Xbox has an embarrassing Square Enix problem

Square Enix has just announced that Live A Live, the previously Switch-exclusive remake of a stone cold 16-bit classic, is coming to other consoles. What’s it coming to? PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Steam. That’s it. Sorry, Xbox owners.

This is a pattern. Depending on how you want to count it, Square Enix has almost or well in excess of 10 announced releases for this year – and not one of them has or is set to be published on Xbox.

[SullysCigar]

I'm not sure how much it would cost (money and resources) to port to xbox, but perhaps they're concerned about making a worthwhile return. These sorts of games just don't sell well on xbox. PlayStation is a global brand and xbox tends bought by people that want western focused games, if the sales are any indication.

Having to do it twice over for series X and series S won't make that decision any more appealing, either.

[Lifexline]

Not really it's as simple as Sony is the one intimidating developers in japan to not develop for the Xbox. There is a reason congress wants to investigate their anti-competitive practices in Japan from Sony. If it had a steady support from Japanese developers they would sell but they don't. It's because japanese developers are scared to develop for the Xbox because of repercussions from Sony. Just look it up Shinji Mikami spoke about it as have other developers you just have to google it. No one wants to alienate Sony so they don't support the Xbox. The only ones who do have to be financially compensated by MS to do so. How is that not anti-competitive. Especially when Sony pays developers to not release games on Xbox in japan. Yet Sony gamers complaint about MS buying developers and taking away multiplatform games from Xbox when Sony does it as well and they might be investigated for it.

Final Fantasy 13 Sold over 2 million copies on the Xbox 360 with out Japan and it was a worse version of the game, shipped on four discs yet managed to sell 2 million copies. So there is a fanbase of JRPG's on xbox they just need content. I personally don't care for the franchise it's not what it used to be. Even sony publicy said they were dissapointed in Square when they chose to do that release FF on Xbox. Whats the point of that? They are a third party developer they should do as they want. 2 million and that's without japan that is nothing to scoff at that's like Resistance and Killzone sales yet people call those successful. Yet at the same time xbox owners don't buy games other then FPS.

No it's Sony who is preventing that with it's anti-competitive practices it's good they might finally put a stop to it and make it fair. It's all about choices unless Sony buys Square it shouldn't be allowed to pay to exclude games. MS did say they are looking at Japanese developers/publisher to acquire after the Activision deal.

[sinspirit]

Where has Sony factually prevented Japan devs from developing for XBox?

I look up Shinji Mikami and being unable to develop for XBox, repercussions, etcetera and find absolutely nothing about what you are trying to infer. When 360 came out, XBox had a bunch of Japanese exclusives PS3 never got and even two exclusives made by Final Fantasy devs and still got no traction. Where do we ever see Sony making an effort to stop XBox in Japan? All we see are consumers simply not caring for XBox. Tales of Vesperia had a one year timed exclusivity deal with XBox in Japan. When it came to PlayStation, it outsold the XBox versions one year of sales in one day. Sony literally doesn't do anything to challenge XBox there because that's just a waste of money when it's not tracking. It's so bad that Square finally decided to cut a majority of support for porting Japanese type games to the platform at all.

[SoulWarrior]

'Not really it's as simple as Sony is the one intimidating developers in japan to not develop for the Xbox. There is a reason congress wants to investigate their anti-competitive practices in Japan from Sony.'

Where's the evidence to back up this claim? Biased US politicians, one of which I'm pretty sure funds their campaign? Very impartial.

A lot of these types of games either don't sell on Xbox, or not like they used, yeah some sold decently on the 360 but that was a very different gen, now we have gamepass that cannabilises sales (as per what MS themselves have recently said), couple that with a much lower install base, and that most of the demograph has never been in the xbox ecosystem, this is why some games are skipping the platform, hell you would never have seen Yakuza or Persona on Xbox is MS didn't pony up the cash for it.

