Final Fantasy XV Last Hope for Home Consoles in Japan Says Game Developer - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 08 September 2014 / 9,677 Views

The Japanese home console market has been on the decline for many years. Despite the success of the PlayStation 4 in North America and Europe, the console has struggled in the Japan with weekly sales well below 10,000 units.

Despite how much the home console market has been struggling, Final Fantasy XV co-director Hajime Tabata has told Kotaku that he prefers games that are driven by long play sessions and played on the big screen. He feels that Final Fantasy XV is the true test to see if home consoles can rebound in the land of the rising sun.

"There's probably a cultural explanation for why the Japanese market is shifting toward handheld or smartphone devices," said Tabata. "It's pretty unique to Japan, where everyone is transporting--they have long train rides and bus rides to work, they have time to play handheld devices, or they're spending more time in their own rooms vs. spending more time in the living room."

"So in terms of whether console games will be received moving forward, it's not to say that I don't have any concerns at all, but I believe that it'll really depend on how Final Fantasy XV does," Tabata added. "Because I really want more people to enjoy games in the living room, on a big screen. If Final Fantasy XV doesn't do well, perhaps there's not much of a future for console games. It kind of really depends on how that goes."

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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. Outside, in the real world, he has a passion for the outdoors which includes everything from hiking to having received his B.A. in Environmental Studies. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.

20 Comments

Dr.Henry_Killinger (on 08 September 2014)

Ironically, the OG final fantasy was the last hope for Squaresoft at the time.

Yafea (on 10 September 2014)

The game was announced back in 2006. Now we are in 2014 and we barley know anything about the game. I'm losing my patience.

WagnerPaiva (on 09 September 2014)

Well, not true, a lot of games could grab the japanese atention, it does not have to be FF.

regin2005 (on 08 September 2014)

People have been waiting for this game to drop for almost 5-6 years. (This is the supposed FFvsXIII, right?) Maybe console games are taking WAY too long to arrive and that's what's slowing everything down; lot's of people are just moving on.

I mean, why wait almost half a decade for one game to come out when you can play lots of other games, maybe even a couple of fun/good games elsewhere instead.

Astrosquall1 regin2005 (on 10 September 2014)

Longer than 5-6 years, they announced it as in development at E3 2006! Shit, I was 19 then! and fully into video games, but then I grew 8 years older, and stopped giving a shit about Vs13/XV. If the sales bomb on this, I think it will be because some fans just grew too old waiting!

finalfantasystud (on 08 September 2014)

no things are moving to fast to much digital this digital that we need to slow down and enjoy the technology we have now instead of always looking to upgrade its crazy man. times are changing people just wanna diddle on their damn cell phones for 20 to 30 minutes at a time on games like angry birds because life is set at to fast of a pace.