
Early signs suggest that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will struggle to match Final Fantasy 7 Remake in terms of commercial success. Although admittedly, we don't have much data to work with right now. According to Games Industry's Christopher Dring, who often outlines key sales info, the recently released sequel is down 30% on its predecessor's launch week figures. It did still manage to top the UK charts, mind.
However, there are a few factors to consider here. For starters, this is based on UK boxed copies only, so no digital sales are taken into account. What's more, it's important to remember that Remake launched during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when everyone was told to stay at home. A lot of titles released during that period sold especially well, generating a noticeable increase in profits across the industry.
Generally speaking, video game sequels — especially direct sequels — tend to lag behind their predecessors in sales. It makes sense when you think about it as most people will want to experience a series from its point of origin — but that obviously doesn't stop publishers from pumping millions into marketing campaigns and the like.
It'll be interesting to see just how well Rebirth performs. It's certainly got the backing of critics, and initial impressions seem to be super positive amongst players. If it's a hit, we'll no doubt get some official word from Square Enix soon.
But until then, let us know what your expectations are for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 55
Honestly, Rebirth’s launch is the first time in ages that I saw my whole friends group online all at the same time, playing one single game. Not even Baldur’s Gate or Elden Ring did this. I haven’t seen this since… yeah, probably Remake. It’s exceptionally rare to see a game that unifies my friend group in 2024.
@somnambulance same experience here!
I hope the fact that it is actually a part 2 doesn’t punish its sales too much. Honestly the best JRPG experience I had in a very long time - loving it.
only 50m ps5's vs 120m ps4's. the two install bases should explain the difference in sales quite easily. i'm sure s-e could have managed to get the game to run on ps4 without much effort (running at 720p/30 with even worse textures if need be).
@Porco Porco nailed it, the first game came out almost at the end of PS4's lifecycle and we're midway through PS5.
A friend of mine actually jumped the gun and bought a PS5 today just to play Rebirth.
Digital sales make up more of total sales each year. Rebirth actually reversed the downward trend; in the first week, XV sold the best out of the PS4 era onwards. Remake sold worse than XV, then XVI sold worse than that. Each drop was by a large amount. But then Rebirth sold almost 50% more than XVI. Again, just physical sales in the UK. Digital is meant to account for 90% of the market now (well that was in 2022 and digital's share goes up each year, as I mentioned.)
Point is, even if each game sold equally, physical sales will go down over time. So for a newer game to sell more than a previous one in physical copies - and by quite a lot - is impressive.
I mean fewer people own ps5’s compared to PS4’s so it makes sense it wouldn’t sell as well, but that’s not a good sign considering the budget for this was probably way higher. It’s going to need to sell way more copies than Remake to make a profit.
Good point about the install base@Porco I am not so sure about a ps4 version and honestly glad they just released it on ps5 - the visuals held better than from say FFXIII to XIII-2, it’s easier to make a linear game look very good but once you are out in very large areas …
Curious as to will this game have legs or fall off the charts after a month like FF16 did.
@Krydle Yeah, well it took the original FFVII something like 23 years to sell 12 million and that was across PS1, the original PC release just after the PS1 version, then later digital versions across various consoles and Steam.
Having half the install base that FF7 Remake had will have something to do with it.
It hasn't once topped Helldivers in the UK Digital store page that I've seen. I can't remember any really big releases that didn't get Number One for at least a day in the UK Digital sales chart during the week it came out either 😬 (hopefully just a sign that Helldivers is actually getting launch number sales consistently each week, rather than a downturn in anything else)
@Nei you could be right. i would certainly focus all their effort on the initial ps5 port first and foremost. but i'm curious if it would be possible to port to ps4 months after the ps5 release in order to recoup additional development costs and provide an outlet for those who have yet to invest in a ps5. the open world stuff would require some honest work and optimization on ps4.
@UltimateOtaku91 @Nei @Jireland92 @Athrum @Porco
Install base isn't necessarily a big factor here. Need to remember Remake only sold about 7 million by the end of last year — and that's based on a 110 million PS4 install base alongside Intergrade releasing on PS5, and there being a PC version.
Obviously a bigger install base suggests more sales overall, but it's not like Rebirth is especially stifled by the PS5. I'd expect it to do a few million this year and that's with 50+ million PS5s.