[Lifexline]

@above Do your research it's all public knowledge youtube interviews from devs, google, it's all out there I'm not doing it for you if you are expecting a signed letter from Sony themselves sorry to disappoint you I don't have that I know that is the only thing that will persuade most rabid fanboys mind. Do you really believe a group of senators are going to put their careers on the line if there actually wasn't something factual to it?????? I get it MS contributed money to at least one of those senators who just happens to be part of their constituent. But the other 10 come on where there is smoke there is fire. Sorry if I don't choose the narrative of people online as opposed to developer interviews, News outlets reporting this stuff, Microsoft themselves in official government documents, and to top it all off congress themselves. Isn't it weird that they sent letters to Japan and not even 24 hours later Japan approved the merger for Activsion obviously they were scared into it. Seriously as much of a fan of Sony you might be come on that had to raise red flags that was not a coincidence.

It's been known for a bit that Sony pays devs to keep games of Xbox. Why else would sony publicly state they are dissapointed that Square released Final Fantasy on Xbox they don't own them. Explain that to me. All I'm saying is imagine if they actually released Final Fantasy on Xbox in Japan and quality wise on par with Playstation. How would it sell but of course it wont happen because of Sony paying them. Like I said if Japanese developers supported the Xbox like Microsoft wanted them to it would be in a better place but because of Sony it's not happening.

As for games releasing on Xbox not selling well they need to release a steady stream of games to build it up. Just look at PSVR2 it's a dud but if Sony supports it with quality games it might become something that's how most things start with a steady support system in place they grow. Look at Halo infinite and the lack of support it's still popular because it has a loyal fanbase but lack of support or at least they wait too long. But if Sony is doing anti-competitive practices in Japan how is that fair?? Lost Odyssey and Tales of Vesperia sold well over 1 million each probably more now. Yes not Final Fantasy numbers but it's better then most games sale.

[sinspirit]

I just told you. I have looked up various ways to word this information with Japanese developers in general and Shinji Mikami. I can't find anything. Others are also asking you. It is your burden because it seems you're lying, working on word of mouth, or misinformed some other way. If it's so easy to find then link us one thing. I've tried, and I'm quite familiar with researching. I specifically told you I can't find the info you have said so that you know to prove it. Are you going to? I'm not trying to be negative here. I'm actually wanting to see this info and be informed.

[FGHFGHFGH]

Yeah they had marketing rights in America. All the commercials for FFX3 had xbox 360 at the end, no mention of ps3 and it still sold like 3 time more on ps3. They ran commercials during nba playoffs and finals, so it was an expensive marketing campaign.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Maybe they were disappointed square released ffx3 on xbox because it was a ps exclusive and ms paid for square to breach their contract.

[Christopher]

***Not really it's as simple as Sony is the one intimidating developers in japan to not develop for the Xbox.***

Do you have proof of that? I can list tons of games that go to Xbox, including last year's best-selling game out of Japan.

Or are we just going with this to suit a bias.

***Final Fantasy 13 Sold over 2 million copies on the Xbox 360 with out Japan and it was a worse version of the game, shipped on four discs yet managed to sell 2 million copies. So there is a fanbase of JRPG's on xbox they just need content.***

At its peak Xbox sold <50% of PlayStation on the first game, even less on the other two games. Since then, FF has lost even more sales on Xbox compared to PS.

I agree it should go everywhere possible because that's what I feel about games in general, but your argument from one figure doesn't really hold up when that was one point and not the totality and it ignores that even that one point was still much less than the competition.

[gerbintosh]

I love how people like to throw around claims without any proof.

[Lifexline]

@above lol damm i really rattled the hornets nest on this one. I remember reading an article from some xbox executive names Bachus or something like that I believe it was a Eurogamer article about them trying to court developers and they were all afraid of even being seen with them. Because of repercussions of Sony. Which is why i stated why would Sony publicly say they were dissapointed with Square for FF13 on Xbox. This was all an account of him trying to win over Japan when Xbox original first launched. How shinji Mikami was fed up with Sony and how difficult it was to develop for the PS2 and they asked for help and they didn't so they went to Nintendo and Xbox. Shinji Mikami has been very vocal about Sony. Like I said i'm not doing the work this is stuff that I read and I also saw on youtube from interviews sorry i don't bookmark every single article in hopes to win a future debate lol.

