Square Enix has announced that the next core game in the
Dragon Quest series will be released for the Wii, as part of a press conference in Japan revealing the release date of
Dragon Quest IX on the Nintendo DS.
Although it enjoys only limited success in the West,
Dragon Quest is the second most successful series of all time in Japan, behind only
Pokémon. The series was originally closely associated with Nintendo on the NES and SNES and its move, along with
Final Fantasy, to the PlayStation was viewed as one of the core factors behind Sony’s early success in Japan.
Since
Pokémon is a Nintendo-owned franchise,
Dragon Quest is often seen as a "kingmaker" in Japan, with much speculation preceding the announcement of
Dragon Quest IX for the DS in 2006.
Dragon Quest IX's
migration to the DS was seen by many as a holding measure, provoking speculation that the next game would be released on a home console. This has proven correct, with series creator Yuji Horii announcing that
Dragon Quest X is already in development for the Wii. However, no further details are currently available.
The focus of the press conference, as
translated from Japanese website Gigazine by users of web forum NeoGAF, was the release date of
Dragon Quest IX. The game will be released on March 28 in Japan for ¥5,980 - more than the average price of around ¥5,000.
