Japanese Final Fantasy 16 Sales Plummet by 90% in Second Week

Japan doesn’t really care about console games like that anymore.

@4kgk2 evidently, I wonder what a mainline ff would sell like if it was exclusive to the switch 🤔

actually less of a plummet percentage wise compared to ff7 and ff15. Not suprising

@4kgk2 Judging by those PS5 numbers they don't care about Sony lol

Square spent so much time trying to cater to a “wider audience”, they forgot to appeal to their home audience.

What the analyst is saying is: Without the preview and the demo, FF16 would have get a more focused attention and hype. Without this hype, it suffered.

@Mikey856

We’re all adult children! IT’S VIDEO GAMES!

I’m honestly convinced it’s because they’ve left behind the Switch. I’ve not really been that hot on the game so far either though. It does some things really really well, Clive’s actor does a great job, but there’s some truly shocking creative decisions and the combat is yet to grip me. I’ll probably finish it off over the weekend.

Day 1 or subscription service are the 2 best options for video games. Anything in between is a waste of time and/or money.

Maybe it shouldn't it have the name FF, just like the last 3 ACs, they'd be great with all new names. That cover looks DMC, main character in gauntlets and all, what happened to the weird but unique clothing Tidus and them wear...

Word of mouth should help in the following weeks. The problem with this game is it tries to become more of a western style RPG than JRPG. It was a good solution too, crossing with DMC design by actually bringing in DMC's combat designer. In that same right it does kind of change the nature of the game. I love this game, one of the best Final Fantasy games, though I do hope they do attempt to walk these design decisions back to be more like FF7 Remake which is the superior game. A hell of a lot more strategy to the game especially on hard mode. This is another case where the combat like with FF12, FF13, and FF15 should hav ebeen a spinoff and not a mainline entry.

Understandable, a game inspired by Game of Thrones is hardly going to be appealing in Japan. In saying that the game is very Final Fantasy and has references to so many past entries. Im sure sales will do fine worldwide though.

Will be interesting to see DQXII as they're going for a darker more serious tone for that game as well

@TheArt It should have had the name, just not a mainline entry. This is just as much a Final Fantasy as FFT is. It's a fantastic game.

@Cherip-the-Ripper Imagine FF16 as a Switch exclusive. It would sell 5x as much in Japan and more than 2x as much worldwide. This is a question SE executives will also ask themselves.

I don't understand the point of these articles if digital isn't counted?

Well Master Detective Archives is a damn good game, been switching between that and FF16 over the last 6 days and I have to say these two games are my top two games of the year so far, and yes that means bumping Zelda down to third.

Clive is a real man so of course they won’t play it. If he wore a school uniform and was 15 years old it would be successful

@Splat I'm pretty sure the Japanese charts track digital as well.

Its says on famitsu about there tracking

The estimated number of sales in this ranking is the sum of package software, download cards, and pre-installed versions of the main unit.

@UltimateOtaku91 Fair enough. It's getting real confusing what's tracked and what isnt.

@KaijuKaiser Funny enough the main guy in Master Detective Archives is around that age and dresses up as a girl in school uniform in one of the chapters 😂

@Max_the_German Good luck getting it to run on the Switch.

I'm quite surprised this game was so critically well received. After playing it, it feels half-baked. There are certain aspects that are really good, mainly the narrative and characters, and others that feel thrown together. I'm a big fan of narrative games, but what they have on this is that they are sold as such. This was sold as an RPG and it's a really, really shallow one, if one at all.

If this was an animated film or animated tv show, it would be great, but as a video game it doesn't hit the mark for me.

@Shepherd_Tallon Doom & gloom gets clicks.
The second week drops for past mainline FF were:

•FF16- 88.76%
•FF7R- 89.95%
•FF15- 88.88%

The big qualifier here is though is that 7R & 15 were holiday releases, so they had much larger week 1 numbers.
FF16 is a summer release & going up against Zelda.
It will probably have a much longer tail than 15. That game was on sale within a month.

@Shepherd_Tallon That list is including the digital sales, see above comment.

@Shepherd_Tallon The demo did have a GoT vibe to it but I felt like that disappeared fairly quickly after the opening hours. Once it gets into the high fantasy element it’s much more like the FF of old. Sad that their audience didn’t enjoy it but then again it’s always been a very strange market.

As long as they sold enough to make FF17.

The lack of digital sales data makes the chart worthless

@Max_the_German If Nintendo's next system is at least slightly close to the PS5 in power I don't think even Sony's millions to SE will prevent them from jumping ship to Nintendo.

