Final Fantasy XVI Falls Short of 'High-End' Square Enix Sales Targets, Slow PS5 Adoption Blamed

Final Fantasy XVI has been one of the more fascinating sales stories to watch in 2023, as the game launched as a PS5 exclusive – essentially positioned as a PlayStation first-party title – and many wondered if the gambit would pay off. At first Square Enix tried to paint a positive picture, boasting how quickly the game reached 3 million units sold, but now it seems they are singing a different tune.

This weekend, Square Enix offered a poor report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, with operating income down 79 percent compared to the same period last year, despite the release of Final Fantasy XVI. Now again, FF16 was far from a flop, but it didn't sell enough to make up for a number of other weaknesses in Square Enix's business, ranging from the legitimate flop of The Prophet, and declining revenue from Final Fantasy XIV and mobile titles.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Square Enix's Takashi Kiryu said during a post-earnings conference call that Final Fantasy XVI "did not meet the high end of the company's expectations." Furthermore, Kiryu was at least partially pointing to the limited size of the PlayStation 5 user base. Now that the PS5 supply constraints have been largely eased, Square Enix is hoping that they can boost FF16 sales as more people get their hands on the machine.

It's hard not to see a connection between these latest Kiryu statements and the ones he made when he took to the stage with Phil Spencer to announce that Final Fantasy XIV, and all future major Square Enix titles, would be coming to Xbox. It seems that Square Enix has soured on the possible PlayStation exclusive future they once envisioned.

Slightly disappointing sales aside, Final Fantasy XVI is definitely a spectacle worth your time, as Wccftech's Francesco De Meo spelled out in his 9 out of 10 review…

"Final Fantasy XVI ushers in a new standard for Japanese role-playing games, and while the RPG components themselves are limited by Square-Enix standards, it's the narrative and gameplay that surpasses all expectations. […] Nothing short of a technical marvel, Clive Rosfield and Torgal are among some of the best character action duos around, and their 70-hour epic adventure across Valisthea will forever be remembered in Final Fantasy XVI.”

Final Fantasy XVI is available now on PS5.