Japanese publication Nikkei Trendy (via DS) has said it expects the upcoming Final Fantasy XV and Dragon Quest XI to sell over one million copies each.
Nikkei notes that the smartphone market in Japan has nabbed some of the limelight away from home consoles in the country, although it still feels both titles will pull in some impressive numbers. Furthermore, the publication also stated that the JRPGs will help push console sales in Japan.
Elsewhere, the article feels that Final Fantasy XV’s battle system is likely to prove polarizing to traditional fans of the long-running series, while appealing to fans of action video games.
Final Fantasy XV is due out on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One at some point in 2016. The game was previously in development for the PS3 as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, although the project was ultimately reimagined for current-generation consoles around three years ago, at which point Versus XIII was around 25 percent complete.
Square Enix has announced that FFXV’s release date will be confirmed during an event in March, where we’ll also catch a glimpse of the full game in action. It’s also revealed that the game’s storytelling has taken influence from The Last of Us, and that it may offer airship combat as free post-launch DLC.
While certain elements from the Versus XIII build remain in place, FFXV has changed quite dramatically from its original incarnation, with some characters tweaked or removed entirely. For example, the character of Stella is no longer featured, and is instead replaced by a new heroine in the form of Luna.
Dragon Quest XI meanwhile has a tentative release window of May 2017 in Japan, which likely means we won’t see the game in the U.S. and Europe until late next year. The franchise, which has sold over 60 million units worldwide, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, having first launched on the NES back in 1986.