FF7 Rebirth was Japan's no.1 selling game for March. Ampere data suggests it has sold around 2 Million copies. |UP| Analysts says it's underperforming

[Gamernyc78]

4/13

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is "underperforming", says industry analyst​

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is "underperforming", says industry analyst

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has reportedly sold "about half" the sales of its predecessor Remake in the same timeframe.That…

www.eurogamer.net

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Also...

Aanalysis firm Ampere has been doing for recent PS5 exclusive Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Square Enix has yet to provide any concrete information on how well Rebirth has sold, but PS5 daily active user data suggests that it's surpassed at least 2 million copies since its launch on the 29th February.

So, how does that compare to other big budget Final Fantasy games released over recent years? Well, for starters, Final Fantasy 7 Remake — the original PS4 version, and Rebirth's predecessor — managed 3.5 million sales in just three days.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy 16 — which had Square Enix sending mixed messages with regards to its success versus the publisher's expectations — sold 3 million at launch. Like Rebirth, it was also a PS5 exclusive.

Ampere Analysis

Source via Pushsquare

 

[Etifilio]

so it's not good... the game underperformed compared to 16, this is so sad, this game deserved 1M in the first week, Sony needs a PS5 handheld ASAP

 

[Vertigo]

Launching two mainline FF games in less than a year may have hurt eachother for launch. Rebirth should have better legs tho.

 

[Swift_Star]

so it's not good... the game underperformed compared to 16, this is so sad, this game deserved 1M in the first week, Sony needs a PS5 handheld ASAP

It's good because it's Japan, people are not buying PS5 games there. Despite all that, it sold more than all of other PS5 games at launch, that includes hogwarts and resident evil 4.
Context is key.

 

[Box]

It's good because it's Japan, people are not buying PS5 games there. Despite all that, it sold more than all of other PS5 games at launch, that includes hogwarts and resident evil 4.
Context is key.

Who care about Japan though, their economy and birth rates have been stagnant for decades. It's a dying market.

Sony needs to focus on growth markets

 

[Killer_Sakoman]

Japan is no longer relevant

 

[AllBizness]

Launching two mainline FF games in less than a year may have hurt eachother for launch. Rebirth should have better legs tho.

Yep, I still haven't finished FF16, gotta space them out a little more. These are huge games especially if you play the side content like I do.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

It's good because it's Japan, people are not buying PS5 games there. Despite all that, it sold more than all of other PS5 games at launch, that includes hogwarts and resident evil 4.
Context is key.

Context can only get you so far, though. Games like Rebirth need to hit certain revenue targets in order to hit certain profit targets to justify the increases in their budgets and marketing. It being one of PS5's top performing games in Japan doesn't mean much when the bar is as low as it seems to be.

I think both Square-Enix and Sony are at fault for perhaps not addressing as many needs for the Japanese gaming market as they should've. Square-Enix WRT releasing too many FF games in a short span of time (and maybe also some backlash for design decisions from previous entries), and Sony WRT not providing either a proper portable for the market or not providing enough PS Portals alongside sensible pricing for it & the PS5 in the country (considering you need a PS5 to use the Portal).

Like I didn't think weekly averages for PS5 in Japan would drop below 40K yet the past several weeks now they've been struggling to do 25K between SKUs. And whereas it was 2:1 between Switch and PS5 in Japan last year, now it's increased closer to 3:1.

How do you lose ground to an aging handheld that's already pushed something like 40 million in that same market?

 

[Gamernyc78]

As long as it covers its dev budget and is profitable its a success. I'm sure it will.

 

[Zzero]

Context can only get you so far, though. Games like Rebirth need to hit certain revenue targets in order to hit certain profit targets to justify the increases in their budgets and marketing. It being one of PS5's top performing games in Japan doesn't mean much when the bar is as low as it seems to be.

I think both Square-Enix and Sony are at fault for perhaps not addressing as many needs for the Japanese gaming market as they should've. Square-Enix WRT releasing too many FF games in a short span of time (and maybe also some backlash for design decisions from previous entries), and Sony WRT not providing either a proper portable for the market or not providing enough PS Portals alongside sensible pricing for it & the PS5 in the country (considering you need a PS5 to use the Portal).

