Seeing this discussion blow up everywhere else now…
What I don’t agree with is the multiplatform being the answer or the reason why it’s not doing better.
While that could be a short term solution if revenues are a concern I don’t think that’s a cause for these estimated launch numbers and comparisons to FF16 and Remake launch windows.
I don’t buy the sequel or Covid excuses either. Seems like a cop out. Did Mass Effect 2 or Halo 3 sell less because they were sequels or something?
I think IT IS worth noting that there is heavy competition in the rpg space in these first 4 months of the year alone. Yakuza, Persona 3, Granblue, Dragons Dogma and even Ronin. So if you’re an rpg gamer you may have actually chosen something else too. Then of course there’s Helldivers… which definitely stole every games thunder sotospeak.
There’s no way it won’t have legs. I refuse to believe that
Yeah on shithole forums like ResetERA you've got users like Brazil, Mr Evil 37, Korigama, Trago, PCPlasticFuzz, MJForum Poster, Rogue Blue, Iogash, and especially E.balboa (among many others) almost gloating like the game "deserved" to fail because it's a PS5 exclusive and 3P. These sorts of takes are very room temperature IQ level, if even that, because they ignore ALL the other things that've happened with the brand over the past 10-15 years.
Basically, while I wouldn't rule out that PS5 exclusivity has become a limiting factor, it's only a smaller part of the reasoning and even then, only became a notable potential reason when other factors aside from it compounded over time, factors ultimately pointing back to Square-Enix's history of handling the IP over the past 15 years.
To put it simply, Rebirth is probably paying some sort of price for prior entries having increasingly alienated or divided parts of the fandom with design changes and whiplash going from one extreme to the other between certain installments, as well as some not delivering on earlier promises. I'd say FF XIII arguably started this, and XV continued it especially so (certainly in part because it was originally going to be a 7th gen release). While VII Remake seemed to satisfy a lot of people, I know that some didn't necessarily like all of the changes, and XVI seemed divisive to big parts of the fanbase despite its quality.
I think over time, all of these things might have compounded on each other and is probably the single biggest factor for slower-than-anticipated sales of Rebirth IF any of this speculation is even true. People who might've been Day 1 diehards back in the PS3 era could have fallen out of that with the modern day version of the franchise. It's very possible for that to have been the case. Huge stylistic changes for an established IP can work; GOW 2018 and Ragnarok have proven as such, same with BOTW and TOTK. However I'd also argue the fanbases for those games were maybe more open to bigger shifts, AND the wider public might just be more receptive of traditionally action-heavy games still basically retaining that blueprint but having changes in things like POV perspective (GOW) or shift to a more open-world structure (BOTW).
Maybe the expanded market for a traditionally turn-based/limited action-based JRPG series going more fully action-RPG (especially for a remake that was still mostly turn-based with limited action-like elements through the ATB) isn't as large as the expanded market for say a Zelda or God of War making such big shifts in their own designs. If that's the case, then it just kinda is what it is, and suddenly dumping games like Rebirth on multiple platforms Day 1 isn't going to magically boost sales numbers by several orders of magnitude.
Though just the same, it could be more due to perception of what FF's roots are to the wider market and Square-Enix still needing to find the optimal way to communicate a translation of that to a different style that more of the wider market jump in to. But, they have to be consistent with it, meaning going forward they need more games like Rebirth and less games like XV.
