Call me a slave to my DS, but the announcement that Dragon Quest IX will appear on Nintendo DS has sent feelings of plusgood joy in me. It’s a bad day to be a Sony fan right now, which I am, to an extent, but an awesome day to be a Ninty dude.
In Japan, Dragon Quest VIII was the best selling PS2 game. Ever. Ever ever. Which means no game sold as much as DQ VIII on the PS2.
Everybody was waiting to know which console – PS3 or Wii, or maybe even X360 will Square Enix decide to bring DQIX on. What no one had considered was the little DS Lite. BY the by, the DS is no ‘mere handheld. It is on it’s way to be the best selling console in Japan, ever, and it continually sells upwards of 100,000 pieces in a region in a given week during festivities or a major title launch.
Sure, the graphics might take a little beating, but look at this:
Akira Toriyama is a happy dude.
Right after this announcement DQ Monsters Joker is set to release as well. Now an average DQ or Squeenix fan might just think it makes damn good sense to buy a DS to play DQ MJ and then wait for less than a year and play DQIX on it as well. We are talking rabid fanboys who bought more than 4 million copies of Dragon Quest VII for the PSOne, the same people who bought 3 million copies of DQ VIII for the PS2 within the first week!
Sony still has its Final Fantasy fanbase though, and that is reason to cheer enough for them. But, DQIX is on the DS man. Expect this to sell 4 million copies EASY.
With the DS getting it’s share of the Fantasies that are Final (FF III, FF Revenant Wings, FF Crystal Chronicles), not to mention the FF V GBA remake that is playable on the DS too, it may so come to pass that the DS , a little i-podish gadget with 2 little cute screens, may beat the HDMI touting, Blu-ray supporting PS3. At least in Japan.
As Chris Kohler just put it:
“I know that sounds crazy but hey, Dragon Quest IX is on DS. Welcome to Crazytown.”
Packing his towel would be right on top of his priority list right now.
