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What Itagaki's been playing: 400 hours of Dragon Quest IX
After taking the past two years off from game development following a messy breakup with his old employer, Tecmo, Tomonobu Itagaki is back in the game (biz) as chief creative officer of Valhalla Game Studios. But what was Itagaki up to in those two years? Speaking with Famitsu (translated by 1UP), the Dead or Alive creator explained, "I spent the days doing anything I felt like, researching whatever kind of technology struck me, playing whatever games piqued my interest ... for example, I wound up playing Dragon Quest IX for about 400 hours." That's alotta slime! In fairness, the developer wasn't exclusively sinking hundreds of hours of his free time into a single DS game -- he also spent quite a bit of time traveling to game studios around the world and doing R&D work for Valhalla's next (read: first) project, claimed to be "way outside the scope of our company" by Itagaki. According to him, that next game "will earn Valhalla Game Studios its place in history," and he intends it to sell at least four million copies. But for now, he's got a model train set to build with some of his friends. "I'm planning to rent out some space and build a seriously big train layout, 7 or so meters (23 feet) in length. There are some professionals in that field among my friends, so I'm thinking about building something really decent together with them and having people come over and play with the results. It'd be a business, though I'd make it free for children -- kids are pretty rough with model trains, but I'll just have to deal with that." Kids these days.
Mario, Metroid, Sin and Punishment, more dated in Europe
Here's some great news for those of you in Europe interested in playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Sin and Punishment: Star Successor. Nintendo announced that Galaxy will be available in Europe on June 11, not long after America's May 23 date. And Sin and Punishment will be out in Europe (under the slightly altered title Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Skies) on May 7, exactly one month before North America gets its hands on that Treasure. The bad news is that Metroid: Other M is dated simply "Q3." It's due June 27 in North America. We've collected all the European release dates for Wii and DS (including a "summer" date for Dragon Quest IX!) after the break. [Via Eurogamer]
Nintendo publishing Dragon Quest IX in North America
American DS owners have been waiting patiently for Dragon Quest IX, as the game racks up crazy sales in Japan and weekly DLC is released from Square Enix. Well ... we're going to have to keep waiting. While Nintendo didn't announce a date for the RPG at the Nintendo Media Summit today, the company announced that it will not only co-market Dragon Quest IX, it will publish it in North America. This is the first official confirmation of a localized release. Square Enix previously said that it would consider localizing DQIX in its next fiscal year (beginning in April). Update: Nintendo has scheduled Dragon Quest IX for a summer 2010 release. %Gallery-15248%
Square Enix summons strong sales for first nine months of fiscal year
According to Square Enix's financial report covering the first nine months (ending this past December) of its fiscal year, the company is going to finish its annual business cycle with plenty of glistening gil. Overall, the company's profits are up 48 percent from the same period last year, and it forecasts a profit of ¥10 billion (which is far less shocking when converted to $112 million) for the fiscal year ending in March 2010. The company's games division saw limit breaker sales and profits during the period due to Dragon Quest IX, Final Fantasy XIII, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Batman: Arkham Asylum -- which it obtained as part of the Eidos buyout. Square Enix's games group saw sales of ¥72 billion ($806 million, a 97 percent increase over last year), along with a profit of ¥18 billion ($202 million, a 99 percent increase during the same time). Kupos to you, Square Enix.