It's funny how most people here throw claims and no one ever asks them for proof the bias of the moderators is pretty funny as well. You would think they would try to keep a website that tries to be impartial but guess not. Nothing wrong with having a bias towards a specific console clearly some of you do as do I. I make no qualms about it I prefer Xbox it's not a crime. But what is fair is fair. Should I ask for proof of all games that are JRPG on Playstation that sell over 3 million outside of the big franchises? but they don't. People like to bash the Activision deal because allegedly it could potentially remove games from other platforms. But sony does the same thing and they might open an investigation that if it were to happen could shed some light into the inner workings of Sony's deals with japanese developers. Does anyone have a smoking gun obviously not which from my time in this website is the only thing that will satisfy most people that's why i don't bother googling it for most of you. Just saying people should also bash Sony for the Deals it strikes from paying developers to withhold games from Xbox like FF16. That should not be legal I understand Microsoft has also done it in the past and i condemn that as well. I believe all third party developers should do as they please and develop for all platforms if they can financially do it. I understand small developers cant so that's fine. But Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft should not financially compensate any developer to exclude a competitor how is that not anti-competitive. That practice should be outdated. Unless Sony buys Square they should still release FF on Xbox Sony should have no input in that decision but it does. As far as sales go like I said with continued support most things should grow in time not everything is an instant success only several titles in gaming sell a lot not all of them do. People act like all japanese games sell 3 million plus on Playstation yet they dont only a handful do. So should we start saying Playstation owners dont buy japanese games as well outside of proven franchises. But there is no pleasing people on this website at least be open to the possibility when government gets involved that maybe there is something to it. This can of worms was opened because of Sony's response to the deal now everything is getting scrutinized which i think is great it will benefit everyone in the long run.

[NotoriousWhiz]

Senators and factual don't really belong in the same sentence.

[crazyCoconuts]

@lifexline, with all that proof of developer intimidation out there on YouTube, I'd think you'd just paste those easy to find links and save yourself the trouble of writing an essay describing them

[MeteorPanda]

Bro, no ones intimidating, stop forcing xbox gamers to accept jrpg - they didn't buy the system for it and they're fine?

Xbox sells poorly in Japan, so thats already a lot of missed sales.

It's like expecting cod on switch, let it go man.

[sinspirit]

So..

Your initial claim is that Sony was intimidating developers to not work with XBox. You specifically state Shinji Mikami as an example. Now you're not talking about that and are listing other criticisms. All I can tell by your comments is nothing factual, but a very common issue with media today. Taking a culmination of many facts and info and muddling them together so you end up sounding like you got a point, but upon looking it up we can't find proof because it's too mixed up.

"It's been known for a bit that Sony pays devs to keep games of Xbox"

Just like MS also has bought third party games. But, in the case of what you're talking about.. absolutely no one was afraid to release XBox ports or even to have XBox exclusives. I just told you several huge JRPG's were XBox exclusives and Japan still wasn't interested. So are you gonna say consumers were paid by Sony now?

Also, back on your "disappointed" topic with FF13. Dude. You're reaching so hard. In an interview with Jack Tretton, he was specifically asked about FF13 being announced to also come to XBox. They asked if he was disappointed in that announcement. He simply said yes but that he is not surprised. They also had zero money to throw around like you're thinking they did. XBox didn't sell in Japan. PS3 barely had an install base in Japan. They were so exhausted of money from developing PS3, bluray, and CELL that they absolutely had no funds to push some made up monopolistic practice to fend off a console with exceptionally low sales that was gaining no traction even with many JRPG's that never made it to PS3 at all.

