Final Fantasy XIII Sells 1.2 Million Units in Week One
by Brett Walton, posted on 16 March 2010 / 15,350 Views
Following our preliminary day one data from last week which showed nearly 800,000 units sold on day one, we now have preliminary week one data (week ending 13th March 2010) and total Final Fantasy XIII sales have hit 1.2 million units across the Americas and Other Regions, taking the worldwide total to over 3 million when including the PS3 launch in Japan late last year.
Worldwide, 61% of units sold were on PS3 and 39% on Xbox360 - Microsoft's console actually increasing in share from launch day to the full week. As mentioned in last week's pre-order data, VGChartz expects sales to be far more even between consoles following initial launch as casual consumers are likely to buy the game roughly in the ratio of hardware install base whereas the core Final Fantasy fans who pick the game up in week one (and day one in particular) will have more of a Playstation bias as the Final Fantasy series is more synonymous with the Sony brand.
Breaking down by region, over 680,000 units were sold in the Americas with 57% on PS3 and over 520,000 in Other Regions (Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa, Oceania) with 66% on PS3.
Check back later in the week for finalised week one data and the effect on hardware sales and VGChartz Final Fantasy XIII review will be posted later today.
118 Comments
Btw. The Core Final Fantasy Fans bought the game when it came it in Japan, the casual gamers waited for the NA/Others release. ;)
Worldwide 61% (PS3) vs 39% (360)? Only counting first week WORLDWIDE (inc. Japan or it wouldn't be worldwide); PS3 - 2.267.439 copies 360 - 446.154 copies 2.713.593 = 100% 27.135,93 = 1% Both salesnumbers dived by 27.135,93 gives the actual percentage of worldwide unites sold. PS3 = 83,5585% 360 = 16,4414%
@dmangstars I admit, I am probably being quite generous. heh I figure though that games almost always sell better than what I guess, so I figured I'd aim a little higher than my initial thoughts this time. It's very much an issue that stems from the fan base...are there going to be enough die hards to get to 6m or will the old school FFers reject it? Quite difficult to tell. @CaptainPrice I think that's about right. The 360 is going to get a decent sized chunk of the pie on this one, no doubt about that. 25% sounds like a pretty reasonable number, though would likely be enough to show that the 360 is still able to pull out the profit when it comes to a dual system game.
My, my How The mighty Franchise has fallen on Low sales times. it was bound to happen. Between those two HD systems and Release in America and all FF13 can muster was a little over "3.1 million. Like Squenix New president said. "Its time for the FF team to move on to something else " This gen it might sell 5 million long term. There's just to many other games out or coming out that detract from any one franchise to maintain or do better than what they use to sell....
Wow, I'm actually surprised that 360 managed to get as much as 39%. I wonder if I should pick it up. I got the import version on PS3 but have trouble understanding the whole menu and gameplay dynamics since I can't read Japanese. Been thinking about playing the english version concurrently and considered buying a 360 version. Hm...
*FFVII sorry not FFV. and for the record FFVII i thought was a good game...it was FFVIII when things started going down hill
@CChaos I think you are being generous. I forsee light sales in the next weeks until the game's price drops...then some longtime fans of the series (like me and several of my friends) might pick it up to check it out, but I (and many others i know) have already have been so turned off by the pre-press and television advertising that we have very little interest in it. The fact is the vast majority of gamers do not like anime, and not because of the drawing style, its just that they do not like anime style stories, bad writing, and terrible voice over. FFX and FFXII suffer from all these symptoms , but I was able to manage because the gameplay/movie ratio was OK and the world didn't feel overly linear. But in games like X2 (and from what i hear XVIII) were you are just moving from crappy cut scene to crappy cut scene, there is no payoff. Ever since FFV were story came before gameplay square has been on a downward sprial. And honestly my expectations for FF wouldn't be so high if they made it as a niche game. But they aren't, and if you are going to make a game for the masses, don't include so many elements that you know will turn people off and expect it to sell well...especially on a western oriented system like the xbox360.
