Square Enix says Final Fantasy 16, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Foamstars failed to meet expectations.

I played it, it was alright, not mind-blowing or revolutionary but an ok game that tries to be the answer to Splatoon on Sony's turf. It needed bit more content/modes in order to standout but overall, I prefer Splatoon...especially Splatoon 3 as the series has been on the market way longer and Foamstars just came so late to the party, it would have done ok had it been released on PS4 before PS5 arrival. Foamstars had lower expectations from the minds of gamers but I too was surprised SE had high expectations is a big shocker to me!

Even games like Rollerdrome was also great than Foamstars IMO.

So if you know it's coming sooner or later you will wait for the PC version....?

Yea that kinda proves my point.

@last_lap: They're unrealistic because they keep failing to reach them continuously, therefore don't accepting their reality; once or twice would be a common mistake, but when it's the majority of the games they made, then their projections are the ones that are wrong.

No it doesn't. He's made it clear for years on this very site that PC is his preferred platform, long before Sony started publishing 1st party games on PC. Furthermore, Rebirth isn't a Sony 1st party title. You'd have a point if he only recently this gen became a PC guy and now waits to buy Sony 1st party games on PC, but that isn't the case.

The only point you proved was my point.😂

@adsparky: Like I said, they celebrated 3.5 million says on their own website, so it obviously met their early sales expectations, and FF is a well-known franchise. So, expecting the same for FF 16 & Rebirth are not unrealistic.when the last FF game hit those expectations.

So saying they have unrealistic expectations is not really true.

@last_lap: There it is, 3 million in less than a week, in a console that by the time of release had like half of the install base when FF7 remake was released on the PS4, so, it had a bigger attach rate that FF7 remake, And yet it failed to meet expectations.

Remake hit 3.5 million in 3 days and ~7 million by the end of September 2023. It took 3 years to sell what they did in three days and that is across PS4,PS5 and PC. I am not sure a fallback on attach rates being higher for 16 holds much value when the falloff after launch is exceptionally steep (like most single player games).

@adsparky: Well it seems Square is flip flopping on its own expectations for each game it releases in the FF franchise 🤷‍♂️

@last_lap: It's not only Final Fantasy or AAA games, every year is "many of the new small and mid-sized titles we launched this [fiscal] year did not perform as well as we had expected".

@adsparky: Well until they post their expectations we don't really know if they are unreasonable or not.

They only one that would have had unreasonable sales expectations would have been that Foamstars game as I believe it was day 1 on Sony's renting service. You can't expect good sales when they did that.

@silentchief: it's funny but it's true...why should us xbox gamers buy games when we got gamepass giving us free stuff. And most of it is better than what's releasing on Playstation (which is nothing). The tragic part is that the rehashed and over milked cinematic movie games / walking simulators are what cows call quality these days.

Gamepass or bust.

What I mean when I say Square Enix should be taking notes from Capcom:

Capcom Is Making More Money Than Ever Before

Square-Enix have finally woken up and smelt the coffee!

It is true... they don't buy games. However what isn't true is that Gamepass games are somehow better. GP games have mostly been bottom of the barrel trash and your supposed mega hit( Starfield) was a janky, boring piece of garbage.

Hopefully Sony will go back to making great single player games.

Look at my original point.

He can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but I believe he is a fan of Japanese games. There was a time when Japanese support on PC was pretty lackluster. That has changed over the past decade so many Playstation fans who were a fan of 3rd party Japanese titles have switched to PC because the platform has full support. I believe the remaining fans of Sony's first party content will do the same.

True. Much of the audience for Japanese games have jumped ship from PlayStation to Steam. But Square Enix didn't get the memo.

What data do you have to show this?

Emotional facts. Get with the program.🙃

Here I was thinking stuff like Fortnite, LoL, PUBG etc.. were the reason for PC's rise, turns out it was the JRPG's.

funny final fantasy hasn't been selling like crazy lately even when they were on xbox or pc.

yet steller blade sells out in japan. to the point they only allow 1 copy per person.

They sold more when it was on all three. 🙃

yup but sony paid for it. so they made money.

So, were wrong and now you are trying to argue against SquareEnix's shift to multiplatform versus singular platform exclusives titles. Now, tell me how does the information I just shared with you, works with your claim?

FF was selling better before when it was on all plats.

The Korean titty game sold a whopping 67k in the first two weeks in JP, wow.

Apparently not since they are abandoning Sony exclusivity.

Some of you guys need to apologize to texasgold

@silentchief: gamepass games are far better than the foegettable trash available on Playstation. Though Playstation doesn't even have games to begin with, and the games they do have are cinematic walking sim masterpieces. Lately Sony has been too busy remastering 1 year old games to even make new ones.

Gamepass crushes Sony, #gamepassorbust. Ps5 has been a disaster this gen.

FFXVI and FF7 Rebirth just aren't very good games. No wonder they didn't meet sales expectations.

No way would I spend $70 on Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. I am not even a fan of the franchise though last year got Remake through Plus so maybe if Rebirth gets a discount, I will buy it at $30.

