Except FFXIII sold very well and the FFXIV reboot is quite successful as well. Then again, was anyone crying over FFIX? Or FFXII? Or even FFVIII, which is also one of the best-selling games in the series despite the constant complaining about that game.
To say Final Fantasy is "losing interest" is blatantly false, and to hope for the death of the series out of such belief is nothing more than think games that people who aren't you like shouldn't even exist.
Holy infant Jesus on a burning stick!
When people stop buying it, or voting with their wallet, it ends - there's no exceptions. You will always have someone buy it, but the metric by which Square defines "enough" is not something the developer or the fans can define. It's defined by the publisher and their ideal profit margin against the opportunities within their market and risk of continuation versus seeking a new IP that could project higher profits. This is how business works.
To you and I, the end-user, we exist in a culture of gaming but long ago the culture handed over control to publishers. Electronic Arts and Activision slyly introduced ways to steal back control. We, to them, are numbers given value by money spent on genres that matriculate across a series. Years ago, a new title within a series would be released every few years, FFVII was what, seven years coming and the fans jumped out of the woodwork in unbelievable numbers. To put that in simpler terms, VII was
7 years in the making - 7 years of work. XIII was...3, XIII-2 was 2 (or 5 is the series was all made at one time and the timed release was a profit ploy). Did the quality of XIII match the fan metric for quality of VII? Substance, no, not overtly.
FF sells because of nostalgia for the earlier series because of hope. In that, each installment is compared to earlier titles because they fail to deliver what an overwhelming opinion of quality. You can argue that because
YOU liked XIII and that it sold well, any inkling it wasn't "good" or represents what's wrong with longevity is simply misplaced in the same fashion you claim a counterargument with an exception - investigating numbers and having a firm and working knowledge of both sales and marketing will tell you all you need to know about the flawed position you're taking within your arguments. You're being a fan-girl, and that's fine but accepting facts isn't.
I'm going to assume you lack that kind of life experience, which is okay but innumerable individuals here and in the past have brought up the same points to you time and again, seeking various ways to add facts to your opinion. You're resistant, not because you don't believe them, but because you do and it doesn't fit squarely in the image of your beloved series. You're tired of being told that what you hold dear has lessened value among others. It's alienating and disruptive to your sense of security within your opinion. So be it. If you can't handle facts it is not the problem of the society around you, but it makes you the problem for the society in which you're existing.
You may not have worked in retail or in any capacity with accounting and marketing departments on a corporate level as I do. This is exactly why we see re-release of IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII. IX re-release hasn't had much movement on Steam compared to VII or VIII. If your statement was true, the install base would be larger, not smaller than older series entries in percentage and re-releases wouldn't continue to top charts over new releases.
Final Fantasy
is losing the interest of user base and the reasons are as obvious as they are plentiful. Retrospective analysis of sales over the franchise have gone down. Look at percentages - they're scalar which is why they're used. The user base of VII was smaller than XIII so raw numbers show more copies sold for XIII (I think they planned on 2 million and 6 million sold world wide), but VII sold 2.3 million copies in 3 days. the total sales expected for XIII was what VII sold in three days. Final Fantasy XIII sold 1 million in Japan on day one, and 1.9 million worldwide by the end of 2010 (meaning that globally, it took a year to come in under day one of just Japan sales) and by 2013 6.6 million copies shipped (not sold, plus it accounts for the re-release as a 'greatest hits.'). It took three
years for XIII to triple the projected sales to what VII did in actual sales within three days on a global scale. Fathom
that for a moment and ask yourself if you
really want to break it down by the numbers as a way to extend 'proof' of viability. Hint: Don't, you seem all too happy being dunk on fantasy - this reality is quite sobering
To boot the critics scored each successive entry to XIII a full point lower than the previous entry, starting at 9 down to 7 by LR:XIII which coincides with a decline in install number through the series of XIII. XIV wasn't a commercial success in the way they wanted so the FF moniker didn't assist the sales and neither was IX. X reset the tables and sales soared. People said it was a rebirth for the franchise... and then X-2 came out. Many felt it as feminine (understandably) but it also codified the real story and the mind-screw that Yuna endured (as does the player if they're not savvy to foreshadowing). Subsequently, the X-2 mechanics saw a revamping in XIII's paradigm shifting. XIII brought nothing really new and fans saw it almost immediately but also felt it was an improvement on XII. XII is
almost as good as X in my opinion but not many share that opinion either.