@Miss piggy ('39% on Xbox360 (which virtually doesn't exist in Japan) is a very big share for a classic PS series,I would call it a success for MS'): You've phrased that a bit misleadingly - it's only 15% on X360 if you include Japan. Whether it's a success for MS is hard to judge. I certainly know big FF fans who've gone with X360 since it was announced for the system, so the benefit to MS will be much harder to measure than sales of the game itself. We also don't know how much they paid to SE so we can't really assess either costs or benefits accurately. @CChaos: 5.6-6m sounds about right to me. A further question is the lifetime PS3/X360 breakdown. I expect a split of around 55/45 in the West from now on, which combined with existing worldwide sales and a few more Japanese sales will put about 25% of sales on X360 when all is said and done.
Also, with a 3m return so far, the Japanese market pretty much tapped out of the mass returns now (what with it coming out like six months ago there), I'm going to estimate that 13 will eek past 12's 5.6m units and will come to rest somewhere in the 6m range. Any other thoughts?
@oniyide Very true. The PS and PS2 really were the heydays for the JRPG boom. Nowadays, with HD, you just can't churn as many games out, due to massively increase costs. It's a shame, really. Here's hoping that things work out, I'd hate to see anything get lost to time.
Huge sales,but for such a renowned game anything less would have been a deception.39% on Xbox360 (which virtually doesn't exist in Japan) is a very big share for a classic PS series,I would call it a success for MS.
@x360: Personally, I'd prefer to see a nice remake of FFV, with a few extras (dungeons, bosses, some character moments, etc.) then see a remake of FF7. But let's be honest, traditional JRPGs have been dying out for a while. And with rising development costs and the increasing focus on western gamers, it really isn't even Square Enix fault for not trying to invest cash into a remake on the scope that fans would expect.
We got Final Fantasy 13 which Square Enix decided to make Cloud Lesbian sister as the main character in FF13 and in high definition . SQUARE have lost great deal of money on bad movie investment which cost them more than $300milion (FF the spirit within) on that movie alone. Square can’t seems to release successful RPG Since Final Fantasy 7. It explains why SQUARE merged with ENIX and sold 20% of theirs company shares to SONY I can’t Understand Square Enix to this day what they thinking of?. They most memorable Final Fantasy Game was Final Fantasy 7 it had strong characters and a strong story line Square failed to follow up on FF7 and they Still won’t release the sequel to that game or at least remake of FF 7 characters, they went as far as making a demo on PS3 Just before the prelaunch but neverreleaseed the game which is based on they most successful character and story line.
@CChaos thats what ive been saying Square is trying to stay relevant with the JRPGs, that genre is not really popping like it was in the PS/PS2 era and even to a lesser extent SNES. PS had like a JRPG coming out every freaking month, and the crazy thing is most of them were at least decent, Im playing GRANDIA from the PS1 store and it is great, never got a chance to play it b4. I give MS full credit for trying to jump into the JRPG ring, but honestly I think there a generation to late. WRPGs are dominating as evident by ME and Fallout. it sucks because the two dont have to be mutally exclusive. I have Fallout 3 for my PS3 and I think its great and I was never a fan of WRPGs b4, but thats not taking away my enjoyment of FF13
@oniyide Thank you, nice to see someone agreeing on the matter. heh I do think it's managed to expand the brand slightly into the 360 gamers who like RPGs (if only a little bit), though I think the biggest obstacle has been the rift caused by FFX, FFXII and (ugh) X-2. Some people stopped buying the games because of those ones (lukewarm response, I believe it was called a while back), when Square kind of changed direction a bit on how they made the games. Some are stuck in the old while others embrace the new. That's less a PS3 issues and a question of Square's recent decisions, as well as the fan base. 360 users got a bonus for being able to buy it. Part of me thinks it's not so much the expanded market that brought them to the PS3/360 combo so much as trying their damnedest to remain valid in a JRPG market that they, themselves, have claimed is failing.
@CaptainPrice Oh, no doubt there. I think it's mostly up to their discretion as to whether or not they figure they can do it on both with those two. I do think it was a hell of a risk for SE to push for multiplatform and I think it's worked for them so far. Now, if they can still sell a tonne while going for the slightly more niche titles, then I hope they can do it. Always nice to see decent games getting more coverage.