@Shepherd_Tallon It’s very much in line with the series drops & the JRPG drop from week 1->2. They’re extremely front loaded.

I imagine that there are plenty of people out there as well that would like to play it but just can’t.
I’m in that boat myself. Not buying a PS5 until I finish the PS4 backlog😅.

@Juanalf If it's portable it won't be.

@Juanalf FF16 could be on the today’s Switch. SE would have chosen an art direction which could be more like MH Rise (and could be more interesting and distinctive than what we got now).

@Vivisapprentice I am very curious to see what DQXII is going to look like. I would love to see DQ evolve a little, but I can't imagine them doing away with turn-based combat and a lot of its existing tropes. I also think they can have a more "mature" plot line that still the graphics and hijinks the franchise is known for.

195 countries on this earth and we only see probabaly 3 of them with 1 of the 3 being physical charts only. I'd hazard a guess one thing that will remain constant worldwide is the success of the Switch sales and its games but nowhere near as dominant as it is in Japan every week. PS5 and Xbox Series consoles will be a much better match in other countries no doubt. 192 countries we don't know about, let that sink in for a while

I played what basically was "Attack on Titan" boss fight in FF16. Cranked up the battle music, big smile on my face. Amazing!

Japan will be 9% of the PS5 base at best (just like PS4)... no need to cater to their taste.

Outside FF top 10 is all CARTOONS!... one is straight up a cartoon Digital Novel 🤦‍♂️

Hogwarts Legacy sold 31K, SF6 33K and Jedi 16K in week 1 in Japan. The market is monotone.

@tgpitts11 have you ever seen Japanese culture lol odd

@Agramonte SF6 did that terribly there? Wow

Well, I did the first major harpy flavoured massive boss battle last night, the one after all the other little big boss battles, and followed by the absolutely gargantuan boss battle.

Hopefully a lot more people get to experience it in time because it's really quite fun 😁

It's clearly influenced by GoT, GoW and TW3 (oh, poor Gerulf) but it doesn't feel western beyond that, it still feels like a very, very Japanese game.

It looks like a slow week all over on Japan though. Master detective only sold 55k. Worth waiting a month or so to get a real picture.

On another note that master detective game is really a sign of how Sony has lost that grip on the japanese market that made them stand out for me.

The game was made by the developers behind the excellent danganronpa series which started out as a psp and then vita exclusive before going to more platforms fairly recently. Thats the kind of game i liked to see coming exclusively to Sony consoles as it made the platform stand out from the competition. Whereas now nintendo have jumped into that space. Shame really.

FF16 in a nutshell.

Go to Hideaway. Talk to the gang.

Go to a province town. Do some menial tasks for an npc who gives you a seal that lets you progress to the next story quest.

Go through a linear dungeon and battle an eikon at the end in a spectacular showpiece broken up with cutscenes and QTEs.

Return to Hideaway.

Repeat until the end.

@Max_the_German But then there would have been complaints about the Switch holding it back. They could have released it for PS4 but they chose not to because they made the game that they wanted to make and will have known the consequences of limiting it to PS5 (for now).

@KaijuKaiser

On PS5. Well PS4 sold another 12K (corrected 33K)

@ApostateMage You could do this to any game ever made. Every game follows a gameplay loop, even the best ones ever made. You didn’t like it obviously and some did that’s the difference. One of my favorite games in the last few years is Returnal but I could reduce it down to. Shoot monsters, advance to next biome, die, do it all again.

@Agramonte I didn’t realize it did so terribly there. SF is such an iconic Japanese game. I assumed at the very least 100k easy. That really sucks. It really is true that Nintendo pretty much has a monopoly there at this point.

Roughly 10% of Japanese PS5 owners have bought the game so far. That's not terrible for something that doesn't have the sort of broad popularity of a Monster Hunter, Splatoon, or Animal Crossing title, and that is also a pretty big departure from previous, more explicitly Japanese entries.

I think some fans (not just within the Japanese market), read through the wall of positive mainstream review scores and made the decision to hold off based on aspects of the game that just weren't great and thus not worth a full price buy. For them, myself included: terrible side quests, 70% cutscenes, and empty linear environs ushering you between the button mashing of a few mobs was too much of a letdown to be made up for by the great story telling and flashy boss fights.

Granted I will likely "play," well statistically more so watch most of the game at some point, but not until it's at least half off or on ps plus. I wanted this game to be up my alley, but it really came down to a simple case of pros and cons based on my preferences, and the cons simply won out.
Glad I really looked into the games shortcomings when they more honestly trickled in a few days after release because I initially had intended to get this day one.

