Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth have failed to meet sales expectations, according to Square Enix. The company has reiterated this point after previously reporting that Final Fantasy XVI didn’t meet its expectations while this year’s Rebirth sold only half of Remake. Players are now debating whether PS5 exclusivity is to blame for these underwhelming sales.
Square Enix provided an outline of its financial results briefing it held back in May confirming that sales for Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth weren’t as strong as the company hoped they would be compared to the stronger sales numbers of previous entries in the series. Of course, we have to take into account that both games launched exclusively on PS5 which doesn’t have as expansive of a player base as past consoles including the PS4, which had sold triple the PS5’s sales by the time Remake launched in 2020.
Final Fantasy XV launched in 2016 on both PS4 and Xbox One, meaning it launched to a much wider player base. Final Fantasy VII Remake would eventually find stronger footing following its PC release too.
In the case of Final Fantasy XVI and Rebirth, though, both titles launched exclusively on PS5 which, despite strong ongoing sales, clearly wasn’t enough to break bank for Square Enix. It’s hard to argue with the fact that the PS5 exclusivity might’ve stunted the sales of both aforementioned titles.
There’s a silver lining to all of this, thankfully. Back in May, Square Enix confirmed that it would be making most of its AAA games multiplatform going forward. The company also says it also plans on bringing more games to Xbox in the future.
Unfortunately, the ambitious Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy might not be available on Xbox until after the third and final entry releases, at least according to RPG Site’s Alex Donaldson.
Source: Square Enix
