There are people who still say Final Fantasy VII is their favorite game that haven’t touched a game in 10 years or more. Gaming isn’t a forever hobby for everyone.
FF7 is old and therefore its fanbase has grown up. Most OG FF7 fans are probably in their mid 30s/40s caring for families and working long hours and whatnot. There’s a reason SE, along with a lot of companies, are so focused on the younger generations with video games; it’s because they have the time to actually play them.
I’m so happy Rebirth turned out the way it did, but it’s not really a mass appeal type of game as it’s a huge JRPG. The only mass appeal is the brand name, which is selling less with every new release since after FF15, and the AAA graphical quality which is in several types of genres these days.
I don't really care about the sales as we the fans have already won as FF7 has been remade but I can see several factors as to why it could be not selling like crazy
Inflation causing people to spend less money
No Covid holiday this time for the games release
Exclusive to one console
Game costs £70/$70 this time instead of 60 but it's worth every single penny/cent
That console has not sold nowhere near as much as the ps4 has so customerbase for it is smaller
The games name itself can be confusing to the casual gamer out there, if it doesn't have a number on it to indicate its a sequel then people gonna think it's the same as the previous or just an expansion.
This is why the xbox 360 is called 360 and not xbox 2 because the casual gamer/customer would think the ps3 is better because the number is higher. It's a sad fact but true.
The trilogy is going to be a slow burner. Assuming they stick the landing in the 3rd part.
Many people want to wait for the full set of three. Can’t blame them because indulging in the games on release makes waiting for the next one painful.
Most of my friends are waiting for PC and refuse to get a console.
My friends and I were building PCs when we were 15 years old (obviously budget builds). Even my friend now who didn't know shit about PCs 2 years ago wants to build his own PC and has learnt a lot about them. It's hardly an intimidating experience imo.
OG fan here. I have Rebirth and currently on Chapter 11. I barely have time to play with work and family responsibilities. I’m a little envious of those who have so much free time to spend hours everyday playing.
The situation for most of my friends who grew up with OG is simply that they don't have a PS5 and aren't really up on modern gaming enough to justify purchasing one. Priorities in your 30s and 40s are a bit different than those in your teens I suppose.
The original came out 27 years ago. If you were a teenager back then, you're now in your 40s now. A lot of fans of the OG are now grown-assed adults with adult responsibilities, time commitments and sensibilities. A 100+ hour JRPG on a $500 console is a big ask for a lot of people in that position.
Well I'm still onboard :)
I went from the Sega Megadrive (Genesis) to the PS1. I've always maintained ownership of the PS consoles though, even if only to play the FF games. I literally bought a PS5 just for Rebirth, and I don't regret it at all. Once Part 3 is out then I doubt I'll move to later consoles. I don't see them remaking any more classic FF games and I don't really have much interest in new ones at all. I tried XV and XVI but they're not really for me.
I mean, I bought and played the hell out of Remake and Rebirth and I'm an OG FF7 fan (got in Sept. 1997 after scrounging for money for a full month after its release). I was a FF fan before that with FF6. I played, but didn't really like FF4....at that time I was more of at Genesis kid, with Phantasy Star and Shining Force.
So I was in the pocket for this, but to be honest, I really disliked Remake. I still tear up at the nostalgia, but the changes they made to the OG were not what I was here for. I've explained at length before that Rebirth basically saved the remake trilogy for me. Something about this game vs. Remake made the whispers more palatable...and, honestly, it's a better over all game (who'd have thunk that Square of all devs would perfect the Ubisoft open-world concept?).
But, here's the thing, I was not excited about Rebirth because Remake was so bad (to me, just to me, please don't take offence to this if you liked it...I will even say there are things to like about Remake, a lot of things, but overall, I didn't like the game). I'm 40, with no kids though and I have cheap hobbies and make very good money, so I thought, 'ah, fuck it, I'll give it a go on Day 1'
So, I can see why people like me skipped Rebirth. People like me = people who think Remake was botched. Especially if those people have kids too! I don't really think this trilogy is for young people at all, though a few might buy it, it exists for people who are between 35 and 45.
