Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has apparently done solid business, despite chatter around its lower than expected sales, but the series’ lead producer says future games can’t afford to be exclusive to a single platform any more.
The second part of Square Enix‘s remake trilogy is obviously loved by most people who play it. Our Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth review said the sequel “meaningfully improves the past and charts a course for a final act.” It led nominations in almost every awards show around. But there’s still been much debate around how the game performed financially since publisher Square Enix has, uncharacteristically, not offered any hard numbers.
In Japan, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth sold 262,656 physical copies in its launch week – a far cry from Final Fantasy 16’s 336,027, Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s 702,853, and Final Fantasy 15’s 716,649 launch sales, though the latter two were working with a much larger install base. Sales figures in other territories also painted a similar picture, which might not be too surprising when you consider that the name Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth isn’t as straightforward to understand as Final Fantasy 7 Remake for anyone who isn’t glued to the series. Some people might also be waiting to binge all three games once Part 3 drops, especially after Remake’s teasery ending.
But in an interview with IGN Brazil, translated by Final Weapon, series producer Yoshinori Kitase said that Square Enix is actually feeling pretty good about the game’s sales figures, even though things will need to change in the future. “While we are satisfied that we’re meeting a certain number of sales, with the current modernization state of games, we cannot be exclusive to a single platform,” he said. “I think we need to offer the game to as many players as we can.”
Out of all the major third-party publishers, Square Enix has traditionally had the oddest relationship with exclusives. Some games are only on Nintendo systems. Some heavyhitters are relegated to PlayStation consoles. Rise of the Tomb Raider was weirdly an Xbox One timed exclusive. But the publisher has publicly been shedding that tradition this last year. This summer, the company announced it would “aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy” before putting both its Octopath Traveler JRPGs on all consoles. It now looks like some of their bigger games will launch day-one on all consoles and PC – though we’ll see how Dragon Quest 12, Kingdom Hearts 4, and Final Fantasy 7 Part 3 shape up when they’re ready.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is coming to PC next month with improved lighting, but the game’s director has begged fans to not make any inappropriate mods.