Square Enix introduces 'Ultimate Hits' line for DS in Japan
It's a formula gamers are all too familiar with. First step: Release a game (and hope it sells a bunch). Second step: As time goes on and the sales pile up, gain interest in your product again through a discounted re-release. Rinse and repeat. Enter: Dragon Quest IX, Final Fantasy IV, Dragon Quest IV and Dragon Quest V, a line-up of games to be branded under Square Enix's 'Ultimate Hits' (partial machine translation) line of DS games. Square Enix is gearing up to re-release these games this March, at a discounted ¥2,940 (around $32). That's cheap, considering most DS games release there for around $50. [Via Kotaku]
Japanese games market shrank in 2009
2009 looked fairly dire for the Japanese games industry. Now that we're on the other side of the year, we can assess the damage. Andriasang reports Enterbrain numbers claiming that, overall, the market shrank ¥543 billion, a reduction of 6.9% from 2008. Since we're in a Seinfeld-quoting mood today, we might posit that the Japanese game industry had been in the pool. Hardware sales dropped 13.9%, with the DS unsurprisingly leading among consoles with 4,025,313 million units and the Xbox 360 even less surprisingly at the bottom, with 331,706 consoles sold. In software, the big winner (or smallest loser, we suppose, given the overall tone of the news) was Dragon Quest IX, which sold a whopping 4,100,968 copies -- slightly more than the total number of DS consoles sold in 2009! Final Fantasy XIII managed to make it onto the tail end of the top five with 1,698,256 copies. But if you weren't Square Enix or Nintendo (who had the other three spots on the top five software charts), 2009 was one to forget.
ASCII Media Works tracks Japan's top selling games of 2009 (so far)
[GAME Watch] Yes, the year technically isn't over yet -- but let's be honest: Nobody's going to be buying any new games over the next four days. As such, Dengeki publisher ASCII Media Works thought it appropriate to track the 30 best-selling games in Japan for 2009. Or, rather, 99 percent of 2009. There aren't too many big surprises; Dragon Quest IX took top honors with 4,089,136 units sold, and Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver came in second with 3,301,873 in sales. Despite having only been out for a little over a week, Final Fantasy XIII actually managed a sixth place finish with 1,455,505 units sold. Check out the full list of top-selling games after the jump. [Via Kotaku]
Dragon Quest IX breaks shipment record in Japan
According to Square Enix, Dragon Quest IX has broken a shipment record in Japan, but we can't help but be underwhelmed by the figure (and not just because Square was hoping for 5 million). Unfortunately, Google Translate initially told us that the game had moved 415 million copies, rather than the 4.15 million it actually shipped. Sure, we guess 4.15 million is okay, but with 415 million, the jokes would have written themselves. "There are only 127,704,000 people in your country! What, are you building forts out of the things?" See? There's a lot going on there. But let's not cry over spilled lulz -- 4.15 million is a great number and this is a time for celebration. That said, if everybody over there wouldn't mind buying just 3.22 more copies of Dragon Quest IX, we'd be eternally grateful.
Trademark suggests upcoming European release for Dragon Quest IX
While we wait for the real, official announcement we so desperately need to hear from Square Enix, another hint has been dropped about a Western release for Dragon Quest IX. Square Enix has filed a series of trademarks for the phrase "Sentinels of the Starry Skies" in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German (search for trademark #008724528 on the EU trademark database to see the English application for yourself). The phrase corresponds closely to the Japanese subtitle of Dragon Quest IX, Hoshizora no Mamorubito ("Defenders of the Starry Sky"). The publisher could be waiting to get its other big RPG out the door before saying anything. It previously noted that if it does localize the DS game (which it will!) it'll be in the next fiscal year, which starts in April.
Santa's Dragon Quest IX cameo now available in Japan
He might know if you've been bad or good, but that won't stop St. Nick from sending you on a horse-related fetch quest in new DLC for Dragon Quest IX in Japan. Released on November 27, the Mr. Claus' Horse downloadable content brings the mythical gift giver to the insanely popular Nintendo DS title. Sadly, we can only hope Square Enix plans to include this and previous Dragon Quest IX DLC when the game eventually lands in North American stores. You'd think a guy with a sleigh and a few flying reindeer could help speed-up the process, but apparently Santa's busy horse-sitting.
