[Dragon Quest X] Will it be brought overseas? SE Japan: "Of course!"

KiTA

Edit: 7/10/13: Apparently Square Enix Japan has announced, in an offhanded sort of way, an "overseas" release:

http://www.polygon.com/2013/7/10/4510088/dragon-quest-10-producers-discuss-the-pc-port-and-eventual-us-release

This may or may not mean "Western" as opposed to "Chinese / Korean," but it's still better news than we have had so far.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwHVHzc4Wqw

Has an adorable benchmark, available here. (If you pass the benchmark, you'll supposedly be invited to play in the Beta.)

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/06/22/dragon-quest-x-coming-to-pc-this-september/

Full PC port, character data shared between Wii/WiiU/PC version. The game uses "channels" like most Asian MMOs, so your character is universal and when you login you can pick between the 50 someodd instanced servers.

No news of a localization (Dragon Quest appears to be dead in the US - no localization announcements of ANY of their games) but this opens up fan translations in the future, similar to how the community has taken over PSO2 localization since Sega dropped the ball.

Oh, and because we're filthy Barbarians, DQX has an IP block preventing US players from playing, even if they do speak Japanese. Most players are getting around this via a VPN.

Death Cab For Albie

So frustrating, I want Western PSO2 and DQX

KiTA

Death Cab For Albie wrote: »

So frustrating, I want Western PSO2 and DQX

I almost think we're at the point where we won't see another DQ game in the US. But then again, the guy who started the "DQ7 was passed up in lieu of Bravely Default" rumor has officially redacted it (saying things have changed), so who knows?

Dr_Keenbean

I'm really not a big fan of JRPGs but the DQ series just totally does it for me.

I would give someone a lot of money for an HD re-release of DQVIII.

Arthil

I always loved it simply because I almost grew up with Toriyama shows.

KiTA

So this is a thing:
http://www.polygon.com/2013/7/10/4510088/dragon-quest-10-producers-discuss-the-pc-port-and-eventual-us-release

Apparently SE Japan just idly mentioned offhand that it's getting an overseas release. No clue if it's going to be Asia specific or if it'll be Western as well, but we'll see.

The big question behind the PC port for us non-Japanese folk, however: Does this mean an overseas release is in the works? "Of course," Miyake said. "However, as for whether it'll be run in the Dragon Quest style in the overseas market, every nation has its own play style and sensibilities, so I don't think it'll be a single game worldwide like with Final Fantasy 11."

"This is just my personal viewpoint," added Saito, "but different countries consume their games at different speeds and the way the communities are run also differ. Even the way people enjoy seasonal events is different, so I think we need to divide the running of it by country or region. So we're thinking about having separate servers for each country."

PLA

This game (and its situation) is as awkward as it is interesting.

KiTA

So, here's where we're at with DQX in the US:

Apparently the WiiU version of DQX has started appearing on "Which of these upcoming releases have you heard about" Internet surveys in the US. There is still no official announcement. Said surveys were also asking about a bunch of other Square Enix properties that HAVE been announced; the common theory is that DQX is coming to the US but they haven't officially said anything yet -- which is great marketing for a MMORPG, in the weird Bizzaro-world that Square Enix seems to live in.

The CEO of Square Enix US/EU recently posted on the SE blog asking for feedback, and he was promptly flooded with people asking him what the fuck about Dragon Quest, including DQX. He gave some reply about how it's not possible to localize things when the original teams aren't available to help.

SE Japan is still auto-banning anyone that connects to DQX in Japan, PC Beta or Wii version. The PC Beta is coming to a close, the game launches officially in a few weeks.

The changes for overseas release likely means censoring all undead in the Chinese release and perhaps F2P or XP/Drop rebalances. I would hope I don't have to say it, but the vast number of idiots on GameFAQs and NeoGAF suggest otherwise: It does not mean, nor will ever mean, that they're going to turn a MMO into a Single Player game.

Lucascraft

I don't care if they keep it multiplayer. In fact, I welcome it. But DQ has a much smaller market in the west, and I don't think they can sustain a traditional MMO, especially not when many SE fans will be hopping on board FF14 ARR soon. They'd be stealing their own customers if they released it to the MMO market within the next 6-12 months.

KiTA

Can you name a MMO in the history of gaming that was turned into a single player RPG during localization?

The entire idea is so absurd that even for GameFAQs it's a bit embarrassing to consider.

The Wolfman

Their best and only option is to completely cut out the monthly fee. There's just no way it survives in the NA market with one.

KiTA

The Wolfman wrote: »

Their best and only option is to completely cut out the monthly fee. There's just no way it survives in the NA market with one.

I could see them dropping it to F2P, the Japanese servers even have free time on set hours -- "Kid's hour," where people can log in even without a subscription and get a few hours of gameplay in. But the problem is -- outside of Nintendo / SE paying out of pocket to keep it running, meaning it'd have a shelf life of a few years at best -- how do they pay for the staff and servers?

THey have the Spirit Ball (Genki Dama) system that rewards you for not logging in -- kinda like rest XP only not, I could see that being made into a pay-to-use system, but would that be enough to keep the servers running?