Takeaway from FFVII Rebirth's underperformance

Wow, the sales are horrible in Japan and mid everywhere else. Not good for a big hyped up AAA title.

SquareEnix simply put, overestimated the popularity of FFVII, and foolishly instead of releasing a proper remake, made a trilogy of it instead with controversial story changes. Instead of being inviting to new players like a proper single game remake could have been, it limits its audience only to its fans with story changes and alterations, and dividing them. FFVII has also been oversaturated, with SquareEnix getting less and less returns from all their spinoffs. Nevermind that, people moved on from FFVII and the series as a whole, slipping into a mid tier AAA franchise after its dominance in the late 90's, early 2000's.

The games media also overestimated its popularity and its importance. This is one of the few times a very hyped up AAA title doesn't do as well as people thought. The game was also clearly overrated by games media, who ignored aspects of the game that other games get criticized for, like Rise of the Ronin. It was also overcovered, with constant media coverage flooding gaming websites with article after article. No wonder there was review bias for the game. And with that level of hype, the game performed poorly.

Games media cannot make a game succeed, players do, and right now, outside of some fans, gamers are not buying into FFVII Rebirth.

Its a brainless ubisoft game with ultra poor writing. Why would it do well?

@texasgoldrush:

1. SE should not have agreed to make the game a PS5 exclusive. Now, even if they do release it on PC or Xbox, it's already been tainted (because #2).
2. SE should not have said stupid things like "if you want to play it, go buy a PS5."
3. "Remakes" should not be made anymore. Original content is proving to be the better money maker.
4. Sony continues it's trend of paying for exclusivity of underwhelming titles - either by quality (Rise of the Ronin, Forespoken), marketability (FF), or both.

God, if only there were another global event forcing people to not leave their homes and instead stay inside to play video games, like there was in 2020.

Never seen someone spend so much time on something they haven't touched and don't care for.

Pretty miserable.

I think the previous leadership is largely to blame for making a broad deal beyond just the original PS4 game's exclusivity arrangement. I'd say I hope whatever Sony gave them in compensation was adequate for its floundering sales, but I doubt that. This was the Square Enix that sold the Tomb Raider IP and Crystal Dynamics off for mere peanuts, and hung their hopes on some NFT Hail Mary. Even with the change of leadership they might have their hands tied getting out of it. Sounds like someone divulged privileged information on the arrangement encompassing the FF7 trilogy remake at very least.

I think there was also a miscalculation of what being a PS5 exclusive would do to elevate the series in the eyes of gamers. No doubt such considerations have been beneficial to games in the past. Perhaps they didn't adequately see it in their numbers. Those who bought the first FF7 remake when PS consoles had a much more substantial install base. People who double dipped on the PS5 re-release and those who upgraded, did they treat these like individual purchases to guage their expectations for the next game's commercial performance perhaps?

FF was always a terrible franchise only propped up by waifus during the cutscenes, bought by horny teenagers, grind the stupid section to view the next cutscene. In today's world it outlived its usefulness.

@dabear: We need MORE remakes.

Metal Gear remakes. All of them.

FF8, FF9, FFX

Capcom better remake RE5/Code Veronica too (rumours are one or both of them might be skipped)

LOL

The great news is that it is exclusive.🤭

Remakes ending was so bad it killed the entire trilogy.

The game charted twice in the top 10…

Not strongly......especially Japan where it was beaten by Unicorn Overlord twice in a row.

Crazy after all the shit texasgoldrush got he was right and had the last laugh.

Just goes to show, something.

That a broken clock is right twice a day?

No need to be a sore loser.

He won. Accept it.

But I have no stake in FFVII so I didn't lose anything. 🤔

This transitioned from begrudgingly admitting he was right with a backhanded insult to throwing hands up in the air "I didn't care in the first place".

Texas deserves credit, earned lauding rights.

And this transitioned from "You lost" to "Oh obviously you actually did care." Feh.

Oooh yea such lauding rights. Called that a company consistently releasing flops for the last several years didn't do as well as they hoped. Might as well sticky the thread.

Square Enix may have to fast track the ports since PS gamers aren't interested in FF as much as before.

Now you're being bitter at his correctness.

Which is bigly.

If anything I'm bitter that you're bugging me about an off-handed comment.

@texasgoldrush: Congrats

The main problem is that this isn't a standalone game.

I mean, yes, *technically* you can play it without owning part 1...but it doesn't tell a complete story. It's literally just "disc 2" of a multi-disc game, so it only appeals to people who loved disc 1.

There might be a handful of new players who jump on board, but I imagine anyone waiting will keep waiting until the full game is complete.

TLDR? This is a weird product with a relatively small pool of potential customers. I'm surprised they expected it to sell well.

I think what he's saying is just let Texas thing he was right so he doesn't post 100 times with a bunch of garbage.

I could be mistaken though.

almost like how I said that Telltale was in trouble a year or two before it went under.