Oh man, I remember that I had the Remake limited edition pre ordered and then we went to lockdown, we got deliveries and i had to wait more than over a month to play, that sucked, was very tempted to double dip.
@ShogunRok Tbf I kinda expect it to do worse than FF16 in its first year, mainly because it's a sequel and would be expected to sell less since not everyone who played FF7 Remake on PS4/PC has a PS5 yet, and I can't see many people jumping straight into this one without playing part one so maybe FF7 Remake will get abit of a push in sales as well.
But, also something to consider is FF7 Remake sold 7 million but how many more millions played it via playstation plus? Wasn't it given away in Essential and then put into Extra later on? So there should be a lot more potential buyers of ReBirth than just the 7 million Remake buyers, so overall I think ReBirth will sell just fine over the next few years and should meet expectations.
@UltimateOtaku91 That's a fair point about Plus, you would imagine it introduced a good number of people to the trilogy.
I would also expect Rebirth to sell well, but not amazingly well. Direct sequels often struggle to better their predecessors, even though they're usually better overall games. Which is why Square Enix has been telling people "you don't have to play the first game to enjoy Rebirth".
Also worth mentioning that Square Enix purposefully skipped giving these remakes numbered titles. I sometimes wonder whether a game having a '2' or '3' on the end impacts sales.
The gaming market is full of huge releases right now like Infinite Wealth, Persona 3 Reload, Helldivers 2, etc. So I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of potential buyers are caught up in other games and will get to Rebirth later. I think the sales will be fine at the end of the day IMO. There’s only so many hours in a day. And a lot of these games lately are 80+ hours like P3R
Problem is people are just lazy and can't be bothered to go to the shop and buy a physical copy. Geez you can get it delivered to your door and save £10! Then get a trade in price at cex (yes it might be a tiny amount) but it's still better than nothing. You can't trade in a digital copy and you pay over the top for something which requires nothing to be made or shipped but still people seem to be happy paying top price for something you can get cheaper or should be cheaper!
I'm amazed Sony didnt release a physical bundle special edition PS5 with this game. From all the marketing weight behind it, this is being treated as a first party release in many ways, and that could have helped to shift more copies
@ShogunRok you may be right. Having that kind of discrepancy is actually fairly common for PlayStation. The consoles sell well into the hundreds of millions but the best selling games usually only crack the 10 million range, maybe more depending on how big a game it is. So yeah maybe it’s not wise to correlate the lower sales to a lower install base, there are probably more factors at play here.
@Nei I’m loving it too. It’s so strange thinking back a couple years ago and how literally everyone I knew used to play everything all at the same time. The early PS4 generation was very much “we’re all playing the same thing,” but man has my group gotten fractal. It’s like there’s a live service group, a gatcha group, an RPG group, an indies group, and a “first party games only group.” It’s refreshing to see something unite people. It’s nice to be able to talk face-to-face about a game in real time and to see a lot of people actually play something. Lol. I suspect that it may happen twice this year if MGS Delta is solid.
I bought FF7R on PS4 physical while i bought Rebirth digital so its worth remembering digital gaming is bigger and pushed harder now plus the PS4 user base was bigger.
As for the game itself its fantastic and easily a GOTY contender based from the 10 hours i've put in. My only real faults are the visuals outside of the cutscenes as while not bad they feel downgraded compared to Remake's PS5 version.
@Porco doubt it with those massive maps. It's even rough on the PS5 and it's graphically downgraded from Remake. I mean they didn't even release Intergrade which you'd imagine they'd want the sales of and I'm sure the PS4 could have ran that
It doesn't matter how well it sells square enix will release a statement saying it failed to meet expectations
I'm only on Chapter 3 but it's already clear to me that Rebirth is disappointing.
The World is not open enough. It's annoying to navigate around. It's boring to explore. It's painting by numbers and it's just plain lazy. SE have actually really annoyed me. Remake was handled well, within the confines of Midgar. It was manageable.
Rebirth is like SE got scared of the scale of the game and decided to wrap the whole thing in chains.
It's yet another game that suffers from BotW syndrome too. The exploration is terrible. It's frustrating to move around the map. The whole thing is messy.