I think the analysis that selling ration will even up over time is possibly right in America's because of the huge install base lead 360 has there, but we see that over the last 6-8 months multiplats in Other's regions are selling better on PS3 than 360. I wouldn't be surprised to see weekly sales on 360 be higher than PS3 in America's after a while. But in Others where the general momentum is with PS3 right now I'd expect the ratio to drop only sligthly to 60/40. Ages ago I said I thought success from SE's perspective for FFXIII on 360 would be 1 million LTD, with 750K LTD being marginally acceptable. It would seem 1 million is certain with this launch week. That means future FF titles beyond eventually getting FFXIV (in 2011) are pretty assured. However SE needs to get better at optimising multiplat titles for both platforms.
@CCHaos i agree with u that the PS3 version was not dumbed down in order 2 put on the 360. anyone who says otherwise is a Sony fanboy and needs to chill. Square didnt start working on 360 till the PS3 was pratically done already, if anything the 360 version was a port disguised as a multiplat game. I cant say that this move has helped "expand the brand". IMO anyone who wanted this game got PS3 well b4. this is Final freaking Fantasy. If you didnt care for the first 12 I dont think a console switch is going to make anyone care now. Square should stop kidding themselves @chapset MW2 would disagree with you, I think only the games that are very japanese and know as PS franchises sell better (Blazblue & Tekken 6 for instance)
@CChaos: I'm sure you're right that they've made a profit on X360 FFXIII, but I'm not sure that can be guaranteed for versus and XIV. They are much more niche, and 15% of a niche might not be enough to justify the porting cost.
@CaptainPrice Honestly, I very much doubt they would, simply because the 360 is as much a force in North America and other areas than the PS3 is, just not in Japan. The fact that they've already sold almost half a million copies on the 360, more than many games sell during their entire lifespan, already says that the investment was worthwhile. They're making money. Money is what drives them. And that's very possibly money they might not have had near as much of if they hadn't diversified into a larger market.
@CChaos: If you said to SE 'FFXIII sales for X360 are only so low because there's no market for the console in Japan', they'd say 'that's precisely why we're worried that porting FF games to X360 doesn't offer a good return on our investment'.
Oh, also, I would love to hear someone's thesis on how, exactly, releasing on both the PS3 and 360 has 'hurt Square Enix's sales'. Seriously, I'd love to listen to this. I mean, since expanding the market to other people seems like a decent way to increase market penetration, giving access to more gamers seems like a no brainer here. People who want it on PS3? Are going to get it on the PS3. People who have a 360 and want it there? Are getting it there, possibly because they don't have a PS3 and wouldn't have been getting that version anyways, thus giving SE sales they wouldn't have got before. It's not like they're stealing each other's console numbers. Oh, and no need to blame quality. The argument that the PS3 version was dumbed down because of the 360 is utter fallacy. The PS3 one still looks amazing and it's not like anything has changed beyond the graphics.
People are skewing their numbers a bit. Yes, the PS3 version has sold over 2m copies...because it was released in Japan. The 360 has never caught on in Japan, thus SE did not even release a 360 version there. Of course the PS3 copies are going to be high when they release in their own HOME COUNTRY, creator of the bloody JRPG, and don't have any other options than the PS3. Using this as an excuse for why FFXIII should have been on the PS3 makes the Sony fanatics just look desperate to have their exclusive back. And @Polarimetric, 2.7m is disappointing simply because early on, the folks at SE were basically saying this would be the game to knock FFVII from its perch of having the highest number of sales for a Final Fantasy game. Considering they only managed 1.2m in the Americas week one, for a total of 3m so far? The 9.72m of FFVII is looking like a pretty lofty goal.
It outsold FFXII with the 360 port, but even without it, it only trailed by about 200,000 when the PS2 had probably 5 times the user base in the West when FFXII came out versus the PS3's current market share. The Final Fantasy series is far from dead. The idea that an 83 average on Metacritic and an opening week (total, worldwide) of 2.7 million is considered "disappointing" just proves that the expectations on Square for each FF game are ridiculously inflated.