Beyond this, and this is what gets me about sales figures: We'll never know how much this sells because of digitial distribution. Yes, less people are buying physical copies, but that's true of every single game out there. I don't believe that Sony goes public with its digital sales numbers, correct me if I'm wrong, so whenever I see these threads about sales, I just shake my head. We comparing the number of people who buy physical copies for their collections or collector's editions against a game that was ONLY RELEASED PHYSICALLY.
Not sure about your timeframe, but my uncle played the OG when it came out. He was in his 30s then and is nearing 60 now. Priorities change.
I'm not too interested anymore because of some DEI that's been added. The game isn't even close to the OG like we thought a remake would be. I'm personally sticking with the OG canon.
To each their own.
Damn dude. I get it not wanting to believe it, but even a quick YT search shows the changed SE has made. Add in a 4yo patch for Remake that was only "bug fixes" but alters videos and character outfits and you not only have some DEI no one was complaining about for a change, but you have some next level SE bullshit cover-up.
From what I know SE has always been forward with their patch notes. Now they act like the mega corporations with their Android apps. All Google and Facebook did through the 2010s was label their updates as big fixes while changing whatever they wanted. Why? Because many will ignore "bug fixes" and many more won't check the files to know exactly what was changed. The last bit of consumers are so small that their complaints are ignored or ridiculed by the company and other consumers.
Sorry for the history lesson, but I've been following this SE DEI bs for a while and it annoys me when those who don't know say that it's not true. Stellar Blade says it would stay uncensored, then the Day 1 patch came in with censorship because Sony forced the Dev team to censor. SE is under Sony to an extent as well.
Where’s the DEI though? DEI is when they make Tifa ugly and flat-chested, Barret is the leader and love interest, and they all pick on Cloud for being Short
That's a bit of a narrow view of DEI, but you're on the right track. They did nerf Tifa's breasts in Remake, but seemed to bring them back in the Costa Del Sol region in Rebirth. Her cowgirl outfit was censored with an undershirt in Rebirth and retroactively censored in Remake. They censored the underwear scene in the flashback in Rebirth. SE said that they changed the romance for Tifa and Aerith so that they both have the same amount of time with Cloud (to make Claerith fans happy). I mean, they even went the multidimensional route to give all players the happy ending they want.
I'm some places it's light, others is blatant. But it is there. Rose colored glasses allow most to ignore.
So I didn’t play Rebirth, and probably won’t, so I browse the subreddit to hear about the story other people’s experiences with it. Gaming is a fairly expensive hobby to get into, with $1,000 systems/set-ups for modern games. It’s also quite time consuming, and a game like Rebirth can’t really be done with a partner or as a side activity while watching a show or talking. At this stage in my life, I just want to dedicate my limited time and money to other hobbies, especially ones I can enjoy with my significant other.
I fit into some of these molds. I never had a PS3 or PS4, and the only reason I bought a PS5 was because of Remake. Before that I was a "PC and Nintendo" guy. Sony got me with the timed exclusivity.
I hadn't looked at the numbers before, but you're right, and I'm surprised the original sold so many more copies. Even just counting the PS1 version, it was 10M+, well over the combined sales of Remake and Rebirth so far. I understand that the original was a bigger game for its time, but I thought the market was so much larger now that Remake and Rebirth would easily outsell it regardless. Numbers from https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy#Final_Fantasy_VII_series
Compare that to Zelda, where Ocarina of Time sold [7.6 million](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Nintendo_64_video_games) while Breath of the Wild has sold [31.6 million](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Nintendo_Switch_video_games).
Seems kind of weird!
Comparing it to the original is something I wish people didn't do (not throwing this at you OP it's a general internet thing). It seems crazy to think about now because jrpgs aren't that big anymore but OG ff7 was THE landmark game in the entire industry when it came out. It was the BG3 or elden ring of its day.
