Looks like FF Type-0 has completely flopped in Japan.

[BrokenHeart]

I do agree with many points there. I could have waited for a drop on LR, because I saw how quickly 13-2 dropped...and games in general in the UK. It's pretty insane in this country how quickly everything drops now. I bought LR day one, though, because I'm a fucking sucker for pre-order bonuses (part of the problem), and I did have an attachment to the trilogy that I wanted to see through. But, boy, when I saw how quickly LR dropped, I made the decision to wait on Type-0, on top of the fact I really wasn't feeling it at all with that one. I didn't agree with the price for a handheld port, skipping Vita, and the demo wasn't tempting to me (I'd rather play the full game) - so waiting it out seems logical, and I think it's what many people are doing with it.

It's hard to judge at this point. I do think FFXV won't be the massive success some expect it to be. Lots of people have given up on it after now being 10 years older. I think SE has its work cut out, and has to really push XV to the masses as best it can. It's not going to be a walk in the park in the slightest. It's a difficult one, though, because I'm not convinced by the total real time approach to the game. Although I haven't played the demo to form an opinion, it's not exactly what makes me tick, and I wonder how many FF fans of old feel the same.

Yeah, the way console FF games drop in price here in NYC is crazy. It first happened with FFXIII-2, but now seems to be a regular event. That's why I no longer buy FF games on day one. I made an exception for Type-0 HD because I really wanted FFXV: Episode Duscae, but I'm already regretting it, as I know in a few weeks it will $30 in some Brooklyn retailers.

I think FFXV will become the lowest selling 3D FF. There, I said it. I just don't see it performing as well as other 3D FF games based on the lack of mainstream interest in FFXV: Episode Duscae. I found the demo itself enjoyable, but didn't feel like a game I waited 9 years for. Also, the camera and lock-on have major problems while in battle. I hope it's all fixed in the final game, but going off the state of the camera in Type-0 HD, even when Tabata said it was improved from the original PSP version, I doubt it will.

 

[BrokenHeart]

Source? As of March 2007, the game had shipped over 5.2 million copies worldwide. I don't see any further numbers.

It's from an interview with Yoshinori Kitase around when FFXIII released in Japan. So in December 2009, FFXII had sold through, not shipped, over 6 million worldwide. I'm currently looking for the source and will update this post when I find it.

EDIT:

OK, seeing as I've now made my 1Truth2Lies thread, I can now say that my source for this info actually came from him. It's from a Japanese website interview with Kitase in November 2009. It's in Japanese, but I have the direct translation.

『ファイナルファンタジー（FINAL FANTASY）』の第1作が発売されたのが1987年。それから20余年が経ち、現在では最新作の発表の度に、日本、北米、ヨーロッパなど世界中で数百万本を売り上げる「怪物」ゲームに成長している。2006年にプレイステーション2上で発売された『FF XII』は全世界で現在までに600万本以上の売り上げを達成した。

Translation of the part in bold: "FF XII" was released on the PlayStation 2 in 2006 and has to date achieved more than 6 million sales worldwide.

http://gendai.ismedia.jp/articles/print/54

 

[Squirrel Emperor]

Final Fantasy Type-0 performed the way it did because it was a 6th generation looking game on a 8th generation console. Nobody is buying a PS4 and XB1 to play outdated looking games otherwise what is the point of their existence? This is why the Final Fantasy XV demo was pushed more then Final Fantasy Type-0 was because it is a 8th generation looking game. But that only did so much.

I don't think consumers are stupid though. When videogame demos have been free to download for the longest time now, you expect future demos to be free as well. You don't expect to pay shit and I think people realize that's what they would be doing with the FFXV demo if they ended up buying Final Fantasy Type-0.

The game should not have cost $60 but Square Enix felt that they could get away with it because of the demand for Final Fantasy XV. It acted as a nice incentive and was suppose to be what lured people in. Only a couple hundred thousand people fell for it but who were these people exactly? Probably your hardest of hardcore Final Fantasy fans who don't care if they paid that much or not.

Final Fantasy XV will have a bigger marketing budget and will be pushed much harder then Final Fantasy Type-0. It's a bigger deal. It's going to target a much larger group of people, something Final Fantasy Type-0 was never going to do from the start.

 

[LeonBlade]

Your response was scattershot at best. FFXIV ARR doesn't employ a subscription model in China so you're already wrong before you even started. The game has 500K subscribers worldwide, with a pay-per-minute model in China. The bottom line is simple: There may be over 4 million accounts of FFXIV ARR made, but there's only 500K actual subscribers. It don't matter what the purpose of the source article was, as Square Enix outright say ARR has 500K subscribers.

Of course, but you're forgetting the part where I mentioned that WoW DOES include their Chinese players as part of their subscriber base when making the comparison. You also failed to address where I asked you to find me an MMO that is doing better than XIV outside of WoW.

Based on a lodestone poll there are actually more than 730K active subscribers, these numbers are not 100% conclusive I believe, I'm not entirely sure how the poll was done, however the number is at least 733,267. Some requirements for this poll with active characters being they must be above level 21, and any changes to HP/mount/minion/gear counts character as active. 255,626 of the polled players were new.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/33cc1k/latest_lodestone_population_survey_730k_active/
Main Source: http://luckybancho.ldblog.jp/archives/43689452.html

 

[BladeRunner]

Based on a lodestone poll there are actually more than 730K active subscribers, these numbers are not 100% conclusive I believe, I'm not entirely sure how the poll was done, however the number is at least 733,267. Some requirements for this poll with active characters being they must be above level 21, and any changes to HP/mount/minion/gear counts character as active. 255,626 of the polled players were new.

From what I get, it's the number of characters, not subscribers. These numbers aren't the same because you can have multiple characters on a single account (well, you can in every mmo so I assume ff14 is no different).

 

[buddhafied]

From what I get, it's the number of characters, not subscribers. These numbers aren't the same because you can have multiple characters on a single account (well, you can in every mmo so I assume ff14 is no different).

This is true, although the amount of multiple characters in FFXIV:ARR can't be that significant, given that it's a game where your character can play all the class/jobs, it's not like WoW where you need to create another character for another class. I'm on a legacy server and majority of my friends was carried thru from 1.23, only one or two of us bother to have multiple characters, and it was only because they want to experience the story again, as the dialogue is a bit different if you're a legacy.