I also think they're going to release Remake and Rebirth as a double-pack for Switch 2 sometime next year at or close to the system's launch. If there's a IX remake in the works, it's probably going to target PS5 & Switch 2 for Day 1.
The novelty and excitement for VII Remake definitely generated tons of buzz & attention at the time but at least in Japan it doesn't look like the energy is being maintained for retail performance of the sequel parts. And I do think that's partly down to PS5 in general having a lack of enough exclusive software appealing to the Japanese market plus the lack of a portable option.
They technically have the PS Portal, but it's in short supply, and you still need a PS5. Which would be great except they raised the price for the new model, and Japan is probably in a recession. Not a great combo.
If I'm S-E, and I'm remaining an independent 3P publisher, I'd want to give my big IP like Final Fantasy the best chance at global success. Because if I've made what everyone's considering a masterpiece, but it's seeing heavy drops compared to even what was considered a "divisive" game, then I have to figure out what the problem is.
IMO, it's not even so much exclusivity that's the issue: if previous FF games were more consistent in what they delivered, and Square-Enix themselves had a more sensible release cadence with other games the past few years (instead of rushing them out to market and seeing many of them bomb), I think Rebirth would be doing a lot better in places like Japan, even as a PS5 exclusive. So exclusivity in and of itself is not the problem here; it's only potentially a problem when combined with S-E's own handling of the IP the past couple or so entries, and other published games that came out maybe too quickly & bombed. And that's a Square-Enix problem.
However, that doesn't mean they shouldn't consider making the games more multiplatform, as long as it doesn't negatively impact the quality. So I can see them making remakes like IX Sony/Nintendo Day 1 titles, and they might make future mainline games PS/PC Day 1 but in a way where you technically need a pretty performant PC to play it Day 1 to match the PS console version, and Square-Enix probably rolling out updates to lower the minimum spec requirement on the PC side over the months following launch.
At this rate, it's what seems like the way they'd want to do things.
s.famitsu.com
nichebarrier.com
