25 February 2010

By: Andrei Dumitrescu, Games Editor
Nintendo Brings Dragon Quest IX to the West

Probably during summer

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies has been out in The Land of the Rising Sun since July 11, 2009 and it has been a great success, selling more than 4 million copies until the beginning of 2010. And now, Nintendo has announced that it will be taking over Dragon Quest IX to the publishing duties for the North American release of the Japanese hit from Square Enix. West

Square Enix

Cammie Dunaway, who is the executive vice president of sales and marketing at Nintendo of America, said that "We're pleased to announce today that we're working with Square Enix, and that Nintendo of America will be publishing Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies." It seems that the collaboration between Nintendo and Square Enix is set to become more visible, almost two years after Satoru Iwata, the president of the former, stated that the companies should create "a strong tag team to promote Dragon Quest overseas." Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies was developed by Level 5 and recorded more than 2 million pre-orders in Japan, even managing to get the title of most eagerly expected game, beating up fellow JRPG Final Fantasy XIII. The launch allowed Square Enix to get record profits during last year. Nintendo has been taking over publishing in North America for some Game Boy Advance games but for the current console generation, Dragon Quest IX is the first example of collaboration between the companies. It has not offered a clear release date for the DS title but it is widely expected to arrive during the summer. Historically, Dragon Quest titles have not sold as well in the United States as they have done in Japan. Dragon Quest IX should also be outed on the European market at some point, but it's unclear who will be in charge of publishing.
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11 December 2008

By: Andrei Dumitrescu, Games Editor
Dragon Quest X Coming to the Nintendo Wii
Square Enix makes a surprise announcement
Square Enix is known for creating well designed role playing games for all platforms but until now, the Nintendo Wii has not delivered a good version of a Dragon Quest videogame. The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors was released earlier in the year but players complained about the bad Wii controls and the shallow way the game world was created. Fortunately, Square Enix is not going to abandon the platform seeing the biggest sales in almost all hardware charts and announced its plan to develop and release Dragon Quest X for the Nintendo Wii. The company does not say when the game gets released, although the safe bet is sometime late in 2009, and no details regarding gameplay and setting are available. Still, Square Enix is probably thinking about creating a compelling game world, trying to replicate the success the Dragon Quest series has had on other platforms. The developer also announced that it would launch Dragon Quest IX on the Nintendo DS on March 28, 2009. The game has been specifically created to enhance the global profile of Dragon Quest, which until now has been eclipsed everywhere but in Japan by the well known Final Fantasy series and its spin offs. The title is supposed to be more action packed than other releases in the series and four player multiplayer will also be one of the draws. At the moment, Final Fantasy XIII is being developed for both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Initially, the title was presented as being a PS3 exclusive, but at E3 2008, in a big announcement, the Redmond giant stated that the role playing game would also be coming to its console. The teaser trailer released in the summer impressed players with its video quality. 
Coming to the Wii Square Enix
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