Also, FF16 is a 6 month timed exclusive, and the decision behind this was actually because Sony engineers and dev teams assisted them in developing and optimizing the game, as well as promoting the game. This allows them to release the game on time or sooner than they would on PlayStation platforms rather than wait till all versions are completed and optimized together. They are releasing on PC after. We don't know about an XBox version yet, however.. Square recently came out and said that Japan style games don't do well on XBox and they will only release on a case by case basis. Sony isn't even paying to stay off XBox and Japan devs don't want to release on it. It just isn't profitable, or it's so risky to get back a small return that no one wants to take the risks. You're really just trying to find something based off little evidence, and I stress the word evidence is loosely used as it's a bit of a reach. I don't understand throwing so much conspiracy theories without objective evidence. Also, the misunderstanding you seem to be making is the Judge allowing MS to seek info on any deals Sony may have made to keep games off of GamePass. Not to do with Japan. This is also a more negative way to word PS Plus Premium exclusives, and I believe GamePass has done this. Obviously if it's an exclusive you can word it as being paid to be kept off other platforms/services. Which, back on the Japan claim.. means you'd be saying MS is the actual one who paid Japan devs to keep away from PS3.. if you want to keep using the negative and sorta misleading way to explain how exclusivity works.

[Owlbert]

Welcome to n4g Brother...home of the Sony fanboy,and lots of dislikes✌️

[EvertonFC]

WHAT 😂🤣

[andy85]

You're forgetting the 360 was the more popular console when FFXIII released. Now it's leagues behind.

[SullysCigar]

So long story short, @Lifexline, you have no proof for your baseless claims. Got it.

[shinoff2183]

Lifexline

Congress wants to investigate lol, 11(at the time maybe more now) people said something and from what ive seen it started with one or more from washinton state. Home of ms hmmmm interesting.

Again if ms isnt throwing money to square for gamepass do you think wants to keep porting games for a customer base(xbox) that arent buying games. MS broke some of yall to the point if it aint on gamepass you guys arent playing it IE buying it, You think sony put in for live a live to be a secondary exclusive gtfoh. second can you sit here and tell me ms doesnt have 3rd party exclusives why the f does it matter where there from. Also to be technical ff13 is said to have sold 1.9 million, so out of 12.5 million 1.9 sold on xbox. How much was development for square to port that to 360 . I personally dont know but maybe just maybe its not worth it.

Then last to make it fair sure the same way ms went up and bought damn near the whole western rpg market. Come on man just buy some games.

[boing1]

Tl;dr. Just accept that Japan doesn't care about Xbox.

[SurgicalMenace]

You sound goofy, bruh. Intimidate? Let's look at a couple of factors. Octopath Travelers was on XB, but not part 2. Perhaps SQUARE ENIX knows more than you about the level of return they receive. If they can't get a return on a title that went straight to GP, why bother? So, Sony is intimidating devs from putting games on XB? Not Nintendo, though? It can't have anything to do with MS only selling 2.3 million console in Japan over 10 years? MS only puts out as much effort as their community show they're willing to support. When you have a "I'll wait until it's on Gold/GP" community no company is going to have confidence in put their best offerings on XB. That wasn't Sony who did that it was the XB gamers, they're just trying to displace blame now. Keeping lying to yourself. Do you feel better now?

[RpgSama]

They released Crisis Core on the Xbox, surely it sold like crap, that's why they are not wasting any effort to get other games there.

For everyone complaining, Octopath Traveler has been on Xbox for years and has not been released on PlayStation to this day, they probably did it only because they paid for it to be on GP, if not, not worth the effort.

[Mcardle]

If you are on xbox and a final fantasy fan, why would you buy a prequel to a game that Sony have paid to not appear on your platform? If you want to play Final fantasy you will likely own a PS, its a chicken and egg situation and the only way to build a fanbase on a console is by releasing games for it. The effort and cost outlay is minimal as well given they are releasing on PC, so its 100% Sony deals rather than low sales volume.

[--Onilink--]

Well, part of being a global brand is doing as much as possible to reach everywhere.

