Speaking of the North American market, do you think we’ll see Dragon Quest XI come to the West?
[Miyake] We’re pretty sure that Dragon Quest XI will see some sort of western release. We would have loved to have released X as well, but in that case because it’s an MMO the operation part of it is very difficult to manage between regions. But yes, we’re hoping XI will be available in the western regions.
Dragon Quest began as a console based series, and has since gone on to appear handhelds and now the mobile platforms. Where do you personally feel the series is most at home?
[Miyake] So the concept of where or what platform Dragon Quest lies is actually based more on the fact that we’d like Dragon Quest to be played by as many people as possible, so we’d put it on the most popular platform of its time. Nowadays people are sort of scattering to different devices, and we want to branch out to those platforms as well. So it’s not a concept of what singular console or platform the series is most at home on, but that we want to go to the people.
The Dragon Quest series has had such a wonderful relationship with Nintendo in the past, but in the current climate do you think you’ll have to look elsewhere to bring the next game?
[Miyake] The potential is definitely there to look into other platforms, like for example Dragon Quest VIII was on the PlayStation 2 originally. There’s always opportunities, so we’d like to keep an open mind.
