14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that Final Fantasy XIII might be one of the biggest games of the year even if it is only released in Japan and on a single platform, the PlayStation 3 from Sony. The game, which was released on December 17, has managed to sell more than 1.5 million copies in just three days, topping the sale chart for the market and breaking the record held by Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, which was released in 2008.
The Famitsu magazine reports that some stores have run out of copies of Final Fantasy XIII as Square Enix is rushing to send in new stock. The publisher delivered close to 2 million units to retailers before the release date, about the same number as that initially put out for Final Fantasy XII that was released for the PlayStation 2.
A good chunk of the games sold are bundled with a special edition of the PS3, branded with the logo and images from the title, which is good news for Sony, which also gets to sell more of its devices.
Square Enix is saying that it expects Final Fantasy XIII to perform just as well in the West, when it arrives in March 2010. Although the game is a PS3 exclusive on the Japanese market, it will also be released on the Xbox 360 from Microsoft on other markets, in what marks a first for the series.
Square Enix has marked the new Japanese role playing title as one of the centerpieces of its strategy of attracting wider audiences outside of its core market.
Since it debuted in 1987, more than 92 million units of Final Fantasy-labeled games have been sold and the XIII installment in the series seems poised to be one of the biggest hits yet.