I have no doubt that some games would not see a sufficient ROI, specially with Square Enix and their usually horrible expectations/budget managment/marketing but it still has to be part of their global reach, not everything can be so reductive (though that’s certainly been SE way of doing things for a while)

If even way small publishers and indie titles have no issues releasing on as many platforms as possible, its honestly a bit embarrassing and telling of just how bad the management at Square Enix is right now, that they’ve basically decided they cant or wont even try to target 30% of the current gen market

[--Onilink--]

@notachance

My beloved brand? I dont even have an Xbox… though I’ve had in the past, I’ve purchased and/or played every platform available since the SNES days, I dont care about idiotic console wars nor am I delusional enough to base my physical or online persona on a Company just because I purchased their product.
Right now I have PC, PS5 and Switch…., and no, im nowhere near UK, im from Central America, where undoubtedly Xbox doesnt have as good a distribution as Sony and Nintendo, not that I see how that has anything to do with anything I said..

Also, I’m replying to someone who literally mentioned the global brand… therefore I’m replying that its kind of hard for Square Enix to expand their business if they are actively targeting less people. You yourself are saying how different and important it is for Nintendo and Sony to supply to as many people as possible..

And yes, Square Enix has been a dumpster fire in terms of management for several years now, its not exactly a secret

[Vengeance1138]

The last Square Enix games that came to Xbox were Final Fantasy Crisis Core Reunion, The Diofield Chronicles and Star Ocean: The Divine Force. If Square Enix saw a drastic sales gap on these titles compared to PS4/PS5 then it would make sense that overall it just may not be financially worth it to port to Xbox anymore.
In the end Publishers don't have to port everywhere, they can have a preference.

[Tacoboto]

It seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy then. Put the least-marketed and contextually awkward titles on the platform, say they didn't do well, pull out support from the platform. Seems morally and ethically in line with a gaming company that's still trying to force NFTs onto us.

An FFVII mobile port spinoff remake, for an audience that never got FFVII remake. Star Ocean with mid reviews from a franchise that's historically been mid, and whatever Diofield was.

Whatever the actual business reason is, it would be very interesting to learn.

[phoenixwing]

Diofield is a great game. I bought it day one for ps5

[RpgSama]

I'm sure they did not do well when compared to the same game on other platforms. I surely do not think they are comparing Diofield sales on Xbox Vs FFVII remake on PlayStation.

[notachance]

“and whatever diofield was”

that right there is why SE didn’t even bother. even someone like you who knows many context about SE titles said that, imagine what the average pew pew bros think.

[anast]

You are St. Matthew of moral economics...nice

[darkrider]

I think there is a news coming in the next month's. Just after some deal is over. I think it's inevitable and already done.

[isarai]

They just dont sell well enough on xbox consoles, that's just the reality of it🤷‍♂️. MS wants to have the favor of jp game devs and fans but without the initial struggle of starting slow. so they never fully commit and you end up in this situation.

[shinoff2183]

Ms did a fantastic job with jrpgs back on 360. Then it just dropped off a cliff.

[isarai]

They did a good job securing the games, but barely helped market them at all compared to other exclusive games at the time. A repeat of the many amazing jp exclusive games they had from the OGXBOX era like Otogi, outrun, Spikeout, Breakdown, etc that despite being amazing exclusive titles, most people never even knew existed.

[Hofstaderman]

Agreed. I bought a 360 for the Last Remenant, Tales of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey, Star Ocean, Eternal Sonata, and Blue Dragon.

[shinoff2183]

Thats kinda what i meant. Just thought it was implied. Ms did good with getting them to 360 whether they sold like shit or not. Take lost odyssey it would of sold way way better on ps no doubt.

I think alot of you took it to literal.

[repsahj]

speaking of Lost Odyssey, I hope they revive it. I'm on fence on jumping in because of that game.

[SirBruce]

Game Pass is a really high cliff... being on Xbox without a good deal on exclusivity or Game Pass is an economic suicide right now.

