For fans of Final Fantasy 16, they’ll no doubt be busy exploring the latest world and characters that Square Enix have designed for us. One of the biggest franchises in gaming, it’s no surprise that in it’s first week alone the game was announced to have sold over three million units, which is a milestone many games never make, let alone in a week!
However, the most recent sales charts have seen Final Fantasy 16 drop from the number one spot, but there is a caveat. For years one of the biggest criticisms of the commercially tracked sales charts is that it only tracks the physical sales of video games, and as proven by the current trend of games going digital only, the physical market is unfortunately dying.
Related: The Pros and Cons of a Digital-Only Video Game Industry
Final Fantasy 16 – A Huge Success?
“Set in the fictional world of Valisthea, a world divided between six nations who hold power through access to magical Crystals and Dominants, humans who act as hosts for each nation’s Eikon. Tensions between the nations escalate as a magical drought dubbed the Blight begins consuming the land.”
Final Fantasy 16 is a success, that much cannot be argued, but whether or not it hit the expected and lofty targets that Square Enix hold for its biggest franchise is another story. Fan reaction has been mixed, with many critiquing the game’s optimisation, with it being widely known that Final Fantasy 16 is taking such a toil on PS5’s hardware it’s causing the console to overheat! On the other side of the spectrum, fans can’t get enough of the protagonist’s lead voice actor, with many calling it the best portrayal of a Final Fantasy character for years.
What is certain though, is that whether it is Final Fantasy 16 or any other game, AAA or otherwise, the current way of tracking a game’s sales, and therefore its relative success, absolutely needs to change. How can you have a chart where only half of a distribution type is followed?
No doubt with the digital only releases on the horizon of Alan Wake 2, Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name and others besides, the tracking of sales will soon include digital, otherwise certain games will technically have sold zero, and it’s very difficult to imagine a world where Remedy’s Alan Wake 2 doesn’t sell a single unit.
How do you buy your games? Physical? Digital? A mixture? Let us know in the comments!
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