Square Enix received an incredible marketing opportunity when Tifa’s bikini became a viral sensation, only to squander it with asinine censorship.
According to Famitsu’s latest sales report, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s sales in Japan have dropped to just 24,482 copies for the week spanning from March 4th to March 10th, the games second week on store shelves.
The game’s total sales now stand at 287,138, where it claimed the top spot on launch week, selling 262,656 copies, however the immensely poor second week showing has seen a sharp sales decline of almost 91%
This news comes as a shock, especially considering the biased and corrupt press coverage press having praised Final Fantasy VII Rebirth with stellar reviews. With the game being the second installment of a proposed trilogy aiming to remake the legendary 1997 Final Fantasy VII, the second title continues to diverge significantly from the original with a modern, action-focused combat system.
Final Fantasy remains one of Square Enix’s primary revenue generators. Given the game’s immense buzz on social media platforms just a week before its release, the dismal sales figures highlight the irony of Square Enix’s situation.
A brief clip circulated on social media platforms, showing Tifa and Aerith in bikinis. Many incorrectly assumed that Square Enix had abandoned their ethics department due to the depiction of attractive female characters. However, the bikinis worn by both characters in this canonical event within Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are not overly revealing. Tifa’s cleavage remains censored to the same extent as in the first installment, devoid of any noticeable movement or jiggle physics.
In the initial installment of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake(s), Square Enix openly admitted to making changes to Tifa’s appearance compared to her portrayal in the original games. Her bust size was notably reduced with jiggle physics being eliminated entirely, citing decisions made by their “ethics department.”
Undoubtedly, such changes were likely made to adhere to globalized standards, ensuring easier ESG financing, a cause strongly supported by Square Enix.
Regardless, the safe attractive depiction of Tifa was met with universal praise all over platforms such as Twitter, however the unwarranted attention towards Tifa in a bikini may have caused a stir amongst Square Enix’s marketing department as they proactively sought to destroy the great word of mouth that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was generating by retroactively censoring the first remake installment right before the launch of Rebirth.
The censorship, which adds a black undershirt to Tifa’s cowboy outfit in the Nibelheim flashback, supposedly aims to maintain “continuity” with the further censored design seen in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
However, this argument lacks logic. The initial remake was released four years ago, and suddenly, just before the launch of Rebirth, following the immense positive fan reception over Tifa wearing a casual bikini, they retroactively censored the initial game.
The blatant censorship might have gone unnoticed if fans hadn’t hyped up Square’s supposed “transformation” on Twitter.
Their actions created the perfect storm, with foolish pseudo-fans applauding the deceptive company that has long been censoring itself to meet global standards (and secure ESG financing). They praised Square Enix just because the company dangled a bit of fan service in front of them like a set of shiny keys.
Only for Square Enix to immediately retract their newfound fanfare and face scrutiny by censoring a four year old game with an update. It’s the best outcome possible for them to betray yet another generation of customers and expose them to their tricks.
And by god did the consumer learn a valuable lesson, as evident from Japanese customers who have actively steered clear of Square Enix’s latest offering. Who could have imagined that applying a censorship patch to counter all the positive coverage their upcoming game was receiving would ultimately lead to lackluster sales?
Besides the fact that, similar to the first installment, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has a limited timed exclusive release on the Sony PlayStation 5 console, which has failed to meet Sony’s own sales expectations, Famitsu reports that over five million PS5 systems have been sold across Japan.
Despite this, after a two-week period, Square Enix’s latest game had only sold just over 280,000 physical units. With the games first week sales figure of 262,656 copies being down 22% compared to the first week launch sales of Final Fantasy XVI.
It’s highly probable that the game has sold far more units when accounting for digital sales in the region. However, its failure on paper brings me immense satisfaction, given Square’s negligence to produce content favorable to fans without implementing prolific censorship or greedy microtransactions.
