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NPD best selling Final Fantasy and Resident Evil games in the US between 1995 and February 2020
- Thread starter Naga
- Start date
Bad initial platform choice (GC) and it getting released digital only initially didn't really help. RE4 in comparison which also used to be GC exclusive got shifted to PS2, then to Wii and like every platform known to mankind after and became a sale juggernaut. The series losing the exclusivity bullshit after that was a great thing, since it allowed the Remakes of RE2 and RE3 to flourish and for RE5, RE6 and RE7 to sell bucket loads. Screw RE1 Remake's GC exclusivity (and RE4's initial GC exclusivity), I love Mikami but that was the dumbest thing he ever did in his career (along with with his childish "cut my head off if RE4 goes to PS2" comment).
Fans latch onto any bad/less than amazing news if a sequel disappoints them as that it was a complete failure. For a long-running series, every new game is going to be the game that ruined the franchise forever for at least a few people.
And it sold yes... but it was also a clusterfuck and a half to make. Like... Final Fantasy Versus XIII spent a long time in development Hell, and the DLCs were eventually shitcanned. So I think people read "troubled production + cancelled expansion plans = Failure, bail, bail bail!".
That said, I wonder what the profit margin on the game was? It sold fantastically, but again... was a clusterfuck and a half to make.
That was just a weird fucking choice to me. A lot of people at Capcom decided that PS2 would get Onimusha and DMC, Gamecube would get the mainline RE franchise, and Xbox would get Dino Crisis minus everything good about Dino Crisis (including the cast and actual dinosaurs).
Because this is ranked by dollar amount of box copies only.
The $100 PS2 version of FF11 likely jumped it up the rankings.
Also, excludes DLC and microtransactions and dont know what they consider DLC. Are the expansions considered DLC? Are the Complete editions that include base game and expansions counted?
armchair analyzing but i'd imagine sheer profit overhead of any successful MMO is through the roof. not that maintaining an MMO isn't expensive AF but AAA one-and-done games like FFXV you hope for a blip of profit aggregated over 18 some odd months and that's kinda that. and it's not like the online FFs ran up crazy marketing budgets with super bowl spots or whatever (that i'm aware of)
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Not only was it weird, the other weirdest part was that Capcom kept making Resident Evil games for PS2 around that time between REmake, RE0 and RE4 came out too - Outbreak File 1 and 2 and Dead Aim and Dino Crisis lightgun spin off on PS2 - Dino Stalker.
I especially love when people try the "A great Metacritic score and the best sales in the franchise speak nothing of quality" when it comes to a game they didn't like, and then you see those same people celebrating that a game they like reviewed great on Metacritic, and you also see them on sales threads celebrating the same. I learned to not engage with such hypocrites.
I was gonna say "But there was Outbreak" (hence why I said "mainline games")... and I completely forgot about Bruce McGivern's boat trip and the electric lady tyrant.
I've got a feeling that Code Veronica X not selling to expectations when it ported to PS2 played a part in it (since it was seen as "mainline" by Capcom back then) so they switched to GC but the fact that Capcom went behind Mikami's back and ported RE4 to PS2 against his will was hilarious to read about back then. Then he made God Hand for PS2 anyway, so I don't understand what the guy was thinking. lol
FFXV is actually the worst reviewed mainline FF game. Save for OG XIV. It's still in the 80s but barely.
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That doesn't conflict with anything the other poster said.
It's still a critical and financial success, and one of the biggest successes for Square-Enix. Too bad a few whiners still refuse to get it.
Are the sequels/prequels to mainline games considered mainline? I always thought of like X-2 and the like as spinoffs.
Makes sense RE5 sold as well as it did, that game is really well remembered for it's co-op campaign and I imagine a lot of people bought copies to play online with a friend.
As of December 2019
RE5 did 7.6 million PS3, 360, PC
RE5 Gold did 2.3
RE5 did 1.6 on PS4, XBone,
RE4 did 1.6 Gamcube
Re4 did 2.3 Ps2
RE4 did 2 Wii
RE4 did 1.6 PS4, etc
semantics but i would say they're not
SE seemingly tried to get around this with the fabula nova thing where multiple games can get that premier 'mainline' sales goodness but *raspberry*
RE5 stays winning
RE5 haters were an extreme vocal minorityand wasn't much disliked until 6 released and more people started throwing blame on 5.
The same people that say "RE4 is a classic style RE" with a straight face.
Resident Evil kinda has a bad fanbase thats all over the place.(which im part of)
RE5 haters were an extreme vocal minorityand wasn't much disliked until 6 released and more people started throwing blame on 5.
