Rebirth is rebirthing?

 

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the latest step on Tetsuya Nomura's journey to totally transform the game's industry into the movie industry, and may I just say he has done a bang-up job so far! Already we're looking at an industry drowning with sequels, but after Remake came along suddenly Remakes became the fashion and now we're living through that age of discovery- huzzah! Of course, Rebirth is still a game created for the slugs at Sony to guard jealously like dragons leering over exclusivities- so I cannot provide any thoughts about the quality of the game compared the excellent original except to say 'I hope it's good'. (Can't wait to play it... after we get Final Fantasy XVI! Because we're still waiting on the game before it to come out on PC!) And maybe, according to recent news, I'm part of the problem.

The ever present gremlin floating in the sky above us all, with it's eyes on our innermost financial secrets, has conveyed that apparently, Final Fantasy Rebirth is selling far below the margins of the previous title in the franchise. When comparing time frames with Remake, Rebirth is only doing about half the sales and that is- genuinely surprising. Many comments have been made trying to explain this way, but none really seem to stick with me. The 'everyone was in the middle of a pandemic' argument certainly accounts for a few percentages to be knocked off, but was Final Fantasy VII really the kind of the game that casuals flocked to during lockdown? Not Animal Crossing? Because everyone I know who got into gaming around that time played Animal Crossing. Just saying. 

What about the 'it's the novelty of the original game which got people through the door' excuse? I can see the logic there- Final Fantasy VII is the single most beloved game of the franchise, Square teased the possibility of a remake for at least a decade beforehand, that was going to drag in the curious. But surely the fact that game was fantastic would have brought those people back, no? Those players, drawn by their nostalgia, would love to see how the narrative progressed from then on, wouldn't they? Witness those iconic moments, the death of Aerith, the arrival of The Weapons, Cloud's Rebirth, The One Winged Angel? If anything, those week one sales should have been boosted by all those sceptical of the original finally coming around to the fact that this franchise is back. Only PC fans really have an excuse to be wary, given the fact they gave us a badly optimised facsimile of the PS release.

But then- maybe that does have some small effect on sales as well... I won't talk for the massive 'nearly half the sales of the original' divide, but perhaps the knowledge that this franchise is not a purely PlayStation original might have wilted the charm of the Final Fantasy Remake brand some small mite. Were I a PC and Playstation gamer who had recently learned of this, I would probably prefer to wait until the PC launch of the game for the pure fact that I prefer to play JRPGs on my computer and not my console. Perhaps that same philosophy dawned on some others out there too. Why spend the big bucks today for an experience you'd consider inferior. Afterall, the PC launch is going to come with the DLC they'll inevitably throw into the game at some point- and they're not going to deliver the same half-baked port they did last time around, right? (Right?)  

What else? Well, they shared their release month with Helldivers 2- which was an attention hog all of it's own, and Persona 3 Reloaded. (which is a money hog, looking at the price of that DLC coming our way, yeesh!) You would think that Final Fantasy 7 would be big enough to remain competitive in that sort of line-up, to be fair, but I guess the way we frame release date competition has slightly altered given the modern day shift. The $70 price point is just a sore thumb over the games industry, and when two massive games of the month both charge that far north of 50, it does change the considerations of your average consumer. Do they really have that kind of cash to burn, especially when all their friends are killing it on the considerably less expensive Helldivers? $70 was briefly a novelty denoting unimpeachable quality but... well... Skull and Bones. (Ubisoft really do ruin everything, don't they?)

There also appears to be a vast reduction in the amount of coverage I'm seeing this game get within hobbyist circles. I've actually managed to avoid spoilers for the game entirely, without actually really trying. I just assumed that it was a lost cause considering Sony actively hate me and fully intended to gate keep the game for months- but the less specialised Final Fantasy circles seem to have passed almost entirely by the game in favour of the big crazes of the year- which is strange considering Remake was literally everywhere back in 2020. You couldn't escape the damn thing flashed on every single home page- all the FF, all the time! Even Final Fantasy XVI had more of a time in the cultural zeitgeist than it feels Rebirth did- perhaps that is just a symptom of these apparent reduced sales?

At the very least I'm sure that the Final Fantasy 7 team can look forward to the inevitable boost in sales when the PC port comes our way because I'm sure a sizable chunk of their prospective audience is sitting with me, arms crossed and deeply unimpressed, as they court the sleek console for no discernible gain. (Afterall, splitting up your audience is just fantastic for business, right?) I know it's all the hope of snowballs flying through the rings of Beelzebub, but I hope this gives some pause to the Final Fantasy hoarders and makes them realise how much bigger their game launches will be if the most JRPG reverent community was allowed access to them along with the rest of the world. Like a Dragon have figured it out, why can't Final Fantasy?

Of course, given the general dominance of the Final Fantasy brand I would be very surprised if this has any real effect on the trajectory of the Final Fantasy Remake series. Their plans are set in stone miles in advance and they're probably already getting started on Final Fantasy 7 Rewind, or Remember, or Resurrect or whatever it's called. (Mark my words- it's going to be one of those three!) But hey, maybe in the future when the next Final Fantasy alumni is stirring the pot with their remake of Final Fantasy 8 or something (too big to remake, my ass! Tetsuya split 7 into three parts- your excuses ring hollow!) maybe we can be spared another stupid exclusivity deal? Pretty please? (I promise to buy the game if you don't go exclusive, Square!)