A new report has revealed that Square Enix is slightly worried about Final Fantasy XVI pre-orders.
After the recent presentations done by Square Enix, Final Fantasy XVI is looking quite appealing already with its awesome gameplay, visuals, story, and other aspects. It is definitely a Game of the Year contender. No one would doubt if someone would predict that the game would sell a lot on day one and on further days due to its popularity. This is why it is so surprising that a new report is making Square Enix a bit worried about its launch.
Square Enix is Worried About Final Fantasy XVI Pre-Orders
There is one new report by journalist Imran Khan on his Patreon that teased what he has been hearing about behind the scenes of Final Fantasy XVI. He claims that Square Enix is “slightly” panicked” right now because its upcoming game’s pre-order numbers are lower than Final Fantasy XV when it was about to launch. He did note that pre-orders just indicate the guaranteed day-one sales and the actual numbers could be way higher than predicted. Or lower, who knows?
Sudden FFVII Updates from Square Enix
The suspicions only intensify after Square Enix released sudden updates on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth recently just recently. “I wonder if they want to remind people the next chapter of Final Fantasy 7’s remake trilogy exists and give it more marketing time than they had planned,” Khan hypothesized. “The initial sales of Remake were quite good, but it slowed down faster than Square Enix seemed to expect, so I imagine they really want Rebirth to sell as well as possible.”
Interview with Yoshi-P
In a recent interview with Naoki Yoshida on a Japanese online talk show, he joked that he would not want to look at the first week sales for Final Fantasy XVI specifically on the Japanese market. He also has plans for sales that would last 18 months like getting a shop to convince gamers to get FFXVI together with their PS5 purchase.
Speculations on Low Pre-Orders
Pre-orders might be low due to a few factors. One, its launch is being overshadowed by other big games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Diablo IV. While the latter has suffered some small issues, both have now sold a lot of copies and have launched successfully. Second, it is possible that the game got too overhyped by players and its new gameplay mechanic does not appeal to old-school Final Fantasy fans who love turned-based combat. Action combat might be too fast for them even if the game would provide mechanics that would slow down time, etc.
Pre-Order Sales Not Comparable with Actual Sales
Still, like what was mentioned above, pre-orders are just guaranteed sales for day one copies. Many gamers nowadays have now learned their lesson from pre-ordering copies way too early only to be betrayed by the promises the devs gave before launch. Many players want to buy the games on day one rather than get pre-orders now. The actual number of sales after launch might be different and blow them away. Lastly, the updates for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are just Square Enix’s way to remind fans that they are still working on the game and are faster now after completing FFXVI. This is the third update they have released already.
I predict the launch of Final Fantasy XVI will rather go swimmingly well.
Final Fantasy XVI launches on June 22, 2023 exclusively on PS5.