Last month in the investors call Nintendo was challenged on the future of the Wii, which has been on the wane this year in Japan.

In defense of the future of the Wii, Nintendo said nothing about the release of Dragon Quest 10 -- a game that was announced for the Wii in 2008.  A game that we have not heard much of lately. And a game that would surely silence the critics of the Wii's dominance, given the stature of DQ in Japan.

They did defend the DS by saying that they would continue to support it in the West with titles previously released in Japan.

Enix has always had the "policy" of releasing the number DQ games on the system with the largest install base, thus the journey from NES, to PS1, to PS2, to DS and then the Wii.

Do you think a Wii release will happen, given the deafening silence?

I've been thinking a lot about this since I've started back up on DQ9 and ultimately I still say yes though it still sort of hindges on 2 things.

First of all Nintendo has to continue with strong support of the Wii for at least another 18 months.  I've been wondering about that a lot since a lot of Nintendo's 2011 plans really haven't been announced. We know about the Zelda: Skyward Sword and Mario Mix Sports.  Aside from that what's left though? They've already given us 3 Mario games, 2 Metroids, a Zelda, Smash Bros., Animal Crossing and a Mario Kart. They dusted off some of the B team and gave a Kirby, Punch-Out, and Sin and Punishment.  They even gave us a solid new franchise with Wii Sports (and a few other Wii branded missteps depending on your viewpoint).   At this point I don't see any of these games, Zelda aside obviously, getting sequels.

I think Nintendo might actually look back to the SNES's twilight years and depending on the success of it make DKC its work-horse. That may not happen, but the early word is the game is excellent and according to the Amazon and Gamestop sales charts it's racking up preorders. ANd if they go thrat route, its entirely likely they might just dust off another great franchise that started at the end of the SNES's lifespan with Yoshi's series.  Throw in some the "maybe they will, maybe they won't be released RPGs" of Last Story and Xenoblade, a Kid Icarus whose about to be resurrected on the 3-DS, and another surprise or two and Nintendo might just have enough gas to keep the Wii going strong enough for another year and a half and keep the console in good standings for DQX.

The bigger question is Square-Enix. I think switching consoles after announcing it would hurt the game if for no other reason than the extended the development time on it, but additionally there could be some fan resentment for people who may have specifically gotten a Wii (in Japan there are DQ fans who would have rushed out to get a Wii simply based on the announcement).  I don't think that SE would make a mistake like that, but they're also making a lot of poor decisions with a lof of their older franchises.  They killed the franchise with their "Year of Mana" and making some of the worst games ever seen for that or any series.  They offered up a nearly unchanged port of Chrono Trigger for the DS and then publicly berated fans for not buying it. FFXIV was released buggy and unfinished and is pretty much dead in the ocean, waiting for Cataclysm to put it out of its misery.  And while it's just personal opinion, I have a feeling that Kingdom Hearts will ultimately pay a price for having spent the last 5 years on handhelds.

Still DQ is one of their key cash cows and I don't see them doing anything with it that could stir up anything negative (case in point look back at the history of DQ9's battle system).  It's very likely they've been developing it all along and just kept it quiet as not to create confusion with DQ9 now that it was released in America. Just a note, they're still doing a good bit of marketing for the game even today, over 5 months after its release.  Once the holiday's are over word may start to trickle out about the game. Possibly even at GDC.  Though I will say if nothing is announced by E3, then something fishy may indeed be going on.

It was only like 4 months ago that it was reconfirmed for Wii. I suppose they may have changed mind but it wasn't that long ago and there's no real reason to believe otherwise for now.

Agnates said:

It was only like 4 months ago that it was reconfirmed for Wii. I suppose they may have changed mind but it wasn't that long ago and there's no real reason to believe otherwise for now.

I plussed that comment for the addition to the conversation. Thank you.  Do you have a link for the re-confirm though? I don't remember it and it will be useful to have.  Was it from Nintendo or Square?

Agnates said:

Here. Last Question. From Square.

Excellent! I'm hoping that the silence on this and DQ6 is because Nintendo wants to reveal their line-up at some uber-event.

It's not doing terribly well in Japan. If a 3DS version comes out, it will totally rely on whether or not the Wii U version is well received, which I highly doubt will be. At some point S-E is just going to have to face facts that no one wants a DQ MMO. At least no one but me.

I hope ASK_Story is doing well.  Has anyone seen him around (gamespot ggd, psn, xbox live etc) or heard from him?

bugsonglass said:

I hope ASK_Story is doing well.  Has anyone seen him around (gamespot ggd, psn, xbox live etc) or heard from him?

Yeah I miss ASK a lot.