From VGC: "Final Fantasy producer Naoki Yoshida has said that the reason Final Fantasy 16 doesn’t feature turn-based combat is so that the game will to appeal to a younger audience.
Speaking in the latest issue of Famitsu, translated for VGC by contributor Robert Sephazon, the developer said that the team had to reassess the audience Final Fantasy was appealing to.
“I’m from a generation that grew up with command and turn-based RPGs,” Yoshida said. “I think I understand how interesting and immersive it can be. On the other hand, for the past decade or so, I’ve seen quite a number of opinions saying ‘I don’t understand the attraction of selecting commands in video games’.
“This opinion is only increasing, particularly with younger audiences who do not typically play RPGs.”"
Final Fantasy 16 has likely sold more than 3.5 million copies.
The analyst is called Hideki Yasuda. In 2021 he claimed the 'Fall of PlayStation in Japan is “Definitive”'
https://nichegamer.com/rese...
In 2024 he Hideki Yasuda said The Sony Group may see PS5 as a failure and the envisioned goals are unattainable.
https://www.resetera.com/th...
Curious as to what this means:
'The Japanese branch of GamesIndustry.biz (Translation: DeepL, adjusted)'.
What is DeepL?
@Knushwood Butt
It looks like you also don't know that Google is.
Pro-tip: enter google.com, type "What is DeepL?" and press enter.
What about all the damage he did? People were talking like this game was a flop.
I think that is why he is apologizing. He wants to make sure he doesn’t get sued for defamation.
This isn’t news. The analyst could be right or wrong. Square Enix hasn’t said anything.
When there is knowledge of actual sales you wouldn’t need an analyst. He more or less admits his analysis is wrong but that’s bound to happen in that field. They make predictions that they hope will be useful. This wasn’t.
Anyway, it seems people are taking my comment as an attack on this game. I like the game and hope it does well. Hopefully FF gets a resurgence. They pretty much deserve that. I just think this story is of no importance.
Obviously a game that stayed on the top ten then regularly returned to the top 10/20 and then released on PC would have sold more than .5m more than the first week sales.
Final Fantasy 16 Sold 3 Million Copies During Launch Week
"Square Enix said the milestone includes both physical and digital sales on PlayStation 5."
https://www.ign.com/article...
@pwnmaster3000
They don't wanna believe....... narratives need to be upheld at all costs
Exactly. The analyst does not mean anything.
As far as we know the official sales are still at 3 million.
Always thought it was the case, sold 3 million in the first week and 300k on PC from the last numbers we got, so only 200k extra copies in almost 2 years on PS5 and since the PC release?
Make it make sense lol
Doesn’t matter. People will still believe the mistake. How are you an analyst and get it wrong?
Yep. You better believe in two years when people are making an argument about big AAA games not selling enough, or PS5 exclusives not selling, or Japanese games not selling, or whatever the dumb argument happens to be, this "number" will get cited as evidence. The retraction never has the same reach as the false story.
Lifetime sales of Square Enix's action role-playing game, Final Fantasy XVI, have reached 3.5 million copies.
A terrible game, but good it sold well then they keep the franchise alive. I hope they do better next time with an RPG and not a dmc clone..
I think they’re saying it underperformed and isn’t selling well. It was 3 mill near launch, it only did 500k more and that’s even after a PC launch.
This article is a lie. They announced 3m in a week on ps5. It finished top 20 for the year it release and continued top 20 throughout 2024. By this logic it sold over 3m on launch week and then never sold another copy until pc release.
Also, They are not considering that this was exclusive to PlayStation. Am I correct in this?
If so, its clickbait.
@S2Killinit
They mention the PC version… like 3 mill was the announcement, like a month after release. Now, after the PC release there’s 3.5 mill units sold.
Square has already come out saying this and Rebirth underperformed. Considering how much they spent on development and marketing and the way sales aren’t moving to recoup cost, it’s a little concerning to me, especially as a mega-fan of this franchise.
I didn’t think 16 was the worst game I played, but outside of some epic boss battles and the Benedikta arc… I found it rather boring. The DLC have the best boss fights in a game I’ve played in a while though.
Lol no, it's not a terrible game. Far from it actually. It's just not a FF game.
The problem for me is that the combat was not varied or customisable enough to last the game’s play time.
Otherwise, I agree with RaiderNation it is the reason I held out from buying it until it initially, is it was not the genre I wanted. I am happy for a series to change and grow but I want an RPG to some extent. It’s a shame because it handled narrative and dialogue pretty well.
You buy a game called FF to realize it’s something else is utter lie. I would never have bought it if it was called something else. The game is so boring and poorly exexuted. Beginning and ending are the good sides of it. Rest is trash
@Cacabunga
What did you do? Walk into Gamestop and completely blind buy it without reading any of the reviews/previews or watching any of the YouTube reviews? Hell the game had a demo you could try out before deciding to buy! Don't give me the whole "wow I was completely blindsided by this and had no idea" excuse. That's on you. If you didn't like it, fine. Opinions vary. But don't act like you were a victim to some bait and switch attempt because that's just not reality.