Square Enix summons Earnings Report; Final Fantasy XIII Sales Projections evade attacks
Square Enix recently chose to attack with its annual earnings report, and among the 12-page PDF file's barrage of numbers, things look pretty good for the company. Net sales for the six months ending September 30, 2009 were up 33 percent over the same period last year to 91 billion yen ($1 billion), while operating income was also up by 39 percent to 13 billion yen ($144.5 million) over the same period last year. It's not all roses and Dragon Quest IX sales, however -- net income was down almost 58 percent to 2.7 billion yen ($30 million). The statement also talks about the acquisition and assimilation of Eidos in direct proportion to Square Enix's games group division -- which includes video games across all platforms and online games for personal computers. Through the aid of titles like Batman: Arkham Asylum, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and the aforementioned Dragon Quest IX, the games division rose its net sales and operating income by 117 percent and 63 percent to 4.8 billion yen ($53 million) and 1.0 billion yen ($11 million), respectively. As for the company's upcoming darling, Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix prez Yoichi Wada spoke about concern regarding the title's projected domestic sales. Basically, he's not concerned at all! "PS3 sales continue to increase. We're bundling PS3 and FFXIII, and can expect even further sales increases. Orders for FFXIII are definitely not bad," he said. While he didn't reiterate anything as bold as six million, Wada did claim that the game is expected to sell in the millions. Source - Square Enix earnings (PDF) [Via andriasang] Source - Wada comments on FFXIII sales
Dragon Quest IX is Q3's top-selling game
Despite the handicap of not being for sale in most of the world, Dragon Quest IX for the DS sold more copies than any other game in the world between July and September of this year, according to a Top Global Markets report. With 3,925,000 copies sold in Japan, it outsold the number two best-selling game for that period, Wii Sports Resort, by almost 1,000,000 copies -- and that game was available worldwide. Following Wii Sports Resort in the top five: Madden NFL 2010 at 2,612,000, Pokemon HeartGold And SoulSilver at 2,068,000, and Halo 3: ODST, which was only out for a week in Q3, at 1,847,000 copies. All these games have plenty more sales ahead of them as the holidays approach!
Nintendo still planning to co-market Dragon Quest IX
Though Square Enix has yet to say anything concrete about releasing Dragon Quest IX outside of Japan, Nintendo has discussed its own plans to market the title. Last year, Satoru Iwata mentioned his intention to promote the game in the West, and during this week's financial results Q&A session, senior managing director Shinji Hatano reiterated that intention. "Hatano said that helping to sell Dragon Quest IX outside Japan is part of a larger effort on the part of Nintendo to partner with software makers to sell their games for Nintendo hardware," GameLife summarized. Maybe eventually, Square Enix will announce this game. Also on the subject of Dragon Quest IX, at the same event, Shigeru Miyamoto praised DQIX's communication mode, which allows players to collect and interact with others' characters passively. "Dragon Quest IX's passerby communication has caused the number of people walking around outside using their DS systems to increase greatly, and I'm thinking that I could probably make something unique like that," he said. And then he said "Also, recently, we got a cat." Hint, hint. [Via GameLife]
Japanese gaming market continues to decline
We got our first indication that the Japanese gaming industry wasn't doing too hot in July, when gaming hardware and software sales from the first half of 2009 had dropped 24 percent from the same period last year. The recently released sales figures from the first half of fiscal 2009 (which runs from March 31 through September 28) are equally downtrodden: According to the industry analysts at Enterbrain, the Japanese games market fell 10.5 percent during this six-month period. That figure represents a 15.1 percent drop in hardware sales and a 7.5 percent decline in software sales. The various models of the Nintendo DS were the biggest sellers during this period, moving nearly 1.7 million units combined. Appropriately, the top two selling titles during the half-year were Dragon Quest IX, which sold nearly 4 million copies, and the recently released Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver editions, which sold a little over 2 million combined. Not faring quite as well are the PSP (813k units sold), Wii (594k units sold), PS3 (581k units sold) and Xbox 360, which moved a paltry 137k units in the first half of the fiscal year. No use crying over spilled milk, we suppose. Things can only go up from here! Unless, of course, they continue to go down. That's also an option. [Via Kotaku]
Weekly Dragon Quest IX sales drop under 100K for the first time
Last week, for the first time since its July debut, Dragon Quest IX sold fewer than 100,000 copies. Gamasutra reports that the latest Media Create totals (not yet up on Media Create's site) put Dragon Quest at 79,000 units sold for the week ending August 23, earning it the second-place spot behind another DS game, Nintendo's Tomodachi Collection. This isn't the first week out of the top spot for DQIX: the August releases of SD Gundam G Generation Wars and Monster Hunter 3 bumped Square Enix's RPG sequel as well. Gamasutra estimates life-to-date sales for DQIX at 3.7 million units -- the rate of growth is slowing, but the results are still ridiculous.
