Square Enix confirms centennial shipment figure for two-decade-old role-playing game franchise.
LOS ANGELES--When Square Enix closed on Eidos in April 2009, the publisher offered a glimpse at the strength of its portfolio, saying that its blockbuster Final Fantasy franchise had sold some 85 million units since 1987. Now, just over two years on, and the Final Fantasy series has completed that first big centennial milestone.
As part of the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo today, Square Enix said that the Final Fantasy series has now shipped more than 100 million units worldwide. The Final Fantasy series joins a small-but-growing group of titles that have exceeded the 100 million mark, including Mario, The Sims, Tetris, FIFA, and Need for Speed.
The Final Fantasy series had a big year in 2010, having welcomed two new major installments to its ranks. In March, Square Enix's long-awaited Final Fantasy XIII arrived for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to a strong critical reception. The publisher also launched a new Final Fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online game, Final Fantasy XIV, though it fared far worse with critics.
At this year's E3, Square Enix is showing off Final Fantasy XIII-2, the sequel to last year's hit. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is slated to arrive in Japan this year, and GameSpot will post impressions of the game from the show soon. Also, check out XIII-2's new trailer below. The publisher is also working on Final Fantasy XIII Versus.
Tom Magrino has covered the games industry since 2006. He's been compared to Steve Martin by Ozzy Osbourne and Daniel Craig by Tim Schafer. His voice, heard largely on GameSpot's podcast, recalls that of Kermit the Frog. It ain't easy bein' Magreen.
Man i got so pissed off when i heard that SE was going to make FF13-2 cause that would mean Versus would take longer time to finish. But this sequel actually is very interesting. The game has what i want in it. Towns, great battle system, the characters will have their own special moves, non-linear, Colloseum and a big old minigame town. Don´t know yet about how the story will fold but im pretty positive about it. Hurry up with Versus 13 now!
didnt call of duty hit that milestone the last 2 years individually? i really need to play final fantasy more. i havnt played it in years. would sorta help out theyre numbers too.
And I'm supposed to be surprised? Seems like some people are waking up though.. Whats still sad is they want 'the old FF' and not simply 'a good RPG with a good cast/storyline' devoid of typical tropes and inane hair styles. SE answer to ffans is a remake with more fan service and QTE from Last Remnant (a good RPG, though still many tropes). I thought Versus might be different, but the last trailer shows the same opera 3 person team cold eyed-quiet-pretty boy *sigh*
@cjburnfist I'm one of those who also did not like FFVII. BUT, it is what it is...The next few FF after that, were decent to above average. But something changed.... there wasn't that old spark after FFX for me. Granted I wasn't one to embrace FF MMO off FFXI, but I was still loyal. FFXIII changed all that with its simplicity and linear gameplay. FFXIV was just a total monetary disaster. And it shows on their reports.... This is just FF though, SE does more than FF and so far it hasn't done much over the past few years: 2010 and the current line up of 2011 were nearly all busts. The only saving grace that I saw from them were REMAKES of OLD HITS and what does that say about your company when the only money coming into your accounts came from games that were released 20 years ago!
@Zero_resistance If you still buy games when you know/think they're going to suck, they will never stop making them.... Do us all a favor and don't.
obviously SQUARE's direction is to ignore the long time fans of the series and make the game more accessible to nowadays casual gamers.........I say it is a smart move for them financially because other wise if they make great and sofisticated FF games like those of the past many people off this young generation won';t get them and so result in a financial loss......................But it wont hurt SQUARE to make FANSERVICE titles every now and then like DISSIDIA ,.......
GREAT!!! More linear running around, running into things to initiate combat, and a severe lack of towns and side quests. I'll probably buy it cause it's an FF game, but it will probably end up next to my copy of XIII gathering dust. Come on SE pull your finger out of your asses and finally give us the FF game we want, we know you can do it.
I was at E3 this morning and no one DARED to mention FFXIV. All the attention was at FFXIII-2 and various others games such as the reboot of Tomb Raider (that game is pure WIN). Honestly, I am a FF fanboy... been a fanboy since the FF release back in NES. Lately, I have seen the QUALITY of FF decrease in the past few years. Even more than FF, SE quality of release has sunk. And it shows with their Fiscal Reports. The amount of money it takes to create a game vs the amount they got back is very miniscule.... Its not enough to sell copies, you need to maintain sales. SE needs a shake-up. The people currently running SE are running it to the ground and into history. From what I saw of FFXIII-2, there is no difference from FFXIII.... Not looking good this year if your a SE fan. I sure miss Squaresoft....
The final fantasy that we grew and loved is no more people... :( so many people sure as hell missed out...
FF9 was the best in the series IMO, wish they would do something similar to that style in terms of art, gameplay, battle system and of course the wonderful music of Nobuo Uematsu, who I had the privilege to meet earlier this year!
I'm still waiting on the PS3 remake of FFVII. time for them to make what we saw years and years ago into reality
im just cant get excited for this after how much of a let down FFXIII was... why would i wanna go back?
good i just hope the only bad FF agme didnt atribute too many, im obivously talking about X-2
Ok Square you have me interested now maybe this wont be as bad as a majority of your squeals
@Blue-Sky Something tells me you only read the headline. Before 2009, the Final Fantasy franchise sold 85million units. Final Fantasy X was released in 2002. By then, it probably sold 70million up to that point.
I am a proud person to own 6 of the 100,000,000+ units sold. The series is amazingly cool, and I could play the games until I died. No joke!
it was expectable news, it was just a matter of time before the best RPG saga of all time to sell their 100th million game. i just hope that square doesn't ruin all the work they made so far and keep any Final Fantasy game a synonym for a masterpiece. cheers square
too bad only the first half were any fun. Square, get your heads back in the game and out of the asses of your business division. Gameplay > girly manchildren that look pretty.
Oh my god PLEASE Square include The original audio with subtitiles! I can already tell the english voiceovers are going to be terrible since the male character said his own NAME wrong. The name is "Noel" not "Nole" its supposed to be prounounced No-el the word "no" and then the "el' from "hell'. Noel. "Sigh"
if FF 13 versus was released you'd see those figures double :P HURRY UP ALREADY WITH THE BLOODY GAME
Must of took dozens of re-re-re-releases, ports, remakes, spin-offs, mobile quick cash-ins and the abomination known as FFXIII to achieve that number. Final Fantasy XIII gets a half-assed sequel while Versus XIII ends up in limbo. Good job Squeenix
Yoichi Wada acknowledges state of Final Fantasy XIV Online has hurt the company's flagship franchise, pledges to continue rebuilding all aspects of the game.
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