It's over, Sony is finished

Xisiqomelir · Post by **Xisiqomelir** » 2006-12-12 01:57pm

Dragon Quest IX Announced for Nintendo DS?!
Plus a new Dragon Quest for Japanese arcades!
by Patrick Klepek, 12/12/2006
65 of 65 users recommend this story.
We reported earlier today that Square Enix would be holding a conference to announce a new Dragon Quest game, but no one quite expected the bomb shell they dropped: Dragon Quest IX, the next sequel in the officially numbered series and not a spin-off, will be arriving on the Nintendo DS.

Rumors suggested the anticipation surrounding Wii and its promise of lower development costs would make Dragon Quest an easy lure -- but apparently rumor mongers were wrong about the platform. Does this mean the Dragon Quest series has abandoned its console roots?

Dragon Quest IX: Protectors of the Starry Sky for the Nintendo DS is being developed by RPG powerhouse Level-5 (known for Dragon Quest VIII, Dark Cloud, and White Knight Story), and will feature 3D graphics and network play. Four players will be able to team up, and the battles are apparently action-based, unlike previous games in the series. Creator of Dragon Quest, Yuji Horii, said at the event that working on the new game brings back the same feelings he had when working on the very first game in the series, twenty years ago. Big words indeed for a very surprising announcement. Horii admitted that he recognizes the limitations of the DS but is doing his best to create a groundbreaking adventure on the platform. He wanted to make clear that DQIX is "not a spinoff or a side story; it's a true part of the series." He says he is shooting to have it ready in 2007.

And if the Nintendo DS game wasn't enough of a surprise, Square Enix also announced a card-based arcade game called Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road, also developed by Level-5. Card-based arcade games are all the rage in Japan right now, and this one will no doubt become the most popular of them all, considering its heritage. The video at the event showed the hero of Dragon Quest VIII, and it looks like the game could be based on the Battle Road section of that game. It will be hitting arcades in Japan next Summer.

Series music composer Koichi Sugiyama will once again provide the soundtrack for both titles.

Jonathan Lumb, Hiroko Minamoto and John Ricciardi contributed to this story.

Screens at linked article, gameplay video available here

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2006-12-12 02:01pm

So...what reason is there to buy a PS3, again?

Xisiqomelir · Post by **Xisiqomelir** » 2006-12-12 02:02pm

Molyneux wrote:So...what reason is there to buy a PS3, again?

Only Tekken 6 for me. If Namco fucks up the arcade version, then I may not get one at all.

RThurmont · Post by **RThurmont** » 2006-12-12 02:03pm

The porting of a single hit title is unlikely to bring about the demise of a $7.5 billion conglomerate.

Xisiqomelir · Post by **Xisiqomelir** » 2006-12-12 02:05pm

RThurmont wrote:The porting of a single hit title is unlikely to bring about the demise of a $7.5 billion conglomerate.

You misread the article. It's going to be Nintendo-exclusive.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-12-12 02:06pm

It's poetic, isn't it? The franchise comes home.

The porting of a single hit title is unlikely to bring about the demise of a $7.5 billion conglomerate.

'Sony' is used here as 'Sony in the console wars'. And if they lose Dragon Quest, then yes, they're screwed.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2006-12-12 02:09pm

When Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid are exclusives for Nintendo and Microsoft, I'll believe that Sony's game department is effectively dead.

But yeah, one game isn't going to stop the ENTIRE COMPANY, which, for the record, does more than just make video games.

Captain Cyran · Post by **Captain Cyran** » 2006-12-12 02:18pm

I'm with Hotfoot. It's retarded to declare Sony's game department to be dead over something like this. They still own the racing games, they still own all the "Guitar Hero" and "DDR" style games, they still have Final Fantasy and MGS, they still have fighting games in general, etc. etc. etc.

Xisiqomelir · Post by **Xisiqomelir** » 2006-12-12 02:20pm

Hotfoot wrote:But yeah, one game isn't going to stop the ENTIRE COMPANY, which, for the record, does more than just make video games.