It’s clearly more designed for western tastes (sadly) so what do they expect? Seems a great game don’t get me wrong.

@KundaliniRising333 You didn’t even buy the game. You’ve said that you “dodged a bullet” by not buying it so what are you on about when you said for myself I disliked the following….. why lie? At least play a game and then if you don’t like it you’re entitled to your opinion. No the game is. It 70 percent cutscenes. Where are you getting this from? I just finished it last night and I have maybe 10 hours of my 60 hour gameplay that was cutscene or dialogue scene

It's not that big of a deal. Yes, it is clear that Final Fantasy isn't as big in Japan as it used to be, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that so many Japanese people ignore anything other than portable. Final Fantasy XVI has still done good worldwide, shipping over 3 million copies in the first week and it being the best selling PS5 exclusive.

A bit sad to see. It's been a great game for the most part so far. A bit rough around the edges but nothing too terrible. I'm interested to see if Square does the usual"Did not meet expectations." song and dance again here soon.

Nobody is talking about the abysmal Tokyo Xanadu numbers. 5k in its launch week? Damn, they shouldn't have even bothered porting it from the PS4.

I am loving the game. I am a FF fan and I think that DMC V is a masterpiece. So mixing FF storytelling with DMC battle system is a dream come true. (My favourite FF since IX to be honest) But I understand the people that argued that “it’s not a final fantasy because of the combat” I still don’t understand the modern aversion to Turn based battles, but I’d rather have a full on action game like XVI, and not some Frankestein mix like XV or VII remake. Let’s hope Dragon Quest XII remains a classic JRPG.

@Kevw2006 Yes, SE obviously did this decision, and maybe Sony encouraged them to do so (with signs of gratitude, aka technical, marketing and other support). „Holding a game back by Switch“ is an argument most gamers don’t care at all, they just buy and enjoy the game. MH Rise was a clever move by Capcom, targeting their core audience. SE should do the same.

I mean it makes sense.

I haven’t bought the game yet but I did play through the demo. It’s fantastic, at least what I played. But it feels like it was made for someone like me to a certain extent, a westerner with a love of political intrigue and a time period and world clearly based on Europe and the Arab world circa the First Crusade.

@Shepherd_Tallon Yh I’ve got Kingdom Hearts 3 & Nioh 2 as physical in my backlog, but I have a ton of PS4 games through Extra & Plus I want to at least check out before I move on.
Having said that if a new Uncharted came out I’d move on…👀

Well, if you care to observe the data, instead of overthinking and "explaining" why FF16 is not JRPG and else... 1) Switch – 24,118 (19,421,983) vs PlayStation 5 – 44,967 (3,318,567), which means 20 millions > 3 millions, that's 6 times difference?, Japan loves Switch, that's a fact... 2)FF16 is the only PS5 tittle in the list, all the rest is Switch, so... Japan is not market for PS5, such is life...

@Agramonte Nintendo own’s Japan. That is why Sony has gone so western over the years. Nintendo Switch 2 in Japan will be a huge deal and if it hits the rumored PS4-PS4 Pro level graphics. That will be just enough to get some better titles on it and it could grow even more. I have all 3 console’s and Switch see’s the least amount of play. But i do respect what they did with it. They built themselves a money machine.

@Max_the_German The tiny maps with not much happening on MH Rise work well for that but they would be terrible for a game like final fantasy where people expect a vast world to explore.FF16 may not be open world but it does have vast areas that are absolutely stunning to look at.

It just generally seems like a swing and a miss to me. A great misjudgement with respect to whom this game might actually appeal. Is it for a Japanese audience, or a western (British, American, Cont. European) audience? Because, from what I've seen, it struggles to appeal to either.

Well I mean it's not really a Final Fantasy game. It's an action game with Final Fantasy flavoring. I don't get what's so hard to understand about this. It can both be a good game and also not really be a Final Fantasy game.

@kyleforrester87 It's probably going to be the hardest GOTY for me personally in years. As of today I would go FF16 but who knows tomorrow. I have greatly enjoyed this year.

Probably the most hilarious part of all this is seeing sakaguchi, yoshi p, soken, plus many other top dogs at SE, just continuing to celebrate the games launch, celebrating its sales milestone, enjoying the game for themselves, still doing interviews like normal. Meanwhile you have people like this going around spreading the vitriol that they do. Only FF can attract this lvl of toxicity lol

Not surprised a western tone/more Game of Thrones and dark fantasy game angle for FF series wasn't going to sell to the Japanese and is fairly well for the western audience it was intended for so good on Square. But still for the week, the platforms, the interest in it from customers and more. A fair amount of factors here but good to see some games get the spotlight though as well.

