FF13 destroyed the series' relevancy.
FF13 did a lot of damage, and I think much moreso than FF14 1.0 did, despite how Square wants us to think about it.
And that's why the marketing for this is so insane - it's very much about marketing FFXV, but moreso reviving the relevance of the FF brand.
The bigger reality is that the FF brand won't be relevant until they can produce good games in a timely manner. So even if FFXV is a 10M-selling hit, we're still probably looking at another 5 years until FFXVI.
And while that works for games like GTA, FF will never connect at the cultural level that those games will. So without frequent, quality releases, I don't see how they're going to get that back.
But to me a lot of this whole marketing strategy revealed last night screams of a Japanese company still not quite sure how to market their franchise to a Western audience. Which worries me for when the real marketing blitz happens.
Japanese companies don't know how to market to Westerners because they won't actually let Westerners do the marketing.
Square USA has to run everything by Japan, and Japan will veto it, despite having no knowledge of the US market or marketing.