Taken a look at Sony's annual report recently? Games was the division that wasn't bleeding money. If Sony Games loses Japan, which is likely the way things are going, Sony Group is in trouble.

Captain Cyran · Post by **Captain Cyran** » 2006-12-12 02:25pm

Xisiqomelir wrote:
Hotfoot wrote:But yeah, one game isn't going to stop the ENTIRE COMPANY, which, for the record, does more than just make video games.
Taken a look at Sony's annual report recently? Games was the division that wasn't bleeding money. If Sony Games loses Japan, which is likely the way things are going, Sony Group is in trouble.

When the hell did Sony have Japan? That's been pretty solidly Nintendo for awhile hasn't it?

Plus I don't see how the 130 million of Japan beat out the 300 million in America alone, let alone adding in Europe. Would it hurt? Yes, is it a death knell? Fuck no.

Xisiqomelir · Post by **Xisiqomelir** » 2006-12-12 02:27pm

Captain Cyran wrote:Plus I don't see how the 130 million of Japan beat out the 300 million in America alone, let alone adding in Europe. Would it hurt? Yes, is it a death knell? Fuck no.

Japan is to gaming as Ohio/Florida are to U.S. elections.

Captain Cyran · Post by **Captain Cyran** » 2006-12-12 02:32pm

Xisiqomelir wrote:
Captain Cyran wrote:Plus I don't see how the 130 million of Japan beat out the 300 million in America alone, let alone adding in Europe. Would it hurt? Yes, is it a death knell? Fuck no.
Japan is to gaming as Ohio/Florida are to U.S. elections.

Evidence of this? Wasn't the Dreamcast popular as hell in Japan and still ended up falling on it's ass bad? I honestly don't know.

Also you didn't address the first part of my post, since when has Sony games had anything more than a toehold in Japan?

Xisiqomelir · Post by **Xisiqomelir** » 2006-12-12 02:37pm

Captain Cyran wrote:Also you didn't address the first part of my post, since when has Sony games had anything more than a toehold in Japan?

Umm, that part was just wrong. PS2 beat GCN in Japan solidly.

Xisiqomelir · Post by **Xisiqomelir** » 2006-12-12 02:40pm

Captain Cyran wrote:Evidence of this? Wasn't the Dreamcast popular as hell in Japan and still ended up falling on it's ass bad? I honestly don't know.

Dreamcast started well, but failed at the end. VGcharts will let you do lots of data comparison for hardware and game sales back to the 16-bit era.

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2006-12-12 03:13pm

Agreed regarding Sony not being finished. Maybe I'm overestimating the PS2, but even with a bad launch & loss of exclusivity (for next gen) they don't seem to have burned their bridges (with current gen).

Xisiqomelir · Post by **Xisiqomelir** » 2006-12-12 03:19pm

I do have some good Sony Games Japan news. PS3's launch week sales have beaten 360's cumulative sales to date in Japan.

01 - Wii - 350,358 (350,358)
02 - Nintendo DS Lite - 176,901 (6,132,183)
03 - PlayStation 3 - 31,436 (187,836)
04 - PlayStation Portable - 23,917 (4,246,974)
05 - PlayStation 2 - 23,115 (20,002,291)
06 - Xbox 360 - 4,053 (178,069)
07 - Game Boy Advance SP - 1,572 (5,907,676)
08 - Game Boy Micro - 1,252 (552,408)
09 - GameCube - 821 (4,165,650)
10 - Nintendo DS - 140 (6,581,548)

The Wii has sold more consoles in one week than Microsoft has done in 56 weeks. With the release of Blue Dragon this week in Japan, this could well be the week that decides where the Xbox 360 will lay in the charts for the rest of its lifespan.

Sauce

Captain Cyran · Post by **Captain Cyran** » 2006-12-12 03:35pm

Xisiqomelir wrote:Umm, that part was just wrong. PS2 beat GCN in Japan solidly.

Oh, yeah it was the XBox that wasn't taken to in Japan. My bad.