Examples that come to mind:

Persona 5 Royal sold an estimated 2M on Steam, almost as much as what it sold on PS4 (2.3M) and far more than PS5 (300K).

Nier Automata sold an estimated 4M on Steam, about half of its total 8M sales across all platforms.

I already know JP developed games were popular on PC, that's all your sales numbers prove. Show me the data that says PS gamers leaving the platform for PC because of 3rd party JP games. That's what he claimed.

Honest question...

Did any of you actually play foamstars?

The game may be fine, but I can't for the life of me I can't imagine why they thought ripping off Splatoon was a good idea. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised to see Taco Bell flat out offer a new "floor mat burrito". "Now with our signature baja burner sauce, to enhance the floor flavor!". This world is so lost.

Can we admit that FF just does not have the appeal it used to?

@texasgoldrush:

It's easier to wait once you've waited.... If Sony released day 1 on PC I bet more people would buy at full price.

Still sold more than they deserved.

An attempt at their own Splatoon? Sony copying Nintendo and failing horribly at it is a pretty common occurence.

Wtf does that have to do with Sony? Foamstar wasn't made by them.

You believe it is exclusive by accident?🤔

At first they would but they would lose a large portion of their existing base to PC.

Destroying your platform for a few extra game sales isn't worth it.

I'm saying it's a combination of things. Japanese games and first party support moving to PC along with PC's popularity with the streamer/influencer crowd. Look at fighting games for an example. They were dominated by the Playstation platform and many are moving to PC.

The concrete data we do have is Playstation 5 is now lagging behind the PS4 and will miss sell targets by 4 million. It will only get worse.

Did Sony develope it and own the IP? If not his comment is false.

3rd party JP games and fighting games are minuscule in comparison to BR games popularity exploding as well as WRPG's, MOBA (LoL/DOTA), and indie titles that originated and blew up on PC (Among Us, Minecraft, Terraria etc...). Even Sony first party barely moves the needle in comparison. The streamers/influencers is easily the best example you gave. There's really nothing Sony can do about it, they can't money hat everything as much as they'd like to. Sony could announce no more 1st party titles on PC today and it would have minimal effect on the PC platform. PS5 is lagging behind because of their own hubris.

There's plenty they could do actually. They are in the position they are in now because they did a hard pivot to GAAS and abandoned the games that built their brand. The problem is nearly half those games have been canceled so we have been left for 3 years without a single exclusive being announced. They need to switch to a 80/20 rule with 80% of their games being high quality single player exclusives and leave those games exclusive to the Playstation platform forever. The other 20% could be multiplayer focused multiplatform titles such as Helldivers. Meanwhile they should do a portable console that Is a lower spec PS5 that plays all PS5 games similar to what the steam deck does for PC. Saying their exclusives barely move the needle isn't true when they have title that have sold over 25 million copies.

@silentchief:

"There's plenty they could do actually."

I didn't ask. All I stated is they can't money hat everything. Which is a fact. They can't throw money at every JP game under the sun to keep it off other platforms. You claimed Sony is losing ground to PC because of 3rd party JP games and gamers just waiting, now you're talking about first party games and hardware. You ignored the content of my post and focused on "there's nothing they can do" line that was in reference to their money hatting ways.

"They need to switch to a 80/20 rule with 80% of their games being high quality single player exclusives and leave those games exclusive to the Playstation platform forever."

Wouldn't effect PC's growth. Also sounds financially unsustainable for Sony. Feel free to pitch your ideas to Sony leadership.

"Meanwhile they should do a portable console that Is a lower spec PS5 that plays all PS5 games similar to what the steam deck does for PC."

I'm sure studios will be excited to have yet another SKU to develop for.

"Saying their exclusives barely move the needle isn't true when they have title that have sold over 25 million copies."

Sony could announce no more 1st party titles on PC today and it would have minimal effect on the PC platform.

PS5 is lagging behind because of their own hubris.

The best-selling game this year so far is a 3rd party JP game: Palworld. All of those sales came from PC.

Back in 2022, the year's best-selling game was also a 3rd party JP game: Elden Ring. The lion's share of its sales also came from PC.

And then there's Capcom games, which have been selling record numbers lately. And once again, a large share of Capcom's sales come from PC.

Capcom Is Making More Money Than Ever Before

What these examples demonstrate, along with the Persona 5 and Nier examples I gave above, is that PC has now taken a big chunk of the market share from PlayStation when it comes to 3rd party JP games.

They were charging £64.99 for it on PC.

This makes me happy. Hope they fail more and many people lose their jobs.

All this demonstrates is JP games are popular on PC, provide data showing gamers leaving the PS platform because of 3rd party JP games, because all you're showing is JP devs realizing there was a huge untapped market on PC. Atlus literally came out asking PC players if they want Persona on PC.

Your entire point is Playstation would fall if they stopped porting to PC?

Sorry I didn't see the word " no".

I think if they continue to port to PC and go day and date it will destroy the Playstation brand. It will have minimal effect on the PC platform either way.