@ selnor, week 1, the PS3 version sold about 2.2m, 360 version sold 500k, seems to me that SE would still be better off focusing on the PS3
Seems like instead of Helping the game Square's Multiplat move hindered the game
seems like a lackluster first week, only like 40% sell through, cause didn't htey ship 3 million or so.
So that percentage gap is expected to dwindle. Looks like MS did good. Did good indeed.
theres a middle finger to all you FF13 haters!!!! @CaptainPrice your probably right, but IMHO 13 never should have came to 360, they should have focused attention for 14 to go to 360. thats the system know for online. so you put the single player one on it instead of the online one???? thats ass backwards to me. @selnor less than half mil is not really fantastic sales, especially when you consider what they must have paid for exclusive advertising, now ME 2?? those were fantastic
Can anyone confirm if the figures include buindled 360? Either way, fantastic for M$. Really does show, that even with FF fans already owning a PS3 for the last 2-4 years that the 360 has plenty who want JRPG's. But to be honest pretty poor sales in general for SE considering the huge budget that was involved. It's the Waterworld of gaming. LOL. Maybe now, they will actually make a JRPG like they used to. Regardless, M$ have scored big. I expect a rise in 360 sales for all regions except Japan for the release week.
So total sales are about 15% X360 even with much heavier advertising. Maybe not enough for SE to bring versus and XIV to the X360, and even if they do we can expect another dodgy port.
FFの歴代初動売上げで最高の記録らしいな
@dmangstars when you say spoken like a true fanboy, fanboy uses term like "this game will definitely sell even more" not "have a lot of chance to sell even more". I wrote: "Reviews and journalists have been criticizing the game": True I wrote again: "people still went out to buy it": True So saying the true makes me a fanboy?
My only complaint about this game, is the story does not start to take off until chapter 6. The early chapters are almost disjointed and kind of disorienting....Still loving the combat a great deal and the customization is pretty nice too.
@demitri55, if it's about 'word of mouth' than this game has a lot of chance to sell even more. In case you forgot, there were a lot of bad reviews about the game. And from what I have heard so far from even some RPG hater, the game looks actually good and they kind of enjoy it. Reviews and journalists have been criticizing the game, and people still went out to buy it.
Pretty Abysmal considering its budget. I heard it was around 30million. If CODMW2 could sell 5 million on the first day and 23 millon over all with a budget only slightly higher, square is obviously missing the gaming market. I guess people don't like androgynous main charters after all.
to clarify (did the math) americas: PS3 - 387600 (57% of 680,000) 360 - 292400 (43% of 680,000) others: PS3 - 343200 (66% of 520,000) 360 - 176800 (34% of 520,000) total: PS3 - 730800 (61% of 1,200,000) 360 - 469200 (39% of 1,200,000) when you look at the actual numbers, considering the exclusive 360 bundle, exclusive 360 ads, higher 360 user base, the sales disparity is still very very big.
Good sales all round... SE will be very pleased they ported to the 360.
i dont get why people make big deals of first week sales... im already seeing a lot of journalist saying how much they dont understand or like ff13 because its too linear and boring. to be honest heavy rain sold 500k as a new ip so selling 600+k in the U.S isnt a good sign. i dont think the sales will go up but actually start to go down faster as 'word of mouth' spreads faster than any other mean of communication.
pretty good numbers all around congrats! PS3 version looking very good and thats some pretty darn strong sales on the 360 as well. I know I still have to buy my copy. With XIII being a success I bet that XIV is going to the 360 as well.
I actually think the ongoing 'back catalogue' sales may well skew more to PS3, because the 360 numbers must surely (unless the whole campaign failed) be skewed more to 360 than they would have been in US/UK without the exclusive 360 advertising (on TV and certain mags, etc) which means the ongoing sales should revert (minus the advertising) to a slightly higher percentage on PS3. I guess in 14 to 18 weeks we'll know!