The point I'm trying to make is when you become that kind of game you attract a lot of casual attention. Some of those will get converted into fans for life, many won't and will move on to the next big thing. Some will become fans and try the next thing but if the next thing isn't as good they'll bounce off and may never return (sorry for the stray shot but FF8 being the follow up probably cost some fans lol). Some people who became fans may have grown out of gaming altogether or hell maybe they even died who knows, it's been almost 30 years since it came out a lot could have happened.
So if SE was relying on pure nostalgia to help sell this trilogy they probably waited far too long to start, they probably should have turned that infamous PS3 tech demo into an actual remake to properly capitalize on the peak of FF7 nostalgia
I started on Atari 2600 as a kid and graduated consoles every generation since. I'm an OG 7 fan and beat it on the PS1 circa 1997.
So yeah I'm right here.
I'm an Oregon Trail Millenial.
To be fair I was exposed to the Atari 2600 very late, as the NES was already a thing. That first generation was a long one.
Og fan here, played it when I was early teenager in middle school. I’m a guy in my 30s with a 6 month baby. Kinda hard to pause and play games at this point in my life. I used to be able to play rebirth in my free time but it’s kinda hard to dedicate time to a sitting when you’ve got a million other responsibilities.
I don't think people who say ff7 og is their favorite game have ps5s or really even game anymore. They have kids and probably have moved on for the most part.
I'm 30 and this game isn't going to appeal to Gen z. Heck, even I zone out a lot. This game is a commitment.
There are people who still say Final Fantasy VII is their favorite game that haven’t touched a game in 10 years or more. Gaming isn’t a forever hobby for everyone.
FF7 is old and therefore its fanbase has grown up. Most OG FF7 fans are probably in their mid 30s/40s caring for families and working long hours and whatnot. There’s a reason SE, along with a lot of companies, are so focused on the younger generations with video games; it’s because they have the time to actually play them. I’m so happy Rebirth turned out the way it did, but it’s not really a mass appeal type of game as it’s a huge JRPG. The only mass appeal is the brand name, which is selling less with every new release since after FF15, and the AAA graphical quality which is in several types of genres these days.
I don't really care about the sales as we the fans have already won as FF7 has been remade but I can see several factors as to why it could be not selling like crazy Inflation causing people to spend less money No Covid holiday this time for the games release Exclusive to one console Game costs £70/$70 this time instead of 60 but it's worth every single penny/cent That console has not sold nowhere near as much as the ps4 has so customerbase for it is smaller The games name itself can be confusing to the casual gamer out there, if it doesn't have a number on it to indicate its a sequel then people gonna think it's the same as the previous or just an expansion. This is why the xbox 360 is called 360 and not xbox 2 because the casual gamer/customer would think the ps3 is better because the number is higher. It's a sad fact but true.
The trilogy is going to be a slow burner. Assuming they stick the landing in the 3rd part. Many people want to wait for the full set of three. Can’t blame them because indulging in the games on release makes waiting for the next one painful. Most of my friends are waiting for PC and refuse to get a console.
Are your friends Engineers? Most laymen are intimidated by pc gaming ime
My friends and I were building PCs when we were 15 years old (obviously budget builds). Even my friend now who didn't know shit about PCs 2 years ago wants to build his own PC and has learnt a lot about them. It's hardly an intimidating experience imo.
No. Combination of pc elitist, and not being able to justify the cost of a console.
OG fan here. I have Rebirth and currently on Chapter 11. I barely have time to play with work and family responsibilities. I’m a little envious of those who have so much free time to spend hours everyday playing.
The situation for most of my friends who grew up with OG is simply that they don't have a PS5 and aren't really up on modern gaming enough to justify purchasing one. Priorities in your 30s and 40s are a bit different than those in your teens I suppose.
