Fresh into the new year I took a look at how Square Enix faired against its competition on the 2007 Japanese sales charts (results sourced from Media Create).
Square Enix – 2007 Japanes Sales Charts
As expected Square Enix’s top selling game was Dragon Quest IV which sold 1,052,827 copies positioning it as the 9th most sold game of 2007. In 15th place was Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker which sold in excess of 825,065 copies, followed closely by Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII which sold 735,939 copies (18th place) helping Square Enix to three top selling titles in the top 20.
Despite some solid results in the upper quarter of the Japanese charts I have to say not all titles performed as well. Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings only sold 524,009 copies which was a lot lower than Square expected. Despite some dismal sales for Revenant Wings the series was not completely let down as Final Fantasy IV which was re-released for the Nintendo DS during 2007 gave the series a well deserved boost landing a little over 447,087 sales in a matter of months.
Other titles of note include Final Fantasy CC: Ring of Fates with netted 389,845 copies landing yet another game for Square Enix in the Top 100. Overall not a great 2007 run for the Final Fantasy series but not too bad either.
Moving on we see in 46th place one of the most wanted titles in Europe and North America, Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ selling some 337,091 copies, followed closely by Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions for the Sony PSP which sold 301,796 copies. Lastly Square Enix’s worst preforming game in the top 100 was yet another Final Fantasy title namely, Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift which sold 287,871 copies putting it in 58th place (not bad I guess).
Overall the Japanese market is always unpredictable but Square Enix would have been quite dissapointed with their sales standings for the Final Fantasy series which usually take the charts by storm. Lets hope 2008 will be a little more uplifting for this extremely popular series. Overall very well done to our favourite company Square Enix and lets hope for more success later this year.