Square Enix ‘panicking’ over slow Final Fantasy 16 pre-orders claims source

Fans think a Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth trailer is on its way, which may be in response to lower-than-expected pre-orders for Final Fantasy 16.

As the next major PlayStation 5 title and the next mainline Final Fantasy game, expectations are high for Final Fantasy 16.

The positive previews mean it should be a genuinely good game, although the pedigree of the franchise and the people working on it (such as producer Naoki Yoshida) is arguably enough to guarantee it’ll sell well.

That said, there’s chatter of it falling short of Square Enix’s expectations as it’s claimed that the publisher is panicking over the pre-order numbers, which are apparently less than Final Fantasy 15’s.

That doesn’t take into account that Final Fantasy 15 launched for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC whereas Final Fantasy 16 is only available for a single console at the moment.

While this hardly means the game is going to flop, it suggests Square Enix has very high expectations for Final Fantasy 16’s day one sales and is worried about it performing worse than the previous entry.

This comes courtesy of Imran Khan, former news editor at the now defunct Fanbyte. He shared this via a public Patreon post, stressing that pre-order numbers can only be used to gauge guaranteed day one sales.

Khan only brings this up because of Square Enix’s recent and sudden promotion of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, its next major launch after Final Fantasy 16.

For the last few days, the Final Fantasy 7 Twitter account has been posting daily updates about the sequel to Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Not through in-game screenshots or trailers but through simple Q&As that honestly don’t really say anything new.

Although one of these updates mentions a ‘wide and multifaceted world with a high degree of freedom,’ suggesting that it will feature a more modern open world setting than the previous game.

It’s speculated that this is building up to a proper new reveal during Summer Game Fest, as the seventh Twitter update will fall on the same day as the event – June 8 – which would mean Square Enix plans to start promoting Rebirth before Final Fantasy 16 actually launches.

‘I wonder if they want to remind people the next chapter of Final Fantasy 7’s remake trilogy exists and give it more marketing time than they had planned,’ Khan speculates.

‘The initial sales of [Final Fantasy 7] Remake were quite good, but it slowed down faster than Square Enix seemed to expect, so I imagine they really want Rebirth to sell as well as possible. Well, of course they do, but I imagine they’re really, really hoping for an uptick in sales.’

As for Final Fantasy 16, a demo is expected to launch ahead of the game, which could entice anyone who’s still on the fence about it. Said demo will likely get a launch date at Final Fantasy 16’s pre-launch celebration on June 11, at 11pm BST.

Final Fantasy 16 launches for PlayStation 5 on June 22.

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