UPDATE: Square Enix has retracted Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata’s statement regarding the game needing to sell 10 million copies to succeed and that the number isn’t reflective of the amount needed to recoup the investment on the project.
Square Enix’s full statement:
We’d like to make a comment on the news reports that state Hajime Tabata, Director of FINAL FANTASY XV, commented that FINAL FANTASY XV needed to sell 10 million copies to recoup the investment at the press conference held yesterday in LA.
We believe there was a communication problem during the conference. In fact, Tabata was referencing 10 million copies only as a high goal which the development team set to realize their ambition to make the ultimate FINAL FANTASY game. And the comment was never meant to be referred as a recoup line of the investment.
Original Story:
Square Enix has revealed that the hotly anticipated Final Fantasy XV needs to sell 10 million copies globally to succeed.
The game’s director, Hajime Tabata, confirmed the figure during a press conference earlier this week (via Kotaku UK).
The upcoming PlayStation 4 and Xbox One JRPG hits stores on September 30, 2016, just over ten years since it was first revealed at E3 2006 as the PS3-exclusive title, Final Fantasy Versus XIII.
With the game being supported by a wealth of multimedia content, not to mention the fact it’s had an arduous and lengthy development cycle, the project has unsurprisingly been a massive investment for the Japanese software giant.
For reference, the 10 million sales goal puts it second only to Final Fantasy VII in terms of performance at retail in the entire franchise. The figure is also nearly twice as much as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has managed to sell to date.
Final Fantasy XV will receive an Ultimate Collector’s Edition that will set you back $270; it’s available exclusively through the Square Enix Store and is limited to 30,000 copies only.