Like I didn't think weekly averages for PS5 in Japan would drop below 40K yet the past several weeks now they've been struggling to do 25K between SKUs. And whereas it was 2:1 between Switch and PS5 in Japan last year, now it's increased closer to 3:1.

How do you lose ground to an aging handheld that's already pushed something like 40 million in that same market?

How is a Portal supposed to help in Japan, doesn't it stop working after you leave the vicinity of your PS5?

Anyways, bad numbers but the main culprit to me is that they divided FF7 into parts. Who wants to jump onto a story halfway through? And they are still paying for the big twist that the ladt one put in.

 

[TubzGaming]

BAD SALES!

FF16: sold 336,027
FF7 Rebirth: sold 310,596 - Number 1 best selling game in Japan for the month of March.

Difference - 25.431

Oh no Final Fantasy DOA

Final Fantasy VII World wide Total sales - 15,251,183 | Japan Total - 3,447,500
Final Fantasy VII Remake World wide Total sales - 7,000,000+ | Japan Total - 1,400,000

Are more sales better? Depends on the games budget and set internal goals.
With (Almost) every game that gets sequels sales will / do drop off the more they make.
If the companies are happy with the sales what does it matter.

But oh i forgot Final Fantasy is mentioned so Never mind.

 

[Gamernyc78]

How is a Portal supposed to help in Japan, doesn't it stop working after you leave the vicinity of your PS5?

Anyways, bad numbers but the main culprit to me is that they divided FF7 into parts. Who wants to jump onto a story halfway through? And they are still paying for the big twist that the ladt one put in.

No it does not stop working. It's remote play and as long as you have a wifi connection you can use it anywhere. I use mine 150 miles or so away from my PS5 as long as I'm at a location with wifi.

 

[Airbus]

Japan is no longer relevant

Compared to its neightboor? Korea, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philipine, etc? We keep talking about japan but never talk about the other countries

 

[Hezekiah]

Not bad when you consider Dragon's Dogma came out three weeks later.

 

[Killer_Sakoman]

Compared to its neightboor? Korea, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philipine, etc? We keep talking about japan but never talk about the other countries

What do they have to do with Japan? Japan's console market used to compare to NA and entire Euro. Japanese developers used to make console games for Japan only because they used to sell millions upon millions. Not anymore. Capcom, From and SE all dependent on western markets to sell their games.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

How is a Portal supposed to help in Japan, doesn't it stop working after you leave the vicinity of your PS5?

No, otherwise it'd be a worthless product. You can use your home PS5 basically like a server as long as it's on, and use an available network wherever you are (like your phone's hotspot) as the midpoint.

Pretty cool in that regard TBH.

Anyways, bad numbers but the main culprit to me is that they divided FF7 into parts. Who wants to jump onto a story halfway through? And they are still paying for the big twist that the ladt one put in.

I don't think dividing into parts was a bad idea at all. The problem may be that it's divided into parts and uninformed people have the perception it's a single $70 game broken up into three $70 games where each part only has 1/3 of the "normal" amount of content (as one example).

Some just can't get it out of their head that the remakes are adding a ton of extra stuff to each installment, they aren't just "1:1" remakes in terms of the amount of content vs. the original release.

BAD SALES!

FF16: sold 336,027
FF7 Rebirth: sold 310,596 - Number 1 best selling game in Japan for the month of March.

Difference - 25.431

Oh no Final Fantasy DOA

Final Fantasy VII World wide Total sales - 15,251,183 | Japan Total - 3,447,500
Final Fantasy VII Remake World wide Total sales - 7,000,000+ | Japan Total - 1,400,000

Are more sales better? Depends on the games budget and set internal goals.
With (Almost) every game that gets sequels sales will / do drop off the more they make.
If the companies are happy with the sales what does it matter.

But oh i forgot Final Fantasy is mentioned so Never mind.

You said "almost" every sequel, yet for most major games (FF would be included in that) the tendency is the sequels sell more than the original unless something disrupts things.