I know I bought my PS3 thinking this game was going too be exclusive I bet many early PS3 buyers who love final fantasy did the same.
QUESTION : when u said 61 / 39 ratio, do you count Jp too ? or is it only others+ NA ?
Dissapointing IMO, the game will have short legs, i see just a bit over 1 mill for the 360 version LTD and a bit over 2 mill for the ps3. Without japan: Ps3:2.3 360: 1.2 Dissapointing numbers.
Still planning on getting mine for the 360 I just need the money but there are so many games out I can't keep up lol.
I was expecting more sales from 360 version, especially from the advertisiment they make from the game in USA. So that means that people who owns both console in america, still get the ps3 version.
I guess Square Enix made the right decision by putting FFXIII on the 360.
from all the 360 ads I saw you would think that the number would be the other way around..did sony even make ads for this game?
well, gg to MS I think it could have been worse ! I dont know if it was worth but that is another question ...
Lol, i guess everyone forgot that the FF13 got a big marketing push... on the 360 still 60:40 i mean, is saw tons of ads with the 360 logo at the end and just look at this site for example..
@amsterdam would you spend 360$ just for FFXIII when you already have a 360 and the reviews are a mixed bag? that is one of the reasons why people get it on 360.
I really do believe that the wait has killed the sales... the multiplat probably only increased sales... people like me who ended up not getting a PS3 but were very hyped about FFXIII 4 years ago might still get it down the line... but on 360.
@GuiltySpartan77: Quit being so insecure. OT: I'm not impressed, honestly...
Because FF has low legs... 1.2M fisrt week is more 3.5M lifetime... and 61% of PS3 and are expected to increase over time... leaving for 360 bellow 30% in the West... so I expect sales around 950k for 360 version and 2.5M for PS3. Without Japan... of course.
@ ethomaz Why, thats nearly half a million units on week one for a shoddy port of something they had already completed...
Well they sold over 3 million units, if they get 2 more, they should be happy. But I think they will end with 6-8 million units, some where between that range. Heck they might get 2 million more sold in the next 3 weeks alone, so what ever.
why would square enix think twice about making games on the xbox 360
my point was they are making it sound in a bragging way that the ps3 sold 61 percent of the games sold
Sorry... but 450k on 360 is impressive??? I expected a little more because that way it will not be a million seller for 360... FAIL. This Week: 732k (PS3) + 468k (360) First Week: 2,24M (PS3) + 468k (360) With these numbers the Square may think twice before making games for 360.
@GuiltySpartan77 would it have been better if the title said 39% were on the 360?
@GuiltySpartan would you like the title changed to X360 only sold 39%. I mean, we could even throw a "lol, so much for MS exclusive advertising" if you want. You are making a mountain out of a molehill.
@ioi Oh I see. I forgot it was America only. That makes for a weird drop off now. 2/3 of its first week sales came in the first day. The drops should be pretty steep from now on.
@GuiltySpartan77: That's because 61% of buyers bought it on PS3. Brett knows were gonna be interested in the split, (like with all other big release games), so what are you on about?
WOW welldone xbox 360!!!! so basicaly the FF13 would have sold allot less if it WASNT on the xbox 360! good move SE.
the writers on this state their favoritism for the ps3 so much just read the top of the article 61% of which were sold on ps3
Combined first week sales worldwide =2.7 million. FFXIII launch in Japan sold 1.5 million. 1.2 million sold in Others and NA regions for FFXIII launch week. 2.25 million copies PS3 version of FFXIII soldm in its combined first week sales. Only 450k copies of FFXIII were sold on the 360 in its first week.
Sold better than FFXII in the west. FFXII= 995k FFXIII= 1.2m YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
XiaoMay says: DirtyP2002 : and then you forget the price of printing, of engraving and of packaging, which of course is a lot more expensive on 3 DVD dble, against one Blue Ray... okay add another 0.001 USD and we are fine.
OMG.... this is some jizz worthy material. All this Final Fantasy news is jizzing me dry. >___<
Worldwide, 61% of units sold were on PS3 and 39% on Xbox360 without Japan ;)
