Nearly five years after it was first teased at 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Final Fantasy XIII finally launched in the US and Europe yesterday. And though the final day-one sales numbers have yet to be tallied, Square Enix wasn't shy about announcing the role-playing game has shipped 5 million units worldwide to date. The number is already 1 million units shy of the 6 million-unit lifetime sales estimate the publisher offered last September.

　　Lightning strikes 5 million times, apparently.

　　The global total includes shipments of the game in Japan, where FFXIII launched on December 17 exclusively for the PlayStation 3. There, the game sold 1 million units its first day on the market. In the West, Final Fantasy XIII is available for both the PS3 and the Xbox 360, as first revealed at E3 2008. The company did not break down how many units the game shipped on either platform.

　　Final Fantasy XIII's 5-million unit haul now brings global shipments of all Final Fantasy games to 96 million units. The series debuted in 1987 with Final Fantasy for the NES, known as the Famicom in Japan. Since then, it has been featured prominently on a variety of systems, although Final Fantasy XIII is the first major installment to debut on multiple platforms at the same time.

　　For more on Final Fantasy XIII, check out GameSpot's video review of the game. For a look a Square Enix's launch party from San Francisco, peruse the video below.

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　　GDC 2010: Final Fantasy XIII Launch Event

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