I've had interest more in Diofield Chronicle/Valkyria Elysium (may Triangle Strategy/Tactics Ogre Reborn too) now that they are cheaper but still paying the 'new' price to still contribute something as their tactics/hack n slash approaches are more my thing that Square made and I barely play Square games at all so it's something different for me then just researching their games or trying a few here and there of FF, DQ and certain others.

It was intended for the western market and that's clear. Their marketing, to their design to their goal to stay afloat and needing western sales I'm not surprised. Their making some interesting attempts I'd say just as much as Front Mission Evolved years ago or Sega with Vanquish/Binary Domain and well Yakuza and others just appealing as they do.

From the theming, to the cinematic story angle (that I can't stand in Sony games anymore). The combat and such sure it's DMC like but if the rest doesn't appeal it doesn't change much.

Says a lot when many of the people that worked on Danganronpa for the Rain Code game which may still be AA sells more than FF16 says enough to me (granted the week, and platforms, and other factors so far of course). It's more up their alley besides even being on Switch. It's more up my alley then FF16 is even if I don't mind Japanese takes on western games and the combat it's not my kind of theming/RPG depth either. I've tried a few FF games and know people that play them but not for me.

@SuntannedDuck2 It didn’t sell more though, this is not the launch week of FFXVI. It sold over 350,000 copies last week

@KaijuKaiser Ah ok. Thanks for that.

@SuntannedDuck2 Still nice it see smaller games succeed though. I play a lot of AA and indie games too. Looking forward to Sea of Stars and Wrestle Quest

@Agramonte I know which fight you're talking about and man was it amazing as all hell!

Having played almost every FF game, it’s Final Fantasy to the core. They change aspects of every game and no two FF games are identical. Problem really is Japan has moved on from console beyond Switch.

As for me, this is easily becoming one of the top 3 FF games for me. Sure the side quests aren’t great, but there are a few so far that I genuinely found fascinating (I won’t spoil it but the boy and the wolf one told an interesting tale). And the combat is incredible; not all FF games are turn based not need to be (ATB is arguably not turn based as you just can’t sit there and expect to not die).

FFXVI is a great game I think in the long term it will still do well. It's one of the better entries since FFX for me. Some people make things worse than what it sounds. Combat people weren't sure with and FF after FFX has had a identity crisis. FFXVI for me is miles better than FFXIII and FFXV.

@KaijuKaiser Completely agree.

Sadly, it seems the move to complete action combat and no classic party system did have some consequences.
The game is great and i enjoy it, but i am also ok with the fanbase having said no to completely leaving turn based behind.

For me, the text size overall has no size setting, it’s a turn off trying to read. As big as it is, it feels rushed, no extra dungeons, nothing paramount to explore. Land is mostly traversible without a chocobo. No fishing, No mini games, no optional areas. Main character isn’t likable, time skip, no passion, and no party members.

It’s a great action game in the FF universe, but not even collectibles dot the field. Makes the game lackluster in terms of a FF RPG.

👀

(Maniacal laughter)

I ended up finding the tone too dark and violent, and wasn't a fan of all the swearing personally. The gratuitous violence wore me down in the end

Well on the contrary to these negative people in the comments, I have enjoyed my time with the game and have basically made my PS5 a Final Fantasy machine. All I need is 13 and tactics remastered and I’ll be set for life.

@NEStalgia After 2 hours in I will say this is the most RPG game of any RPG game ever made. So much RPG that I don’t know what to do with it.

@Constable_What @KaijuKaiser I did actually enjoy parts of the game, the first third was great stuff. It was after the second time skip where I thought the game started to become tiresome. It has its pacing issues with all the back and forth that Clive does and because it's just fast travelling between hubs, it doesn't really feel much like a journeyed adventure across Valisthea at all.
I also thought that the game lacked a little charm. Clive was okay as a protagonist but barring a few exceptions, he had nobody to bounce off and i thought he lacked in charisma for it. There was always Jill but she was about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.

This is just my opinion anyway.

@FatalBubbles Pssh, after 2 hours in you haven't even hit the title screen yet.

@ApostateMage I agree about the characters, though I did like Clive's uncle, he was a hoot.
You're right about it not feeling like a grand adventure, jumping from spot to spot kinda felt like an old PSP game, like Peace Walker or old Monster Hunter. It definitely takes away that feeling of a great journey.

In direct correlation, copium usage amongst FFXVI fans is 90% increased.

@NEStalgia I did!!! That was 30 min ago.