I'm hopeful they make amends with later iconic locations... but so not impressed by Kalm. It all felt wrong. Grasslands were depressing to explore. Frigging Chadley pops up on that monitor way too much. He's literally the lead character in dialogue for me so far. I'm aware 3 chapters is very early in the game, but first impressions and all that... it's a really poor effort that lacks all the charm that Remake managed to include.
@Andy22385 when i look at games such as red dead 2 running quite well on a base ps4, it gets me thinking. that is one of the largest open world games of the past 10 years so in theory, rebirth should be able to run on ps4 as well. the difference is, rockstar must have invested an enormous amount of resources into their engine and optimization pipeline. i can't say the same about s-e and the unreal engine.
@Korra Yes, Final Fantasy Chadley. I decided to do all the stuff in the Grasslands before beyond the swamp and seriously, Chadley must have popped up more than 50 times.
There's plenty I'm enjoying with it, but the game is well off the pace overall.
I certainly hope it does well. I'm having a really great time with it!
@nocdaes if it is anything like ff7 remake, then i know what you mean. remake felt claustrophobic and the numerous load masking sections (long animations as you shimmy past a wall or something) ruined the sense of exploration — what little there was. i really hope they cut down on that stuff with rebirth.
I think Covid did indeed boost Remake’s sales, but also the fact everyone probably had some form of a PS4 when Remake released (launch PS4, slim PS4, and PS4 Pro.)
Whereas with Rebirth, not everyone still seems to have or upgraded to a PS5 yet.
@nocdaes The issue here is you went into this expecting an open world while this like the OG FF7 isn't an open world game. This is like Xenoblade where its just huge open areas, unlimited freedom is not the goal or focus. Also any open world game that tries to be more like BOTW (what Rebirth isn't) is doing it right as BOTW is one of the best open world games ever made.
@nocdaes Thank you!. I aint the only one. Only reason I am still playing is the nostalgia glasses(theme of the game and music). The stopping for Chadley is the worst.
Also never really liked the combat(same with the first game/ even FF16), just does not feel impactful to me.
Pretty funny when my favorite part of the game is the mini-games, so far loving Queens Blood and I do enjoy Fort Condor game, chocobo time trials are fun as well.
The bane of the game is the Ubisoft map marker gameplay
@Porco Red Dead 2's map isn't actually that big, it feels big because its incredibly dense and full of content but size wise i'm pretty sure AC Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla all have it beat as does The Witcher 3. Worth noting another reason RDR2's map feels big is because you explore it on horse back meaning travel is slower, change the horse to a fast car and suddenly the map feels slower as you cross it in minutes.
Could Rebirth be ported to PS4? Yeah but it would take so much downgrading that i don't think the end result would be worth it. I can imagine it would end up like the Switch versions of MK1 and Arkham Knight in that yeah its on PS4 but it looks terrible, has more loading and runs poorly.
@NeonPizza and the PS5 Pro won't solve these issues. I assure you the Pro won't give you 60fps on graphics mode. The Pro will function like the PS4 Pro or at best the One X in that it will offer some improvements but not a lot. Console gamers really need to get it into their heads 4K/60fps is just not going to be a big thing until at least next gen, PC's far more powerful then the Series X struggle with that so its laughable to expect consoles to have it. We were spoiled with cross gen games but now that current gen games are now the thing the reality is 60fps comes at a massive cost, we should be thankful Rebirth even has 60fps as an option especially one that is pretty stable.
@Porco it looks worse than than remake. It absolutely could have run at 30 on ps4, albeit with far more optomization and finish work put into it. As it is now, it's a mess visually even as a native ps5 title.
This game should not have released in this state. The install base for sure explains most if it. Alongside the many that likely put this in the "wait list," after seeing it's polish in the demo; Despite those trying to pretend away or divert the discourse surrounding the low quality assets and post processing on display.
@DennisReynolds no one is saying this, Nor are the issues being widely discussed a matter of not reaching 4k 60.
The output resolution isn't the problem with the game. It's a multitude of cut corners on do display here. Poor lighting or lack of lighting and shadows, terrible post processing in perf mode, low res ps3 era textures and assets mixed in with OK textures, extremely close lod limits, shoddy traversal animation, lack of proper motion blur in graphics mode and more are the issues here. This is considered a AAA release of a major IP is it not?