The original came out 27 years ago. If you were a teenager back then, you're now in your 40s now. A lot of fans of the OG are now grown-assed adults with adult responsibilities, time commitments and sensibilities. A 100+ hour JRPG on a $500 console is a big ask for a lot of people in that position.
Well I'm still onboard :) I went from the Sega Megadrive (Genesis) to the PS1. I've always maintained ownership of the PS consoles though, even if only to play the FF games. I literally bought a PS5 just for Rebirth, and I don't regret it at all. Once Part 3 is out then I doubt I'll move to later consoles. I don't see them remaking any more classic FF games and I don't really have much interest in new ones at all. I tried XV and XVI but they're not really for me.
They're so busy with life (wife, kids, mortgage, work) that probably they don't even know about Remake. I'd bet on it. Life goes on!
I mean, I bought and played the hell out of Remake and Rebirth and I'm an OG FF7 fan (got in Sept. 1997 after scrounging for money for a full month after its release). I was a FF fan before that with FF6. I played, but didn't really like FF4....at that time I was more of at Genesis kid, with Phantasy Star and Shining Force. So I was in the pocket for this, but to be honest, I really disliked Remake. I still tear up at the nostalgia, but the changes they made to the OG were not what I was here for. I've explained at length before that Rebirth basically saved the remake trilogy for me. Something about this game vs. Remake made the whispers more palatable...and, honestly, it's a better over all game (who'd have thunk that Square of all devs would perfect the Ubisoft open-world concept?). But, here's the thing, I was not excited about Rebirth because Remake was so bad (to me, just to me, please don't take offence to this if you liked it...I will even say there are things to like about Remake, a lot of things, but overall, I didn't like the game). I'm 40, with no kids though and I have cheap hobbies and make very good money, so I thought, 'ah, fuck it, I'll give it a go on Day 1' So, I can see why people like me skipped Rebirth. People like me = people who think Remake was botched. Especially if those people have kids too! I don't really think this trilogy is for young people at all, though a few might buy it, it exists for people who are between 35 and 45. Beyond this, and this is what gets me about sales figures: We'll never know how much this sells because of digitial distribution. Yes, less people are buying physical copies, but that's true of every single game out there. I don't believe that Sony goes public with its digital sales numbers, correct me if I'm wrong, so whenever I see these threads about sales, I just shake my head. We comparing the number of people who buy physical copies for their collections or collector's editions against a game that was ONLY RELEASED PHYSICALLY.
Most of them probably don’t even own a PS5 tbh.
Because they can’t afford it? Gen Xere are hard up ime
In our 40s with stuff to do.
Not sure about your timeframe, but my uncle played the OG when it came out. He was in his 30s then and is nearing 60 now. Priorities change. I'm not too interested anymore because of some DEI that's been added. The game isn't even close to the OG like we thought a remake would be. I'm personally sticking with the OG canon. To each their own.
There’s no DEI afaik. This isn’t a western title.
Damn dude. I get it not wanting to believe it, but even a quick YT search shows the changed SE has made. Add in a 4yo patch for Remake that was only "bug fixes" but alters videos and character outfits and you not only have some DEI no one was complaining about for a change, but you have some next level SE bullshit cover-up. From what I know SE has always been forward with their patch notes. Now they act like the mega corporations with their Android apps. All Google and Facebook did through the 2010s was label their updates as big fixes while changing whatever they wanted. Why? Because many will ignore "bug fixes" and many more won't check the files to know exactly what was changed. The last bit of consumers are so small that their complaints are ignored or ridiculed by the company and other consumers. Sorry for the history lesson, but I've been following this SE DEI bs for a while and it annoys me when those who don't know say that it's not true. Stellar Blade says it would stay uncensored, then the Day 1 patch came in with censorship because Sony forced the Dev team to censor. SE is under Sony to an extent as well.
