Dragon-Quest-9-Sentinels-of-the-Starry-Skies
Latest
Best of the Rest: JC's picks of 2010
Dragon Quest IX DQIX is secretly two games: when you're playing through the main quest, it's a traditional JRPG with a light but interesting story populated by unexpectedly engaging characters and perfectly brisk pacing; then as you approach the end, it becomes a dungeon crawler driven by a dungeon map trading mechanic using the passive communication of the DS. How compelling is that "tag mode" mechanic? I can't think of any other game for which I would go hang out at a GameStop and then a Best Buy, but that's exactly what I did when Nintendo held DQIX events this summer. I needed those maps. That's how I know this is my favorite game of 2010.
Nintendo bringing fall lineup, new WiiWare game to PAX
Visitors to Nintendo's PAX booth will be able to try out some upcoming Wii games, including Kirby's Epic Yarn and Donkey Kong Country Returns, along with anticipated third-party games Goldeneye 007 and NBA Jam. Next week's Metroid: Other M will also be on display. Nintendo will also show a new WiiWare game, Fluidity, for the first time. The game involves "using the three forms of water -- liquid, ice, and cloud" to solve puzzles. Be sure to bring your DS as well, as Nintendo will be distributing a new Dragon Quest IX map, "Orgodemir." If you're anything like us (which is to say hopeless), the rest of the convention will be spent trying to complete said map. Go sit on one of those bean bags and find some pals for multiplayer questing!
Meet Yuji Horii at Dragon Quest IX launch event
Those in the New York area eager to pick up Dragon Quest IX a day early -- and have Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii autograph their plush Slimes -- should make their way to the Nintendo World Store Saturday, July 10.
Visual overload: Nintendo's E3 DS lineup
If, at any point in the last week, you forgot about the existing DS platform due to all the news about the 3DS, you've made a serious error, and you owe the Nintendo DS an apology. Nintendo brought a diverse selection of first-party (and sorta-first-party, in the case of Dragon Quest IX) DS games to E3, and we've collected trailers and artwork for the whole set. Included after the break is Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. It might be a little ... puzzling, but Nintendo brought two Professor Layton games to E3 (which means, by the way, that this was the best E3 of all time) -- this one, number 3 in the series, for the original DS, and Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle, which is number 5, for 3DS.
Dragon Quest IX launches in North America on July 11 [update]
Nintendo and Square Enix have announced that the North American release of Dragon Quest IX: Sentinel of the Starry Skies for DS has been set for June July 11, exactly a year after it launched in Japan. As was revealed in February, Nintendo will be publishing the game here -- although the English localization is being handled by Square Enix and not NOA's Treehouse team. Dragon Quest IX has sold more than four million copies to date in Japan, where the game's WiFi "Pass-By Guest" feature has proven very popular. North American gamers will get a chance to experience it as the renamed "Tag Mode," silently trading character stats, battle records and play data with other DQIX players simply by walking near each other with their handhelds in sleep mode. If you encounter a player who's logged more than 400 hours in the game, it's probably this guy. You'll find pre-order information (and a rather delightful trailer) on the game's official website. Update: Dragon Quest IX will be released in Europe on July 23. %Gallery-93250%
Final Fantasy XIII, Dragon Quest IX, Batman sales lead Square Enix fiscal year
Square Enix had a good fiscal year (ended March 31, 2010), but its games division had a very good year. Final Fantasy XIII sold over five million units globally during the period, with the Japan-only release of Dragon Quest IX coming in second with 4.26 million units. Thanks to the company's acquisition of Eidos last year, the company could count on some Batman: Arkham Asylum cash, with the pointy-eared detective's critically acclaimed title selling 3.24 million units -- it's a shame Square won't get a piece of the sequel. Squenix's games division had sales of ¥109.9 billion ($1.18 billion) in the last fiscal year, up an impressive 128 percent over last year. With the Dark Knight out of the picture, Square Enix will have to depend on its other western franchises, including Kane & Lynch, Deus Ex and the games of Ms. Croft. Source [PDF link] -- Results Briefing Session for the Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2010
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]