I don't understand why you are using this narrative of the irrational expectations of console gamers as a means of rebuttal when tons of games from last gen and this Gen look, and run better with far higher quality assets than this.... ON CONSOLES. We simply expect the game to release finished without its parts being held together with duct tape and cheap glue for an advertised AAA release/price tag.
@KundaliniRising333 Dude is an "open world" U4 game what do you expect? Yeah the game isn't great visually but a PS5 Pro won't solve it and yeah people are expecting too much of consoles these days. Will and should Rebirth look better? Sure and the new update is said to improve things but this was never going to top the PS5 version of Remake due to the bigger scope and the fact U4 struggles with big maps and open style games. All that said Rebirth still looks good its just not great.
@Mysticshadow
I agree it is crazy. And it’s not even like it saves a little to get these games physically and get trade back. It saves a lot. As an example, I recently got infinite wealth for £40 on eBay, and I can get £37 trade back at CEX, or £32 cash. So at most it’ll cost me £8. If I got it digitally it would be £60 I think. So nearly 8 times as much to go digital. That’s crazy (with some of those savings I’ll throw the devs the DLC cash because they deserve it and it’s only £17).
Now I could afford to throw away £52 if I wanted to. But why would I do that? I feel like this generation have just been brainwashed into thinking this is the default way to consider purchasing games.
Anyway, back on topic. For me I decided after remake to just wait until the whole thing was finished. I’ve already forgotten the whole bloody story of remake anyway. For others, they will be yet to play the first (interested to see if downloads from plus increase this month for remake). This suffers most from the relative install base size (again, interested to see if this increases hardware sales, especially in Japan) and the fact that it’s a middle game in at least a trilogy. Nobody will start here. They’ll get the first game first or, like me, wait for it all to be finished. On top of that they’ve shown after the first part that there will be DLC and add ons. It’s just never as appealing to me to buy games in pieces.
@DennisReynolds no, I was aware the world map would be limited. My issue is that after just 3 chapters I have a Junon area that is a copy and paste of Grasslands area. That's got nothing to do with Ubisoft design it's bone idleness from SE and instantly kills the game dead. After just 3 chapters I now know SE have decided not to do the best job they possibly can, they've decided to cut all the corners.
Also don't get me started on Kalm! They made this huge location and put 3 quests in it?! And i say quests... 1 is literally taking a screenshot! Are they serious?
And to be clear on where the bar has been set... this is not just another Ubisoft open world game. It's a remake of one of the greatest games ever made. SE have dropped the ball all over the place with this project.
@Elitepatriot From a nostalgia point of view it remains a great experience. I love the soundtrack - there's some great new tracks sitting alongside new versions of the entire OST. I really enjoyed the opening Chapter too - it was really nice to go deeper into the Nibelheim section.
I know there will be plenty of upcoming chapters that also hit the mark - Costa Del Sol, Cosmo Canyon and Gold Saucer will surely deliver the goods. Kalm is way off the mark though. Junon remains to be seen...
@nocdaes The start of the game was very nice. Hopefully the main story bits hold the game up, minus pushing around boxes and climbing yellow handholds lol. Ya i will btch about pushing around a mine cart lol.
Some people don't want to acknowledge it but it does need to be noted that part 1's story was extremely decisive and pissed off a large chunk of fans who decided not to buy the other VIIR parts. It's no surprise that part 2's sales are down from part 1 now that the rug has been pulled
I decided to wait to get this. No doubt it's a decent game but when I checked out the demo and the lod on lighting/shadows was at best 3ft from Cloud. Not to mention some textures being still just rough as hell I thought I'll hang on abit.
I'd assume the textures being upgraded though would bloat the games size fairly drastically. So with that a ps5 pro version wouldn't do all that much but maybe increase the resolution on performance mode to 1440p - 60fps maybe.
@Elitepatriot so far(!) there are two things that Rebirth has visualised for me that my own imagination failed to even consider when playing the original game back in 97.
1. Red XIII riding a Chocobo.
2. Barret managing to climb walls one handed.
Looking forward to more...!