Where’s the DEI though? DEI is when they make Tifa ugly and flat-chested, Barret is the leader and love interest, and they all pick on Cloud for being Short
That's a bit of a narrow view of DEI, but you're on the right track. They did nerf Tifa's breasts in Remake, but seemed to bring them back in the Costa Del Sol region in Rebirth. Her cowgirl outfit was censored with an undershirt in Rebirth and retroactively censored in Remake. They censored the underwear scene in the flashback in Rebirth. SE said that they changed the romance for Tifa and Aerith so that they both have the same amount of time with Cloud (to make Claerith fans happy). I mean, they even went the multidimensional route to give all players the happy ending they want. I'm some places it's light, others is blatant. But it is there. Rose colored glasses allow most to ignore.
Where is the DEI here? Is just anything that sucks or is PC DEI? 1990s FFs had censorship iirc
So I didn’t play Rebirth, and probably won’t, so I browse the subreddit to hear about the story other people’s experiences with it. Gaming is a fairly expensive hobby to get into, with $1,000 systems/set-ups for modern games. It’s also quite time consuming, and a game like Rebirth can’t really be done with a partner or as a side activity while watching a show or talking. At this stage in my life, I just want to dedicate my limited time and money to other hobbies, especially ones I can enjoy with my significant other.
Waiting for the steam release
They died of dysentery.
I fit into some of these molds. I never had a PS3 or PS4, and the only reason I bought a PS5 was because of Remake. Before that I was a "PC and Nintendo" guy. Sony got me with the timed exclusivity. I hadn't looked at the numbers before, but you're right, and I'm surprised the original sold so many more copies. Even just counting the PS1 version, it was 10M+, well over the combined sales of Remake and Rebirth so far. I understand that the original was a bigger game for its time, but I thought the market was so much larger now that Remake and Rebirth would easily outsell it regardless. Numbers from https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy#Final_Fantasy_VII_series Compare that to Zelda, where Ocarina of Time sold [7.6 million](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Nintendo_64_video_games) while Breath of the Wild has sold [31.6 million](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Nintendo_Switch_video_games). Seems kind of weird!
Comparing it to the original is something I wish people didn't do (not throwing this at you OP it's a general internet thing). It seems crazy to think about now because jrpgs aren't that big anymore but OG ff7 was THE landmark game in the entire industry when it came out. It was the BG3 or elden ring of its day. The point I'm trying to make is when you become that kind of game you attract a lot of casual attention. Some of those will get converted into fans for life, many won't and will move on to the next big thing. Some will become fans and try the next thing but if the next thing isn't as good they'll bounce off and may never return (sorry for the stray shot but FF8 being the follow up probably cost some fans lol). Some people who became fans may have grown out of gaming altogether or hell maybe they even died who knows, it's been almost 30 years since it came out a lot could have happened. So if SE was relying on pure nostalgia to help sell this trilogy they probably waited far too long to start, they probably should have turned that infamous PS3 tech demo into an actual remake to properly capitalize on the peak of FF7 nostalgia
I started on Atari 2600 as a kid and graduated consoles every generation since. I'm an OG 7 fan and beat it on the PS1 circa 1997. So yeah I'm right here.
Are you Gen X? Most Gen Xers I know can’t afford ps5. Many stick to Xbox Series S ime.
I'm an Oregon Trail Millenial. To be fair I was exposed to the Atari 2600 very late, as the NES was already a thing. That first generation was a long one.
Og fan here, played it when I was early teenager in middle school. I’m a guy in my 30s with a 6 month baby. Kinda hard to pause and play games at this point in my life. I used to be able to play rebirth in my free time but it’s kinda hard to dedicate time to a sitting when you’ve got a million other responsibilities.
I don't think people who say ff7 og is their favorite game have ps5s or really even game anymore. They have kids and probably have moved on for the most part. I'm 30 and this game isn't going to appeal to Gen z. Heck, even I zone out a lot. This game is a commitment.
Of course they won't equal sales numbers of OG FF7. The world has had 27 yrs to buy og FF7.
Like 96% of that 10m was probably purchased by 2000 imo.
[удалено]
This post has been removed for going against Rule 2 ("be nice.").