Final Fantasy XIII-2's Diminished Debut May Spell Trouble For The Franchise

[weber_dubois22]

Final Fantasy XIII-2 for PS3 moved over half a million copies after shipping in Japan last week -- around one-third of the sales the original Final Fantasy XIII saw just two years ago. These relatively low sales could reflect diminished consumer interest in Square Enix's flagship franchise, or more specifically for its Final Fantasy XIII line of titles, which includes upcoming PS3 action RPG Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

Square Enix also admitted several months ago that the Final Fantasy brand was "greatly damaged" by the troubled launch of PC MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV in September 2010 (a PS3 version is due to release in late 2012/early 2013). Final Fantasy XIII, which sold 1.5 million PS3 copies in its Japanese launch week two years ago, suffered much criticism from gamers who found fault with its linear gameplay approach -- something the company sought to address with this sequel. [SOURCE]