In Japan, it is usual for entries within huge franchises where sales are expected to be big to launch at the weekend.  The next Dragon Quest is launching this Thursday, however.  Anyone know why?  I know the Wii has been winding down for a while now, but this is still a big deal, and anything lower than 1m sales first week would have to be considered bad news for SE.

Its not going to do anything close to a million first week. Square should profit good off the subscriptions though.

it would have sold millions of it wasn't an MMO, they're depending on subscriptions to make up for the lower sales. If you look at FF11 and FF14 they did badly in japan too.

anything below 1m bad news?
this new standard of success you created is insane dude :D

if it does 1m LTD SE will be VERY happy...

do they have preorder data available for it? and have they mentioned a ball park time for US release?

It won't be released outside Japan, most likely - it's not in this year's schedule and it's almost impossible for a next year release.

Wii U version, though... surely will come.

COMG has it at over 300 points. So it's likely going to have at least 300,000 sales week one. But it still has more time to pick up preorders.

Latest footage from the game. I said it once and I say it again: best looking MMO ever. Style over anything else is the rule of graphics and DQ style is amazing!

This will be my first DQ game... once it makes the trek over to the US on WiiU. Never played an MMO though.

DQ isn't the first or best looking cell shaded MMO.