Sales of Final Fantasy XVI and VII Rebirth "did not meet expectations," says Square Enix
Square Enix has stated that the sales of its two largest RPG releases did not meet expectations, with both titles releasing as PS5 exclusives likely contributing to the underwhelming sales figures.
The details:
Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu revealed the commercial underperformance of its most recent Final Fantasy titles in a recently published financial results briefing, which was originally held in May. "In the HD Games sub-segment, we released multiple new titles, including major titles such as Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but profits unfortunately did not meet our expectations,โ Kiryu said. The president went on to add that sales of Foamstars and FF7 Rebirth were also "not as strong as expected.โ
Around the time of the briefing, the company announced that it was shifting to a multiplatform strategy, which was likely in response to declining sales. Both FF16 and Rebirth were released as PS5 exclusives, so it can be argued that if the titles had been available on Xbox and possibly PC from launch, initial sales figures could have been significantly higher. Square has not released any official sales figures for Rebirth, but did confirm that more than three million copies of FF16 were sold in the first few days.
Despite lower-than-expected sales of its single-player Final Fantasy releases, FF14 has continued to perform well critically and commercially, and many see it as helping Square stay afloat. Sales of Foamstars also failed to pick up, prompting Square to make the game free to play starting next month.
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