Rejoice, Dragon Quest fans! Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies is coming to America! Nintendo announced at their Media Summit today that they are working with Square Enix in a "unique partnership" to bring the beloved RPG franchise out here this Summer.
Dragon Quest IX has sold 4.15 million copies in Japan alone becoming one of the best selling games on the DS. So it's no surprise that Nintendo wants to bring the game to other territories and see their bank accounts fill up even more.
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3:00 PM on 02.24.2010
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Whew?
What a strange world we live in
They might not want to publish it here because DQ is...a riskier venture in the U.S., where none of the games have been very successful outside of VIII. It seems silly, but...no, it's just silly.
I think Nintendo has the best infrastructure for distribution among DS games, so Square wants to leave it to them so this could be the first DQ game that could be a smash hit. Kinda like what Level5 did with Layton. This publishing deal could also have been negotiated before development and would explain the exclusivity to the DS/Wii for 9 and 10.
I don't quite see much risk in taking a game that sells 4 million copies in one territory and bringing it to another. All I would see are some very, very angry shareholders complaining about lost revenue if you don't port it. Maybe I don't fully understand the situation, but the reward of taking your most successful franchise in one territory and bringing it to another greatly off-sets the risk of lost advertising revenue and a relatively cheap localization in a game that has already paid for itself ten times over.
*wipes brow*
Well I was beginning to think the gave up on us. So I'm not complaining too much...
It was widely speculated and Squenix even registered a trademark for it a few months ago, but their track record of bringing DQ games hasn't been stellar. Back in 2002 the PS1 remake of DQ IV was supposed to come out here. Due to some issues with the developer of the game (not Enix) closing or some nonsense, they cancelled the localization at the last minute (like the month before it was supposed to come out). Between this and the fact that Squenix never brought over DQ Monsters: Caravan Hear on the GBA, DQ Yangus on the PS2 or the DQ5 remake on the PS2, I never assume Squenix is actually going to bring a DQ game over here.