Now, I'm no analyst but I bet Square Enix is tickled pink that Dragon Quest IX is selling oodles of copies in its native Japan, a few dismissed Amazon complaints aside. Given that Square loves making money, whether or not DQIX would ever make it to the United States seems like a no-brainer -- it's not if, it's when.

Gamekyo is reporting that Sqaure Enix boss and talking head Yoichi Wada established a pretty vague timeframe for us at a recent press event in Tokyo -- an occidental release is being studied now, but fans of the series shouldn't expect the game before April of next year. Wada also went on to reiterate Square's goal of hitting 5 million domestic sales. Given that, in three weeks, DQIX has already racked up almost 4 million, I think they'll get it.

But anyway, bummer about the long wait, yeah? If, by next year you haven't imported it (and miss out on all that local multiplayer action!) or pirated it (and risk bricking your DS), how many of you will still be interested? As for me, I recently found the original Dragon Warrior at a flea market, and a friend gave me Dragon Quest VIII for my birthday -- I've got more than enough Dragon Quest to last me until well into 2010.