So no one has ever tried to negotiate a rental license with a game publisher before?

I didn't knew renting wasn't allowed in japan.

I wonder if there will be a subscription fee for DQX in USA to play online. MH3 had a subscription fee in Japan to play online yet there wasn't for USA and Europe (to my knowledge). The reasoning probably because it isn't as big of a franchise in other territories as it is in Japan. I paid my monthly subscription fee for Phantasy Star Online (GCN) but I don't know if I would for MH3. I believe the no subscription fee for MH3 online in other territories allowed it to sell 2m+. If there was a subscription fee in USA for DQX then I probably will never play the game. I gladly paid my subscription fee for PSO on GCN due to it being one of the few online titles for the system. However, they didn't anything to the game with those subscription fees and I see little reason to pay for subscription fees to play games online.

Until recently, what incentive would they have to do so? Those same publishers were the ones who pushed for the "no rentals" law in the first place, so their hostility is both obvious and self-serving. I suspect the only reason Squeenix pushed for this was to have a demo available for its MMO.