Dreamcast started well, but failed at the end. VGcharts will let you do lots of data comparison for hardware and game sales back to the 16-bit era.

Hmm, from what I can see, I was wrong about the Dreamcast too, looks like it did considerably better in the states than in Japan and in less time.

Darth Raptor · Post by **Darth Raptor** » 2006-12-12 03:43pm

Hotfoot wrote:When Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid are exclusives for Nintendo and Microsoft, I'll believe that Sony's game department is effectively dead.

And it will happen. Kojima has openly stated that if it weren't for Konami's contractual obligations he would develop MGS4 for the Wii, and SquareEnix is putting as many FF titles on Nintendo platforms as they can get away with.

Sharp-kun · Post by **Sharp-kun** » 2006-12-12 03:58pm

Why does a game going to a handheld kill the PS3? I don't see anything in there about Dragon Quest on the Wii, which is far more of a competitor the PS3 than the DS ever is. PSP, yes, but why are people crying death to PS3?

Molyneux wrote:So...what reason is there to buy a PS3, again?

For me:

MGS
SRW (I lol at every failed attempt on a Nintendo console that isn't handheld).

I plan to get a Wii, but only really for multiplayer games, Sony have always tended to have more games that I care about.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2006-12-12 04:14pm

Molyneux wrote:So...what reason is there to buy a PS3, again?

Final Fantasy fanboys will be all over it for XIII.

Of course, EVERYONE in Japan is a Final Fantasy fanboy

(yes, that's a joke, don't get mad)

If FFXIII game to XBox 360 as well, Sony would be dead in Japan.

but why are people crying death to PS3?

Dragon Quest is almost as big as FF in Japan and a system-seller. The loss of it as a Sony exclusive is a HUGE blow.

Sharp-kun · Post by **Sharp-kun** » 2006-12-12 04:17pm

Praxis wrote:
Dragon Quest is almost as big as FF in Japan and a system-seller. The loss of it as a Sony exclusive is a HUGE blow.

How does it going to DS affect the PS3? When they announce a Wii DQ title, yes, I can see it potentially hurting the PS3, the but the DS?

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2006-12-12 04:17pm

Captain Cyran wrote:
When the hell did Sony have Japan? That's been pretty solidly Nintendo for awhile hasn't it?

The PS2 has regularly outsold the GameCube five-to-one in Japan. Lifetime sales are around there, as are weekly sales.

PS2 owns Japan.

However, recently, the Nintendo DS has been outselling every other system on the market put together 3-to-1 and easily outselling the PSP 10-to-1.

Nintendo's handheld division has completely owned Japan, but GameCube didn't do too well.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2006-12-12 04:18pm

Sharp-kun wrote:
Praxis wrote:
Dragon Quest is almost as big as FF in Japan and a system-seller. The loss of it as a Sony exclusive is a HUGE blow.
How does it going to DS affect the PS3? When they announce a Wii DQ title, yes, I can see it potentially hurting the PS3, the but the DS?

Because it's a system seller. People that would have bought the system just for DQ now have less reason to spend $600.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2006-12-12 04:40pm

Sharp-kun wrote:
Praxis wrote:
Dragon Quest is almost as big as FF in Japan and a system-seller. The loss of it as a Sony exclusive is a HUGE blow.
How does it going to DS affect the PS3? When they announce a Wii DQ title, yes, I can see it potentially hurting the PS3, the but the DS?

Dragon Quest: Swords has already been announced for the Wii, quite some time back. New screen shots of it were released recently. Looks fairly close to completion.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2006-12-12 04:57pm

Sharp-kun wrote:
Praxis wrote:
Dragon Quest is almost as big as FF in Japan and a system-seller. The loss of it as a Sony exclusive is a HUGE blow.
How does it going to DS affect the PS3? When they announce a Wii DQ title, yes, I can see it potentially hurting the PS3, the but the DS?

The Dragon Quest (main) series started out on the NES and SNES, then went over to the Playstation consoles.

The upcoming game for the DS is confirmed to be the official continuation of the series. It's the loss of one of the brand-name series for Sony.