The combination of one of the world’s most awaited games and the lure of X-Factor winner and singing superstar Leona Lewis, dragged people out in their thousands to the launch of the Square Enix UK launch of Final Fantasy XIII at the HMV store in London this week.
Lewis has a new single ‘My Hands’ which features in the sound track to the game and she was present at the launch. Over 2,000 fans queued for up to 17 hours outside the store to meet the acclaimed game producer Yoshinori Kitase, who has led the development of the game.
Square Enix is already leaking the fact that it has already passed the 5 million mark as it prepares for the US/UK launch, although this number includes 2 million copies of the game already shipped and sold since December in Japan. The 3 million new copies that have gone into shops are only likely to last out the week.
Square Enix has been going on about this version of the role playing game (RPG) since Final Fantasy 7, and this is thought of as a follow on from this earlier version of the game in terms of how the players fight one another. It is the first to use a new battle scoring system, where complex combinations of commands, create new magic and physical strikes on opponents ‘ the more combos used, the quicker you can beat opponents.
Already international scorekeeping website Twin Galaxies has issued a challenge to gamers offering a prize for the first gamer to submit proof of full game completion. The winner will be the featured on its front page story on the gaming site. The game can be played on both the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 and players of both consoles are eligible. Originally Square Enix was loyal only to PlayStation gaming, but Microsoft has worked hard at luring them over to the Xbox and now new games come out on both platforms.
This week researcher Strategy Analytics said that the Sony PlayStation 3 would end up selling more units than all of its rivals over the lifetime of the current generation.
This is something that we have said for some years, even in the lead up to the launch of the device in 2006. The processing and graphics chips are so much more powerful than those in the Xbox and in the Wii that they will be capable of handling HD 3D gaming.
The guys at Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices service, said that although global sales to date of the Nintendo Wii have exceeded those of the PS3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360, the PS3 will still be a commercial platform five years after the Wii has been replaced. Lifetime PS3 sales are predicted to reach 127 million units, compared to 103 million Wii units.
To us a Wii sold is not a PS3 lost, and Nintendo has created its own genre of gaming console, while the Xbox 360 and PS3 have fought it out to be the action HD gaming device of choice.
‘Nintendo has done a great job with the Wii in bringing console games to new audiences,’ says David Mercer, Principal Analyst and report author. ‘But its sales are now falling, particularly in mature markets, and its installed base will peak in 2011. Ownership of both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 will hit their highest points between 2012 and 2014.’
The report predicts that worldwide TV games console sales in 2010 will fall by 9% to just 47.5 million units with sales of the Wii on 17.5 million units, the PS3 selling 14 million, the Xbox 360 just 10.5 million with older consoles making up the rest. There was a 6% decline last year as well. The Nintendo Wii will have an installed base of 76 million Wiis by the end of 2010. Strategy Analytics says that the global installed base of consoles will reach 220 million by the end of 2010.
‘Console industry cycles have given the industry major planning challenges for many years,’ says Mercer. ‘There are signs that this volatility may be moderating as platforms add home entertainment and social networking services beyond pure gaming.’