Square decided to cater much more to western audiences with this one so it's only natural that Japanese people don't jive with it as much. To me the game is Final Fantasy in name only but if that's the way Square wants to go then whatever.

Japanese market is just weird lol and you lose some you gain some, the game is just amazing and it's a massive success for square and we're all proud and thankful for it (except for the framerate ) 😂😅

@KaijuKaiser I literally said I held off in buying it. My entire comment was based on why myself. And. Many others were turned off from picking the game up during it's release window. Wtf,.. did you read my comment or just saw it was me and once again felt the urge to respond all agro over someone whom has differing opinions than your own.

The game is literally 11 hours minimum of cutscenes and that's not even accounting for in game cuts, qte/on rails eikon sequences, and the aspects of the game where you are just walking and talking.... To get to the next cutscenes or in game cut.. Lmfao. So sure it may not be exactly 70%, but it's a lot. Despite that it's what is on offer in between those that make the game not worth it for me personally.

Once again, I hate to break it ro you kaiser, but opinions other than your own exist, and that's OK. Diversity is OK man. Chill.

@KundaliniRising333 You literally spent more time posting and reading up on this game than the time it would have taken you to do one playthrough. I just don't know why you hate on things so much, especially games you haven't even experienced yourself. It's just bizarre dude.

I don't care if someone has a different opinion than me, what I do care is someone spreading false information about a game they haven't even tried. Now you're already walking back your comment about it being 70% cutscenes. Hey, guess what? It's a massive RPG in the FF franchise. How is anyone shocked that it has a lot of this? Ever play FFX? FFXIII? It's far from the first to do this. You're being a reactionary as are a lot of haters. In a few years from now people will look back on this game and feel proud of it carrying the name. It's the best one in over a decade by far.

As for it being linear, sure that's fair. It is a very linear game but there's nothing wrong with that. It's a choice the developers made because they believe that the story is that important and they prioritized big set pieces over exploration. You can go play Tears of the Kingdom if that is what you want from a game. Nothing wrong with that.

Again, not opposed to different opinions. I just dislike the hate that you constantly show for this game, one that you have no intention of even playing. If you spent 35 hours doing a playthrough and walked away unimpressed then fair enough but that isn't the case here.

@ApostateMage At least you played the game and I understand your criticism of Jill. I did think that she was a bit underutilized. I laughed a couple of times when she was just sitting on the sidelines being ignored during an important cutscene. It's like, "Hello! It's been a while since you've seen me! Can anyone say something?"

She had a couple of cool moments (no pun intended) but overall she didn't have a satisfying character arc imo. The game is definitely all about Clive which is okay I guess.

It's funny how when FF 13 was releasing the clamouring was that Turned based games were of the past. Now an Action game FF is "too far removed from the Final Fantasy of the past" Meanwhile Octopath Traveler 2 could barely sell 1 Million in 4 months on 4 platforms!

You can beat the game tapping square endlessly and using R1 when the boss tells you by swinging his weapons. Not surprised it sold all its copies immediately and then dropped.

I am close to completing it and while it’s enjoyable I won’t remember this game in a few months.

@Shepherd_Tallon Sometimes it's good that there is some change. The one game I really disliked was 15, way to much expansions plus I heard a ton of content was left out.

@jimbouk yes let’s ban people who’s opinion I don’t agree with… melt

@jimbouk so you would advocate for repealing free speech here for no other reason than Me offering an opinion that differs from your own. One that is not hateful, but instead highlighting aspects of game design that compelled me to pass on the game.

This is absurd. I hope you understand what you and the other few that attack anything I say that differs from your opinion, is in fact the only actual negativity and hate that is occurring. If I was merely adding quips to bait or seeking out and directly attacking others that's one thing (what is happening by you and others here). Yet I'm literally forum bullied merely for not conforming to your desired group think.

Trolling would better apply to the individuals whom sift through these forums merely to attack anyone who doesn't like what you do or advocates for better.

It's this behavior that should be moderated because it's actually against the rules stated for the push Square comment section rules. Missing in those rules is the "report someone for not liking or hyping a game I like"

this is getting very close to a form of targeted harassment at this point.

@UltimateOtaku91 via gematsu.com link "Famitsu has published its estimated physical game software"

This is why I hope that SE never move away from making games for Nintendo systems. I'm certain they're thinking the exact same too.

Well they're missing out. It's excellent.

Ouch, for Japan that’s a huge drop off.

Now, I'm enjoying the game but is it Final Fantasy? I can't say I've played many of the last entries properly.

I wish we could return to the turn based battles.

@RudeAnimat0r yeah they wouldn't be able to change the formula too much, can't imagine they'd try and do a realistic slime