Iwata: Nintendo To Help Dragon Quest X Spread Westward

Nintendo CEO and president Satoru Iwata says that the company will support Square Enix's newly announced Dragon Quest X for Wii to further build the system's userbase in Japan and to promote the game and Dragon Quest brand in Western territories. "With the release of Dragon Quest IX, there are two things I'd like to make reality. The first is to build a thriving Japanese game market together with Dragon Quest that rivals the West's. The second is to form a strong tag team to promote Dragon Quest overseas," says Iwata, according to a report from consumer game site 1UP. While the Dragon Quest series has been tremendously successful, selling over 43 million units worldwide, the majority of those sales were generated in Japan, where Dragon Quest is one of the most video game popular franchises, rivaling Square Enix's other prominent RPG line, Final Fantasy. Square Enix has certainly ramped up its stateside releases as of late, with Dragon Quest Swords for Wii and the Nintendo DS remake of Dragon Quest IV brought to North America earlier this year. The company also intends to bring two more Dragon Quest DS remakes, Dragon Quest V and VI, to the U.S. next year. Series creator Yujii Hori recently announced that Dragon Quest X is in development for the Wii at a Square Enix press event. The brand is often seen as a "kingmaker" in Japan, with 2006 seeing the announcement of Dragon Quest IX for the Nintendo DS. "At Nintendo, we were able to popularize the Brain Age series overseas, which was said to be unmarketable," added Iwata. "I want to increase the number of people worldwide that understand the appeal of Dragon Quest, which represents all Japanese gaming culture ... even if that only turns out to be a single person. I'm looking forward to working together with Mr. Horii and Square Enix."