I am pretty good at predicting.

People reject because Tifa's boobs too big. Woke mind virus taking over.

@dabear: Lets not forget those few Xbox classics that 100% need a remake as well.

Halo CE

Halo 2

Halo 3

Halo Reach

Halo 4 (in 12+ years)

Halo 5 ( in 15+years from now)

Gears 1

Gears 2

Gears 3

Can't wait for them to be remade and enjoyed on PC :)

A problem yes, but Mass Effect managed to sell more copies as the trilogy went along and ME3 may be Bioware's most successful game sales wise.

FFVII Rebirth's problem is that it requires being a fan of the original FFVII AND Remake.

The problem for me is the crappy story, bland characters and the perpetual interrupts from cutscenes. Judging from Remake and the demo, nothing has changed for the positive.

@Chutebox: Really? Where were you when Starfield was released, and wenzen had a meltdown with like 300+ posts in its thread and 50 YT videos on why it sucks without ever playing it.

Its real hard for me to believe how this game sits at 93 on meta while being as Ubisoft as it gets, while DD2 is sub 90. What the hell is that?

meltdown? I think you need to google the definition. Just like with Infinite, i was right, and did my best to wake the honeymoon period pals, but it didn't work, people were too blinded. Now, you type Starfield on youtube, and over 75% of vids are negative lmao. At least with Fallout 76 the negativity stopped reasonably quickly after the game launched because people didn't give a shit about some live service game, but people do care about Starfield (because its singleplayer and their big new IP), and keep releasing dozens of negative vids daily. And the thing is, i don't think its stopping throught 2024. And if their expansion is as outdated and feel wooden, holy shit we have some juice incoming for later this year🤣Dabear won't be happy, but it is what it is.

Actually no need to google the definition of "meltdown". Simply visit the official thread of Returnal, and read the posts from your old account

One is just flat out trolling, the other truly believes himself.

I think they both believe themselves.

@hardwenzen: You have revisionist history. But that's what trolls like you have to keep the troll going. See ya.

I assume you visited the Returnal thread as a reminder😁

Can someone actually tell me the sales as I cannot find them anywhere. You have some physical sales data but the majority of sales are digital now.

You would hope that the OP, having started a thread about sales, would have them to hand - both the physical and digital.

It doesn't matter anyway. The third and final game of the series is being made and Rebirth is seen as a good game.

This comes across as something a preteen girl would write in her diary. Very strong smol pp energy with this one.

I thought the game was actually doing great in the West? Regardless, the game is an absolute masterpiece and undeniably GOTY so far.

It under-performed in Japan, but it's selling very well in the US:

Circana February Results - 1st PS5 2nd Switch 3rd Xbox (Units) - HellDivers #1 FFVII #2

FFVII Rebirth was only out for a single day in February, yet ranked twice in the top ten (numbers 2 and 8). That's a strong start.

Preorders do count, so it was on sale well before the final day of the month.

And no, from who I talked to at Gamestop, its not selling anywhere close to what it is hyped to be.

Daum TGR Dropping bombs from the morter sentry.... Bang!

I agree about remakes! Don't need em! We need forward ideas and new places to go. If we love this hobby and want to call it art we can't make cover albums.....

Nostrogoldrush anyone?

If Rebirth is ranked twice in the monthly top ten (probably would've been number one if combined) just based on pre-orders and day-one sales alone, then that's an impressive feat no matter how you spin it.

And nope, some random Gamespot employee is not a more reliable source than Circana/NPD. According to Circana/NPD, Rebirth had a strong sales start in the US.

@Jag85: It’s funny Square has still yet to release numbers. It must be way underperforming.

@mesome713: No one is denying that it's under-performing in Japan. My point is that it's performing very well in the US. But that's more-or-less expected based on previous trends. FF is still big in America, but is losing relevance in its native Japan. That's going to negatively impact worldwide sales, as Japan previously did much of the heavy lifting for FF worldwide sales.

@Jag85: Not as big as it use to be, go to any store in the US and look at how many copies of this game are still on the shelf. And we still in the first shipments. Square has got to be pissed how bad this game is doing. They gonna have to Remaster them all to get Clown Cows to double dip. It's rare for Square to not announce the sales of its biggest franchise.

@mesome713: The Circana/NPD numbers suggest otherwise. Despite being a PS5 exclusive only available for one day in February, it landed two spots on the monthly top ten (probably number one combined). Its day-one sales matched what Helldivers 2 sold throughout February. Helldiver's worldwide sales were around 3-5M in February, which would put Rebirth's US launch day sales at around 1-2M.

@Jag85: It was available for 3 days. The Feb numbers count up to March 2 as Circana has stated. Which counts for majority of its sales as FF has no legs. Which also still tells us nothing cause it beat nothing but old games. Im guessing it sold 1million, which even Nintendos worst selling game in US can hit that. This is a disgrace for Square. Its the worst selling FF game ever.