You're Paying for That Final Fantasy XV Demo

Being a gamer based in Japan and who plays more RPGs than anything, I get a lot of questions about the Final Fantasy series, and lately those have been about Final Fantasy XV and Final Fantasy Type-0. In particular, I’ve been asked about — and lurked upon forum discussions about — the price of Final Fantasy Type-0. A lot of people are wondering why this game is the full market standard price of $60 USD.

I’m honestly surprised people have to even ask this. Isn’t it obvious? Square Enix is charging $60 because you’re paying some of that money for the Final Fantasy XV demo.

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Heck, I’m getting too far ahead of myself with that. A basic rule of business is that a product tends to sell for what the market will pay. Square Enix knows that the market will pay $60 for this package. Maybe it would have done so for Final Fantasy Type-0 by itself, but it definitely will when there’s a Final Fantasy XV demo involved. If they wanted to get super cocky, they could probably release a standalone FFXV demo for $45 and sell a million. I bet it would happen. The money made might not be worth the PR backlash, however. So we’ll never know.

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Some people are angry enough with Square Enix for charging $60 for a re-release that, frankly, doesn’t look like it should be new-gen exclusive. The thing is, this is a way of beginning to make money on Final Fantasy XV before it releases. It was revealed in 2006 (and spent years being called “Final Fantasy Versus XIII“), but got sidetracked, delayed, and ignored for years. While it doesn’t seem like much was ever accomplished, the people who did sit around planning things and programming what little there was to show certainly didn’t work for free.

Moreover, Final Fantasy XV is still a ways off from release itself. It will absolutely be months at the bare minimum, more likely at least a year or two before we can see that game on store shelves. Square Enix will put a taste of XV out there for those who were already going to buy a console version of FFT0, and sell an additional shload of FFT0 copies because of the demo’s inclusion. This is a big win for the guys in suits.

For the Final Fantasy fan:

Why do you think they’ve come out and said that the demo ships alongside early copies only? It’s to make you run out and pick it up quickly. You think they really can’t print up more codes? They can and they will, if the game stays hot. The last thing they’d want is FFXV demo codes selling for $100 on eBay and not being able to get a single dime of that sale. No, they’d prefer to keep making that sweet cash themselves.

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It’s the same reason we hardly see an official Square Enix mention of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD without also seeing the company bring the FFXV demo into the conversation. We have FFXV footage stealing the thunder from FFT0 trailers, the FFXV logo working its way into FFT0 marketing, and so on. The two have become inseparable, and that’s by design. The price of this game includes a markup for the demo, because Square Enix knows they can get it.

I should say that I find nothing wrong with the practice. You’re adults, you made your money doing whatever it is you do, and you can decide how to spend it. I just wrote this up to explain to those who were honestly confused about Type-0 HD‘s $60 price tag.

The demo — oh, and that, ah, game — will come out in North America on March 17, then Europe and Japan in the days that follow.