[shinoff2183]

Maybe ms didn't offer gamepass money. It's not like it would sell on its own. We all know this, me, you, ms, square

[ApocalypseShadow]

This is the right answer.

What happened to Phil taking a trip to Japan to secure these games like before? We all know they got the *money*

If Xbox fans were buying these Japanese games consistently instead of waiting for a game pass release, we wouldn't see these articles or complaints that they aren't coming all the time.

Nintendo and Sony fans are buying. That's why they get them. But other gamers always say

SALES DON'T MATTER.

Lol. Obviously, they do matter. And the rest of us know it. It's why the new Yakuza game and Ronin were only announced for PS5. Because these games have a potential to sell.

[BandarHub]

"Sony fans are buying"
No they are not...
"Because these games have a potential to sell."
That is Hilarious

Like a Dragon: Ishin!, 35,897 copies sold on PlayStation 4 and 31,439 copies on PlayStation 5, total of 67,336 copies sold.

Octopath Traveler II, 14,422 sales on PlayStation 5 for a total of 68,417 copies sold

Valkyrie Elysium, with over 40,000 units sold in total, over 23,000 of which came on the PS4, and 17,000 on the PS5.

Star Ocean,

A large majority of them are in Japan as well so the west are not buying jrpgs anymore. There is a tiny minority of people who do and kudos to them.

These are really bad numbers and the jrpg market is only shrinking
Exclusivity is not benefiting these games.

It's clear that people are not playing them so it needs to come on gamepass so that people can actually have access to play them.

In the meantime, a shadow-dropped game Hifi Rush reaches 2 Million gamers whereas games that are exclusive to Japanese consoles are not even reaching 100k in sales.

[Zhipp]

@Bandar
I can't speak for the rest but octopath traveler had quite strong sales in the switch so that may be a case of the core audience for that type of game having already played it on another platform.

[Nyxus]

@ BandarHub: Both Octopath and Ishin were in the top 10 of the NPD charts that were released yesterday. Hi-Fi Rush wasn't even in the top 20.

[RedDevils]

@BandarHub now can you list the xbox sale then. Or is it too embarrassing to put it?

[SoulWarrior]

@Bandar

You're talking about very niche games, some without much marketing at all,

"It's clear that people are not playing them so it needs to come on gamepass so that people can actually have access to play them."

Ah yes, give a game away for free, what a perfect response to underwhelming sales, while ignoring how niche the games are and how little the marketing was.

"In the meantime, a shadow-dropped game Hifi Rush reaches 2 Million gamers whereas games that are exclusive to Japanese consoles are not even reaching 100k in sales."

Story of Xbox these days, they have to give a game away to fill gamepass for it to gain any traction. Wonder how many of those players resulted in sales and/or revenue.

[Abracadabra]

Square Enix already belongs to Sony. It just hasn't been announced yet...

[SullysCigar]

Go look up the sales differentials between PS and xbox for these games. Xbox gamers barely purchased these games. Now gamepass is a thing, that issue will only be compounded - hardly incentivises developers towards xbox, does it?

[Hofstaderman]

It’s embarrassing in that none of the prior Square games sold on the system. Simple matter of economics: XBOX owners didn’t buy Final Fantasy XV, FF Type 0, Kingdom Hearts, Crises Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion etc.

Why would Square waste resources releasing games for the system if they not selling?

[Zhipp]

FFXV broke a million copies on Xbox. Now, that may be significantly lower than PlayStation, but it's still a lot of copies sold and likely a good ROI considering the relative ease of porting games these days. Kingdom hearts I don't have figures for, but considering that it is a series with high Western appeal it likely sold much better on Xbox than something like Live a Live would.

Square has said in the past that they look to improve sales in the west. Releasing on Xbox makes sense in that regard, but only for games that have appeal for that audience. FFXVI and FFVII: remake would have been good candidates for that were it not for the deals they made with Sony for those titles. FfVii: reunion may have even stood a chance on Xbox had they released Remake on the system as well -- though i don't think we have sales figures for that game on Xbox either way.