Square Enix 'considering' Dragon Quest IX localization sometime after April
Having sold well over three million copies of Dragon Quest IX in Japan, isn't it the obvious choice for Square Enix to bring the hit RPG worldwide as soon as possible? Well, maaaaaaybe. In an investor Q&A session, president Yoichi Wada said that the company is "considering" releasing DQIX overseas, according to Siliconera's translation, and still deciding which regions will receive it. And when Square Enix does get around to it, the company doesn't plan to release it anywhere until after April 2010, the start of the company's next fiscal year. The Dragon Quest series, obviously, isn't as major anywhere else as it is in Japan, but Dragon Quest VIII sold around half a million copies in North America, which seems, at least ... worth the trouble.
There are now 3.5 million Dragon Quest IX cartridges
Welcome to your weekly Dragon Quest IX sales update! We don't do this for most games, but, well, most games don't sell over two million copies in the first week. The relevant part of Square Enix's latest statement about the RPG's success is actually about shipments rather than sales: the company announced that as of yesterday, it had shipped out 3.5 million copies. Sales are currently at 3.39 million, so we're confident that the 3.5 million shipped copies will be out of stores soon enough, and within a couple of weeks we'll hear about the number hitting 4 million. Still no announcements about a release outside of Japan, however, presumably because ... actually, we have no idea why Square Enix isn't using this ridiculous popularity to promote an international release.
Dragon Quest IX sales cross 3 million mark
In the old American West, emigrants traveling in wagon trains through the plains would pass around the unenviable task of cooking for the group. Following in that grand tradition, the Joystiq staffers force each other to take turns writing stories about how Dragon Quest IX has sold several or perhaps even many severals of copies. In this case, the magic number is 3.2 million, as reported by Famitsu. While it's still 1.8 million short of the 5 million Square Enix hopes to ship, it's, you know, not bad. [Via andriasang.com]
Japan gets first DQ IX 'Story Quest' DLC July 24
Andriasang.com reports that Japan will receive the first "Story Quest" DLC for Dragon Quest IX this Friday, July 24. While there aren't specific details as to what a Story Quest actually is, it certainly sounds fairly self-explanatory. The DLC is entitled "Rikka's Dream Treasure" and tasks players with snagging a specific treasure map for Rikka the innkeeper. Andria Sang notes that treasure maps are distributed randomly, which could make the quest a bit more difficult than it sounds. Another standard quest will also be available, "Wonderful Birthday," in which a character is searching for an item available on the Dragon Quest IX Wi-Fi shopping system. So, we guess you have to buy someone something? Doesn't seem like much of a quest, really. Still, if you've already cleared Dragon Quest IX -- which is actually a requirement for playing the DLC -- you're probably ready for more.
Square Enix expects to ship 5 million copies of Dragon Quest IX
Last week, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada gave a statement to Japanese press that helps illustrate the company's (justifiable) sales expectation for Dragon Quest IX. "We're looking at reaching over 5 million copies of Dragon Quest IX shipped," he said, as translated by Kotaku. With three million shipped in the game's first week, 2.3 million of which sold right away, five million seems conservative, and we can only assume Wada is referring only to shipments in Japan. Somewhat less conservative is the forecast Wada made last year, of ten million units. While we have absolutely no doubt DQIX will break a record or two in Japan with the combination of Dragon Quest-level initial sales and DS-style longterm sales, that still seems optimistic.
