Analyst: Dragon Quest IX to sell 5 million in Japan
Takashi Oka, analyst with Cosmo Securities, has predicted that Square Enix's Dragon Quest IX will bring in 20 billion yen ($190.28 million) from sales of 5 million units. That's in line with Square Enix president Yoichi Wada's sales predictions, since Oka's number is limited only to Japanese sales.
Can a third-party game sell 5 million copies in Japan? Only the Pokemons, New Super Mario Bros. and Brain Age 2 have broken the 5 million mark, and all of those are published by Nintendo. Oka said that a portable Dragon Quest doubling the sales of a console release would be "not surprising," and Dragon Quest VIII sold about 3.5 million units in Japan (at least, according to VGChartz). Given the lower price point of DS games, the ubiquity of the DS, and the inestimable popularity of Dragon Quest, 5 million doesn't seem out of the question.
