The release of Final Fantasy 15 later this year won’t just be the release of a video game- no, according to the plans that Square Enix shared at their Final Fantasy Uncovered event back in March, the launch of the game will be an event, as we are going to be bombarded by a deluge of cross media Final Fantasy projects and merchandize from all directions at once. Something like that should manage to create enough excitement ad buzz around the game to hopefully compel even those who ordinarily would not pick it up to maybe check it out.
Or at least, that was probably the plan, anyway- you see, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy, the prequel movie to Final Fantasy 15, covering all the events that led to the game, just opened at the Japanese box office, and it languished, performing miserably and earning only ¥35,516,460 (roughly $345,000), selling only 22,818 tickets. Yes, the movie had a limited release, but its performance is abnormally dismal even considering that.
What does this mean, then? There are multiple explanations: the most terrifying one for Square is that there are not many people interested in Final Fantasy 15 after all, in spite of all of Square’s attempts to sell people on it. A slightly more reasonable response might be that people may be interested in the game, but they are definitely not interested in any of the peripheral media surrounding it. There is also always the possibility that people who were burned by Square’s previous cross media efforts, such as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and so were hesitant to give a new Square movie a chance.
Whatever it is, this is not an auspicious start to the Final Fantasy 15 project.
[Thanks NeoGAF]