Original Article by DualSHOCKERS.
Giuseppe Nelva said:
Final Fantasy XV marks the grand return of the Final Fantasy franchise with a mainline title, and if you don’t cound XIII-2 and Lightning Returns (the definition of which as mainline Final Fantasy titles is quite debatable, regardless of what you think of their quality), the Japanese audience didn’t get a new one for a whopping seven yeas.
Due to that, it’s quite understandable that many are seeing the game as a litmus test for the local popularity of the franchise, of the JRPG genre, and even of home consoles as a whole.
While we’ll get more information on Wednesday, December 7th, when the Media Create charts related to this week will be released, we already have early reports from local store managers, that have been writing about the performance of the game in their shops.
Last week, the store manager of the popular Tokyo-based independent store Games Ma-Ya, in the Edogawa district, reported an increase in pre-orders due to the quality of the latest Judgement Diskdemo, that was indeed quite impressive.
Between yesterday’s launch (that attracted a sizable crowd in front of Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara) and today, she has been providing more performance information on her own blog.
She mentioned that the game has been the best seller during both past days (beating Pokémon Sun & Moon, that has been selling like hot ramen lately), and defined it a “hit title.”
During launch day people have been coming into the shop in higher numbers than usual even after the usual slow time at 11:00 AM. During rush hour at 6:00 PM when people go home from work, people have been visiting the store every time the train passed the local station.
In her latest post, she also mentioned that the game has been helping in selling consoles as well.
The manager of PAO, in the Nishitama district of Tokyo, also gave information on the sell-through of the game, mentioning that the game sold a sizable 48% of the initial shipment in its first day, with numbers matching his expectations. He also mentioned that this time the game was released on a Thursday, so it’ll be important to see how the game will do during the usually more busy weekend shopping.
Of course, the final result will be clear next Wednesday, but so far, so good.
Due to that, it’s quite understandable that many are seeing the game as a litmus test for the local popularity of the franchise, of the JRPG genre, and even of home consoles as a whole.
While we’ll get more information on Wednesday, December 7th, when the Media Create charts related to this week will be released, we already have early reports from local store managers, that have been writing about the performance of the game in their shops.
Last week, the store manager of the popular Tokyo-based independent store Games Ma-Ya, in the Edogawa district, reported an increase in pre-orders due to the quality of the latest Judgement Diskdemo, that was indeed quite impressive.
Between yesterday’s launch (that attracted a sizable crowd in front of Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara) and today, she has been providing more performance information on her own blog.
She mentioned that the game has been the best seller during both past days (beating Pokémon Sun & Moon, that has been selling like hot ramen lately), and defined it a “hit title.”
During launch day people have been coming into the shop in higher numbers than usual even after the usual slow time at 11:00 AM. During rush hour at 6:00 PM when people go home from work, people have been visiting the store every time the train passed the local station.
In her latest post, she also mentioned that the game has been helping in selling consoles as well.
The manager of PAO, in the Nishitama district of Tokyo, also gave information on the sell-through of the game, mentioning that the game sold a sizable 48% of the initial shipment in its first day, with numbers matching his expectations. He also mentioned that this time the game was released on a Thursday, so it’ll be important to see how the game will do during the usually more busy weekend shopping.
Of course, the final result will be clear next Wednesday, but so far, so good.