Dragon Quest IX Surpasses 2 Million Pre-Orders in Japan

Even before the official release, Dragon Quest IX is already the best-selling game of the year in Japan. The highly anticipated title has gotten more than 2 million pre-orders. Without a doubt, Dragon Quest is the most popular video game franchise in Japan. The original title was released on May 27, 1986 for the NES (it would arrive three years later in North America as Dragon Warrior). The role-playing game ended up selling millions of copies. More importantly, Dragon Quest also pioneered the genre with several innovative elements like an overhead view. Almost every role-playing game thereafter was influenced by Dragon Quest.

Enix is the publisher behind the popular series. The only real competition against Dragon Quest is Square's Final Fantasy. While the latter may be more popular in the west, ithe former is much more recognizable in Japan. The competition would later became boot, however, as Enix and Square eventually merged in 2003 to become Square Enix.

Being a long-running franchise, Dragon Quest appeared on many video game systems. The first four games in the series were released on the NES. The next two came out on the Super Nintendo.

The series did not stay long on one specific system after Dragon Quest VI. Dragon Quest VII was the released on the Playstation while Dragon Quest VIII was developed for Playstation 2. For the ninth game in the series, Square Enix decided to bring the popular role-playing series to the handheld market. Therefore, Dragon Quest IX will be released on the Nintendo DS. Finally, the recently announced Dragon Quest X is slated for the Nintendo Wii.

Square Enix chose the Nintendo DS for Dragon Quest IX because it is currently the best-selling video game system in Japan. Not to mention that it is on pace to become the most popular video game system ever. Therefore, putting the most popular game franchise on the most popular system makes plenty of sense. Not to mention that the Japanese market has been catering more and more towards the handheld gaming market.

It looks the move is already paying off for Square Enix. Dragon Quest IX has been pre-ordered more than 2 million times by anticipating fans. That is three times as much as any other game sold in Japan so far this year. Needless to say, Dragon Quest IX will be the most popular game in Japan before the end of 2009.

The Nintendo DS exclusive game will be released in Japan on July 11, 2009. No release date has been announced for other regions. Even without a western release, Dragon Quest IX is already making a killing in Japan.