I am an old time FF fan so i never want to spoil any episode. I didnt even want to finish the demo. I liked the feel of it but i didnt expect it would turn into a pure action game.
No i dont watch reviews because they are subjective.
Its ok i didnt like the game things like this happen. Game was just ridiculous, side quests are absolute trash. I have platinum trophy I know what i am talking about.
I supported it as a FF fan, i hope they do better next time.
if you played ff 14 this really did feel like an improved mmo...that is 10 years old.
first ff entry l barely finished and traded in. Bloody horrible storytelling. The story was okay, the execution was cringe af.
Amazingly however the first part was the best part, the demo being the highlight.
Yeah, these numbers are a little hard to believe. If it sold 3 million in the first week and had even a semi-decent launch on PC, for these numbers to be right you'd have to assume it sold basically zero copies on PS5 after its launch week. Given it was in the NPD Top Ten in its second month, and the top twenty its third month, that's hard to believe, even if I'm sure they anticipated it charting higher for longer. That's to say nothing of sales boosts it probably got from PSN sales.
The link that the article is mentioning doesn’t give much context. It likely needs good translation as well.
I hope this helps the 'complete' edition go on sale for a huge discount. It went on sale a while ago for only about 25% off but I'm waiting for that 50% off (or higher) sweet spot.
It underperformed because it was on less platforms I get no one wants to admit
That
It wouldn't have sold that much that better had it also released on XB, people on XB would have only played FFXVI if it was on Gamepass.
If it has the opportunity to launch on all platforms at launch then yes the sales would have been better but it is difficult to say by how much. It would have benefited from the excitement and marketing in that window.
One thing to bear in mind is that it would be a struggle to get the game running on the Xbox because of the series S. The game does not hit a stable 60 on either the base PS5 or PS5 Pro. Based on Digital foundry, it only hits 60 FPS during fight sequences on base PS5. The game is also set to have dynamic resolution so instead of prioritizing frame rate in non battle sequences, the game prioritizes resolution making it difficult for the PS5 Pro to maintain 60 FPS as the game tries to reach 4k native instead of using PSSR. Square really should have updated the game.
I am not saying all this to be unfair to the Xbox because I believe I am one of the most fair users towards that platform on this site. I am just giving you my honest opinion based on my experience with the game.
Players just want to smash wild Chocobos into oblivion.
Final Fantasy 16 was a great game. It had one of the best combat systems out of many JRPGs. It does have some elements of it that could be better, like what the author of this article said. It would have been nice to be able to use fully transformed Eikons at will like in the previous games. I believe the FF13 and FF7 remakes were the last to allow players to do this. Let us hope FF17 will allow players to use summons at will.
POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT: There are some other elements story-wise that could have been better. I would have preferred if Clive was more militant, and he rebelled against the non-Bearers much like Spartacus. That would have had me more invested in the story than him not wanting to change the status quo despite the harsh treatment Bearers across the kingdom faced from their slavers. I also think the FF games in general need to start distancing themselves from these bittersweet endings and give us a happier ending. Yes, you defeated the bad guy, but what is the point if the main characters can't enjoy the victory?
It's what it is. Younger generations and monkey brains will always be the priority for business unfortunately lol.
Man I'd love for them to return to turn based on a mainline FF some day just to test it out instead of testing it out on generic low budget games and spinoffs and concluding that action based is better just because of that lol.
I don't understand, that's a shitty way to look at it
When you have your old school fans you'll always be relevant, no matter how many years go by and sooner or later gamers from younger generations will pick up on the series, especially gamers who are so involved in the scene that they are always up to date with gaming news.
If you want to chase new, younger fans then do spin off games, and if they don't do well then that's unfortunately an internal problem who haven't done a good job at reaching out to them.
This isn't a dig at FF16 but in general, too many studios are using the main core series to chase the younger crowd and trends where the franchise starts to loose it's core roots, basically turning into a new IP with the franchises name slapped on it
Yakuza Like a Dragon, Persona, Dragon Quest, Octopath Traveler for example have shown that people still like turn based games so I don't get their problem.
yeah..I'll just ditch FFXVI in favour of any good turn based j-rpg's releasing as well. FF, the main series kinda sucks since FF13 anyway.
Im not young exactly but I'm glad its not turn based.
SE is blaming the age group instead of the reality in the numbers. Real time is wayyyyy more popular than turn based.
I'm old school..Gen X & I love action jrpgs. I prefer action battle systems over turned-based when it comes to jrpgs. The last turned-based battle system from Final Fantasy I enjoyed was FFXIII though I enjoyed the turn base jrpgs Persona 5 & Dragon Quest XI. I enjoyed the battle system in FFXV including games like Scarlet Nexus,Persona 5 Scramble & Tale Of Arise. FFXVI battle system looks like it's going to be quite fun.