[jznrpg]

You can’t decide ROI for companies that’s reaching at best .

[Chevalier]

A million copies probably is a loss though when you consider cost of porting, advertising and development cost. Xbox gamers have the lowest attach rates by far. They average about 6 games sold. Just to give you an idea how low that is the average PS4 gamer bought about 12 games per console (broke the game sales record all time with 1.5 games sold to about 120 million PS4 consoles sold.

Plus a million for FF XV is pretty terrible. If you go to DQ, KH those sales don't even hit a million even probably. As for Sony's deal is that any different than Xbox deals to skip Playstation? Like Scorn/Warhammer Darktides/Stalker 2/Valheim/Contraband/Ark 2 etc?

[shinoff2183]

1 million copies of 10 mill sold I believe. Come on.

of 10 million sold. Still embarrassing.

[Bathyj]

Microsoft Wants to Foster a generation of cheap bastards that don't buy games. This is the repercussion of that. Buy some games or shut up.

[SullysCigar]

"Microsoft Wants to Foster a generation of cheap bastards that don't buy games."

It's almost like if they can't win the game, they're going to ruin it for everyone else, flip the board and storm out. Gaming is hardly a breadwinner for Microsoft, so they can risk trashing the industry as they fold.

[Flakegriffin]

Microsoft showed their long term goal during the Xbox one announcement.

They rather you pay to rent the game than own your own copy.

[Panhandler]

I haven't played a FF game since FF9 on the OG PS1. Once FFX came out I was so turned off by it I quit the series entirely.

[RedDevils]

And yet ffx is one of the best JRPG of all time.

[Flawlessmic]

Yea wtf, ffx is my favourite!!

Although ff9 is a very close second for me

[shinoff2183]

7, 9, 6, 10, 8 for me

[Flawlessmic]

For me its:

10,9,7,12,8,15,13.

I'm hoping the rumours of a ff9 remake are true.

[Hereandthere]

This is just a start, more 3rd party publishers will follow because it's not worth the trouble of porting a game to 2 different consoles when you know sales ware going to be awful.

[BandarHub]

Lets not pretend that the Playstation and Switch are doing great for Japanese games.

Like a Dragon: Ishin!, 35,897 copies sold on PlayStation 4 and 31,439 copies on PlayStation 5, total of 67,336 copies sold.
Octopath Traveler II, 14,422 sales on PlayStation 5 for a total of 68,417 copies sold
Valkyrie Elysium, with over 40,000 units sold in total, over 23,000 of which came on the PS4, and 17,000 on the PS5.
Star Ocean must have been in the 40k range as well.

A large majority of them are in Japan as well so the west are not buying jrpgs anymore. There is a tiny minority of people who do and kudos to them.

These are really bad numbers and the jrpg market is only shrinking
Exclusivity is not benefiting these games.

It's clear that people are not playing them so it needs to come on gamepass so that people can actually have access to play them.

In the meantime, a shadow-dropped game Hifi Rush reaches 2 Million gamers whereas games that are exclusive to Japanese consoles are not even reaching 100k in sales.

[Nyxus]

February 2023 Circana: Top 20 best-selling games of the month in the U.S.

1 Hogwarts Legacy Warner Bros. Interactive
2 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) Activision Blizzard (Corp)
3 Dead Space (2023) Electronic Arts
4 Madden NFL 23 [EA Sports] Electronic Arts
5 FIFA 23 [EA Sports] Electronic Arts
6 The Last of Us: Part 1 Sony (Corp)
7 Elden Ring Bandai Namco Entertainment
8 Wild Hearts Electronic Arts
9 Like a Dragon: Ishin! Sega
10 Octopath Traveler II Square Enix Inc (Corp)

https://venturebeat.com/gam...

Pretty good for Ishin and Octopath II I'd say. Hi-Fi Rush isn't in the charts though.