From wikipedia:
Final Fantasy VII
has often placed at or near the top of many reader polls of all-time best games. It was voted the "Reader's Choice Game of the Century" in an IGN poll in 2000
[145] and placed second in the "Top 100 Favorite Games of All Time" by Japanese magazine
Famitsu in 2006 (it was also voted as ninth in Famitsu'
s 2011 poll of most tear-inducing games of all time).[146][147] Users of
GameFAQs voted it the "Best Game Ever" in 2004 and in 2005,
[148][149] and placed it second in 2009.
[150] In 2008, readers of
Dengeki magazine voted it the best game ever made,
[151] as well as the ninth most tear-inducing game of all time.
[152]
Try as I might, I see nothing remotely close to that for ANYthing related to XIII (or the series of). So, FFVII released in 1997... almost 20 years ago has a faster selling, higher selling, better rated, more loved base...than, practically any other FF title and you're on about "but XIII isn't bad." Sure, no said it was bad. Everyone says it wasn't as good and the numbers support the facts more than your personal opinions. And, I'll remind you that the release of XIII was in 2010, some of the awards and recognition of VII was after XIII released WW.
You're clutching to the franchise like a toddler and her blankie but I don't take your words without understanding and empathy - I get it. I will hurt inside when it dies too, and there's a part of me that wants it to go on forever, reaching for some lame rationalization to defend whatever I feel inside. Just like my father, I don't get a say in IF he dies or even WHEN he died because it's not a variable, let alone one I can (or should) control - its inevitable - and when my dad got older and I watched the man grow weak, unable to be as his own image of youth - strong and loving to my mother, his children, sharp of mind and quick with wit - a provider and protector, I was at fierce odds with myself. Do I encourage him to stay around, carry the hope he'd never die and act as if any stumble wasn't anything serious and blow if off with a fake smile pretending it wasn't going to wind down to a stop? No, because that's lying to yourself. If you lie to yourself and believe it, then you'll lie to someone else and I don't trust those people, ever.
I made the hard reconciliation that I needed to prepare myself to say goodbye and to respect his decision to come to terms with his own death prior to. I hated it. I resent that life makes these stations a requirement, but I can't change it. I had to acknowledge it was not my wish, but my duty to give him the space and ability to be as he was, and let go - a moment of strength where he could be in control again rather than try and tell him how wrong he was because I didn't like facts. The hardest thing for me to do next to giving my first son up for adoption was looking at my father in a coffin and saying goodbye. I'd have loved to give up a few of my years for him so that he could meet his other two grandchildren, so I could get advice and to apologize for what I'd done wrong in life - but aside from the physical impossibility, that's a really effing selfish reason I'd expect from a effing child. So, I liken FF coming to a close to a death in my immediate family because that's how passionate I am about games and this series in particular, but I'm not so illustriously stupid and selfish that I would ever hope to prolong the suffering of my family and the friends within my family by extending it past the prime. I want to remember the youthful joy and excitement, not watch the withered husk of yesteryear fade and break down because the girl next to me hasn't come to terms with a reality she can't and wont control, or because she can't figure out how to say goodbye against a clock that's running out. It's not something I say with any irreverence to the quality of life but in recognition that
quantification in life is not a qualification of life lived. If you haven't lost anyone in your family, I don't think you'll quite get what I'm saying and though I hope no one in your family dies, I know they will because there are no exceptions to or for anyone at any time.
To negotiate and rationalize a synonymous relationship betwixt them is incorrigibly unpalatable, and unfortunately for you - you have zero authority or weight in opinion to alter the facts of how it's playing out. No one does. Stating piecemeal and cherry picked data to corroborate your own BS isn't validation of any type of any form of reason. It's an antithesis of itself and severs making a record of inability to adult properly upon your own image.
I have no better way to explain the depths of your shallow approach to this quandary and how astounding the maneuverability of your immaturity has been presented. Like, it's actually an impressive feat to see happen with such fanfare and practiced faith. I have no idea whether you're just naturally self-defeating or if you are truly blinded by darkness from your head being so far up your fourth point of contact. You cling to such nonsensical and illogical conclusions that I can only sum it up by stating two things:
Correlation does not imply causality nor does independence imply non-causality and that somehow you have this equivalency disorder that you'd assume because some old movies are black and white and some penguins are black and white, then some old movies are penguins.
Anyone should know that whether now or later, FF is going to end. It started as a last ditch effort by a man who desperately wanted one final game - hence the series name. It wasn't even planned as a series which is why there's no real continuity in the series as a serial franchise, so believing that because others like it the lifespan is indefinite is moronic at best. Run from the facts all you wish but know you're going to die tired.
I'm sorry for @awesomecool because he (or maybe she, never figured out) tried to start an interesting conversation, but maybe it is time to let that thread die as well.
