Dragon Quest IX has been quiet for some time now, the silence in the development proving painful for some and exciting for others - those who hoped development for the Nintendo DS would prove too difficult so that the game would shift back to a more traditional system.
Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada was interviewed by Jiji Press and stated that "The next Dragon Quest title will be released early next year".
Siliconera writes: "A game like Dragon Quest IX usually has a prelude of previews months before it launches. We haven't heard Square Enix or Level 5 say much about the game and supposedly it's coming out sometime this year. Square Enix's TGS 2008 page for Dragon Quest IX sticks the title with a 2008 release window and there aren't many months left in the year."
Bloomberg writes: "Square Enix Co. rose in Tokyo trading after Cosmo Securities Co. lifted its rating on Japan's third- largest video-game maker to ''neutral plus.''
Square Enix held a shareholders meeting two days ago which discussed the financial status of the company during fiscal year 2008. Game Watch have posted an article that gives us more in-depth details on what was said:
Destructoid Writes: When Square Enix announced that the Zenithia trilogy would be coming stateside, responses seemed mixed: among the shouts of joy were a few lonely curmudgeons wondering if a release date for Dragon Quest IX: Protectors of the Starry Sky had finally been announced. Disappointed, they returned to their humble caves to eat rats and poke at the ground with sticks.
Known gaming website 1UP.com has posted an article about Dragon Quest IV's arrival to North America, but the most interesting part in it was actually about Dragon Quest IX. The final paragraph featured the following text:
Square Enix may be unwilling to commit to a final release date for Dragon Quest IX, but developer Level-5's president may have just done the deed himself. Akihiro Hino said that his goal for 2008 is to finish work on White Knight Chronicles, Inazuma Eleven, the third Professor Layton game, and Dragon Quest IX.
After a long time we did not hear anything about Dragon Quest IX, Yoichi Wada, current president of Square Enix, has revealed that the game is "nearly finished" in an interview with Bloomberg News.
A report today from Jesse Divnich at the simExchange says Nintendo has turned casual games and gamers into the primary forces driving the videogame industry. Using data from the holiday 2007 shopping season, the firm said that one factor in the industry's growth has been a larger-than-expected next-generation adoption rate among casual gamers. (GameDaily, 01/09/08)