The same people that say "RE4 is a classic style RE" with a straight face.
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They're not standalone, you have to play them in release order to understand the story, and they're lower budget so it's not fair to compare them to the main games.
At some point Square needed to phase out XV in order to start the marketing campaigns for Final Fantasy VII Remake.
As much as I loved XV, it just needed to end.
kind of the caveat though apparently SE didn't see the return they wanted. either they were just stupid or FFXV was stupid expensive to make and franchise watermarks are negligible
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X/XIII-2 = mainline imo.
Games with different gameplay and just there to add lore, while technically sequels, are spinoffs. Like Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core for FFVII, or Tactics Advance 2 for XII.
Budget doesn't matter much in that regard. Like X-2, they're mainline direct sequels marketed as such by S-E.
Just like the FFXV DLC episodes could have been released as a full game in a different era.
When was the last time that capcom announced ww numbers for RE games?
I thought most agreed that
Classic:
0
REHD
ps1(trilogy)
CV
Imo RE5 is nowhere near as good as RE4, but it's still a fun game.
People have said that? :O
I thought most agreed that
Classic:
0
REHD
ps1(trilogy)
CV
Imo RE5 is nowhere near as good as RE4, but it's still a fun game.
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They're updated basically every quarter on their website, as it's a million seller franchise.
We should get the next update (including RE3) in about 2 weeks.
FF fan here and XV is one of my favorite. I wouldn't consider myself a huge RE fan though, however, I did enjoy RE5 a great deal.
With inflation, all those games would cost $60 by today's standard (X, XI, XII) or more (VII, VIII, IX). All thos games costed $50 at launch.
Lol. I still remember these jokes. People insisted it even when the game broke even and profited at launch.
This is very true. It is hard to tell sometimes cause some are very serious when they say somethings that come off as inane or sarcastic.
Lol.
And yet, FFXII released when PS2 was over 105+ Million consoles were on the market.
Compare that to FFXIII on PS3(~35M) and 360 (~ 40M)
Or FFXV with PS4(~53M) and Xbox One (~24M)
So, no, I reject this "it released on two platforms" nonsense when PS2 alone outsold (and had more sales when XII released) the PS3 and 360 combined, and very likely outsold PS4 and Xbox One combined.
JRPGs are front loaded. So if sales were dependent on the amount of potential buyers, FFIX and FFXII would have the best numbers, by this logic.
Has nothing to do with amount of consoles. Has everything to do with the two games appealing to a mass audience.
The source says physical box copies and full game digital downloads. So...no? It's not just physical copies sold.
I think it makes sense for RE5 to be above RE4 on a dollar-based chart. The only time RE4 was a true full-priced game was on GameCube, where it launched for $50. When it came to PS2, it was actually only $40 (with a $50 steelbook LE). On Wii, it was $30, while everything else after that was $20 (PS3, 360, XB1, PS4) or $30 (Switch lol).
Meanwhile, RE5 was a $60 game with even higher priced LEs. Gold Edition was $50 as well.
Meanwhile, RE5 was a $60 game with even higher priced LEs. Gold Edition was $50 as well.
Does this take into account inflation ?
Otherwise games like FF7/8 and RE2/3 probably move up a little.
As for RE5 being #1. It isn't exactly a bad game like some would make it out to be. But I don't really see it being #1 on many people's favorite RE games list.
the fact that it was the successor to RE4 played a huge role in the launch hype for the game. And like the above poster said , it had a simultaneous launch on Two platforms at $60.
Otherwise games like FF7/8 and RE2/3 probably move up a little.
As for RE5 being #1. It isn't exactly a bad game like some would make it out to be. But I don't really see it being #1 on many people's favorite RE games list.
the fact that it was the successor to RE4 played a huge role in the launch hype for the game. And like the above poster said , it had a simultaneous launch on Two platforms at $60.
What's to get? RE6 was in bargain bins within a couple months of launch, those other RE games took 12+ months to drop to that price.
Different production studios. Mikami was in charge of Production Studio 4, was pissed at Sony/Kutaragi and because he's Mikami, Capcom went along with his plans (at first anyway, eventually it backfired, they ported RE4 to PS2 and he was demoted). The other Production Studios continued to make games for PS2. Oh and Dino Crisis 3 was outsourced to Hit Maker (the same developer who would later make Last Rebellion on PS3, which was so bad NISA publicly apologised for it).
I'm surprised more people aren't in this thread. We rarely get an idea of how things shape out in the North American market for these series.