TOTK massively outsold BOTW launch-aligned and will likely sell more than it LTD once a Switch 2 version is released. GOW Ragnarok outsold 2018 launch-aligned and will likely sell more LTD. HFW was selling faster than HZD launch-aligned but then Sony threw it into PS+ which massively crippled B2P sales, something they've outright admitted.

But anyway, I wasn't mentioning what I said to imply Rebirth is a sales failure at all. I'm just saying given its likely budget and marketing costs, not to mention unanimous praise, I'd of hoped it had bigger debut numbers than XVI in Japan because even if it has legs, the legs don't look like they'll be as strong as XVIs', meaning overall the sales could be below that game's.

And no publisher wants to see critically better games performing worst in the sales market than prior installment, otherwise they might interpret the wrong type of feedback and throw out good ideas along the way. It's happened before with many games, it'll happen again in the future. It would be nice for Rebirth to get a gust of sales boost in Japan and other markets (there are quite a few markets where it's underperformed to various degrees compared to XVI and Remake) before ports come about, but at this point it seems more likely that boost in sales won't come until at least a PC port arrives.

Which, unfortunately, invites a ton of disingenuous and nasty discourse from people in certain fanbases (Steam/PC and Xbox, in this case) in doing so :/

 

[Airbus]

What do they have to do with Japan? Japan's console market used to compare to NA and entire Euro. Japanese developers used to make console games for Japan only because they used to sell millions upon millions. Not anymore. Capcom, From and SE all dependent on western markets to sell their games.

Those are the past were talking about curent japan

Japan is a shrinking market with declining and aging population 130 m+ and keep getting lower day by day

Maybe these analyst should try and do more research on country with giant population like china, india, pakistan, indonesia, brazil etc

 

[Killer_Sakoman]

Those are the past were talking about curent japan

Japan is a shrinking market with declining and aging population 130 m+ and keep getting lower day by day

Maybe these analyst should try and do more research on country with giant population like china, india, pakistan, indonesia, brazil etc

Historically, China is not a big console market. Other countries you mentioned don't have money to eat. Middle east is rising

 

[Evilnemesis8]

BAD SALES!

FF16: sold 336,027
FF7 Rebirth: sold 310,596 - Number 1 best selling game in Japan for the month of March.

Difference - 25.431

I do think that the doom and glooming about FF is a bit overblown at times but the the tweet is comparing FW sales of FFXVI versus 5 tracking weeks of FF7R Part 2, it's not an apple to apple comparison.



FW FXVI:
[PS5] Final Fantasy XVI # <RPG> (Square Enix) {2023.06.22} (¥9.000) - 336.027 / NEW <80-100%>
FW FF7R2:
01./00. [PS5] Final Fantasy VII Rebirth <RPG> (Square Enix) {2024.02.29} (¥8.980) - 262.656 / NEW <60-80%>

FW difference: 73.371


5 weeks FFXVI(June 19-Jul 23):
Week 26 (Jun 19 - Jun 25)
Week 27 (Jun 26 - Jul 02)
Week 28 (Jul 03 - Jul 09)
Week 29 (Jul 10 - Jul 16)

Week 30 (Jul 17 - Jul 23)
09./04. [PS5] Final Fantasy XVI # <RPG> (Square Enix) {2023.06.22} (¥9.000) - 4.904 / 401.376 <80-100%> (-43%)

5 weeks FF7R2(Feb 26-Mar 31):

Week 9(Feb 26 - Mar 3)
Week 10(Mar 4 - Mar 10)
Week 11(Mar 11 to Mar 17)
Week 12(Mar18 to Mar 24)

Week 13(March 25 to March 31st)
13./08. [PS5] Final Fantasy VII Rebirth <RPG> (Square Enix) {2024.02.29} (¥8.980) - 4.840 / 310.596 <80-100%> (-32%)


5 week diff: 90,780

 

[Airbus]

Historically, China is not a big console market. Other countries you mentioned don't have money to eat. Middle east is rising

Didnt have money is a big insult those are the new emerging giant economics

I dont understand with the obsession with these japan reports ( an ageing country with declining population)