Not that I have a horse in this race because I consider BG3 to be one of the best games of all time and I still haven't played FFXVI because of console exclusive... but there is a lot of people ignoring obvious things.


1. Console exclusive. This objectively makes less sales than just a full release. Full stop. You're an idiot if you think otherwise.
Xbox and PC are massive portions of the market (with some saying PC is the biggest share). PC in particular is growing bigger each year due to lower entry costs and sheer amount of flexibility, so unless you can account for how many people just stopped buying consoles completely because they now have a gaming computer (like me) and then compare Playstation sales with games from 8 years ago it's pointless to do so.

Quote Originally Posted by ReynTime View Post
Final Fantasy VII, VIII, X, XII and even the oh-so-hated XIII sold systems. Final Fantasy XVI failing to do that is still attesting to how the brand fell from grace.
Absolutely. This is also part of the above problem and isn't indicative of XVI's individual quality. Square Enix as a whole has a bad reputation now so of course people aren't going to leap out of their seats to buy a Playstation 5 just for FFXVI after how XIII and XV were received.

2. FFXVI was released smack in the middle of a lot of highly anticipated games like Resident Evil 4, Tears of the Kingdom, Diablo 4, and Baldur's Gate 3. It's not super common to buy every single $60+ game that comes out, and those who do buy multiples still have to make choices.

3. Metacritic ratings are worthless. Multiple super beloved games like Nier and Silent Hill 2 are below 90. Bioshock 3 is rated above Bioshock. Multiple Madden and NFL games above Hades.

4. Just because another game does better doesn't make the "worse" game bad. Hades is better than Okami (imo) and Okami sold poorly, but Okami is not even CLOSE to being bad.

Combine Squeenix's low and deserved reputation following years of flops + console exclusivity + multiple great AAA games released within 3 - 4 months of each other its no wonder that sales are "low". But compared to other Squeenix games that have come out recently, the sales are great.
When CBU3 makes a game as soulless as KH3 then we can talk.

But even without playing FFXVI I can tell Baldur's Gate 3 is better. I would like more RPGs to take note of how much people like RPGs and turn-based. IG Persona wasn't enough to prove that.
I would kill for another turn-based FF that plays more like Baldur's Gate. Including the romance.
I will still probably enjoy FFXVI though. It looks decent and even my non-FFXIV friends loved it.