@nocdaes Loved both of those. Barret does have arms the size of my torso after all lol
@Porco RDR2 isn't that big tbh but I get your point. It's probably more the size of the thing as a whole. Each location within the world is huge.
@nocdaes doesn't look like they've dropped the ball to me. Best rated FF this century and one of the highest user scores I've ever seen. The side stuff is optional.
Heck! I just now started FF16!
I own the 7 remake but haven't even booted it up yet. It will be a good minute till I pick up Rebirth I'm thinking. My goal this year is to do my best not to buy anything new and finish my backlog of 14 games!
@Porco
PS4 hasn't sold 120 million units let alone me by the time of Remake's release.
@Andy22385 it's not about optional. You're talking to someone that not only maxed out every character in the original game, but did it in the hideously complex way that gave them all maxed out stats.
The issue is that SE have cut corners. Kalm is a perfect example of it. They've built this large town, packed it full of a few hundred NPCs and then done absolutely nothing with it. That's just plain stupid! Why waste all that time putting all these people in that do nothing? Houses that you can't go inside? Even the card game they made such a deal about... you can't even play the NPCs at the game bar what was it, 4 people?
That makes no sense.
Also, they make this big deal about leaving Kalm and going on an adventure. 20 minutes and a trip to a farm later I'm going back to Kalm.
This may seem like small things, but it's not good enough. This should have been picked up and they should have done better.
It's a remake of one of the best games ever made. I'm not accepting what is clearly a botch job.
@nocdaes I agree there could be more in Kalm. But I'm seeing complaints there's too much in the game as it is. So those whiners are just gonna complain more. And I mean you just complained kalm has nothing to do then complained they sent you back there 😂 I mean it wasnt 20 mins for me I spent several hours in the grasslands. I won't argue FF7 isn't one of the best games...but what was in that game? It was bare bones for the most part. You were in each location for no time at all as there was nothing to do besides the story. Now every location is massive, and most have a lot of things to do. The game is outstanding as a whole and is pretty much the highest rated of the series so I think your botch job opinion is yours and yours alone. What else could they have done to make it even better? More things to do? Its chockablock with stuff to do. A 1 to 1 remake of the original? Then there's nothing to do. They can't win.
Personally I don't know anybody that is or has played it but I'm sure will do fine just fine. Also I don't think physical sales are all that representative
@Andy22385 the original game did have a lot of great content crammed into it though? Think of all the minigames - way ahead of its time too. A lot of the summon materia had fun and challenging exploration before getting them - I'm thinking Phoenix and Alexandra - KOTR maybe went too far... but what a reward that was for all the labour!
I'm on Chapter 4 now, nearing 16 hours and just finished Junon area research in full. Actually a much better region on the whole - enjoyed it more. But still a few things that just leave me questioning the development of the game... Who signed off that Summon materia is just handed to you by Chadley? Who went to all the effort of putting a hooting flying bird in the game to locate something that is already marked on my map... do I really need the bird to locate? The Cache areas are much better - you find them by chance. Even the Chocobo stops have huge help in locating them. Just seems silly to me. We have all the areas to explore, and we have all the NPCs but all are being used in a very average way.
Oh and after 16 hours now... Chadley is the single worst thing in the game. I particularly despise his interactions with the characters. It's frankly interfering with the lore. The amount of dialogue he has is more than any other character!
So look, you're right... the game is great. I've sunk 16 hours in and counting plus 40 in Remake. So yes. Its really just the attention to detail for me. I'm genuinely sad that SE didn't strive for better. I guess maybe they did but this is all the team could manage? I mean, a game can only ever be as good as the individuals making it afterall.
@kedireturns wasn’t saying it wasn’t. Just stating the facts of the matter.
@nocdaes did it compared to rebirth? You're knocking them for actually adding stuff. I do agree with some of your points but some just seem to be complaining about minor things. The bird is odd directing you but is it really an issue. And the chocobo thing just seems like a fun addition following the baby to help him. Agree on Chadley though he is annoying. Overall I can't complain though, barring the minor niggles its everything I'd want out of a remake of this game. Every location is rendered beautiful and expanded hugely. Rather that than some rushed cash grab. It's a strong favourite for game of the year so there wasn't much more than could have done
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