Some sort of western release -> On smartphones in 2022

Can't SE just sell themselves out to a sensible company already?

Who'd even have the capital and/or interest to buy them? Nintendo could, M$ could, Sony can't afford it, Activision could... *shudder*, Ubisoft and annual DQs and FFs?

The Squaresoft side merged with Eidos to avoid this exact fate.

Still desperately hoping for a Wii U DQ to round up an RPG trifecta (X, SMT x FE and...?)

You know, one thing that actually baffles me, is after the rather strong performance of Last Story and Xenoblade on the Wii, when it was on its deathbed, why other RPGs haven't made their way to Nintendo. (Not even counting the strong sales of 3DS RPGs.) Even the Tales games seem to have had strong sales on Nintendo platforms in the few times they've ever bothered to show up.

There would seem to be fans of RPGs in Nintendo's core but only a handful of companies ever seem to tap them, almost all of them Nintendo developers.

I'm betting that they simply don't want to compete with Nintendo on their own platforms, or don't want to try something new (such as returning to the NES-era control system the Wiimote had or the giant DS the Wii U is).

That or Nintendo throroughly damaged their reputation among third-parties.

And maybe, Sony and Microsoft moneyhat negotiate, I suppose?

I just want it to come to sony so that if worse comes to worse I at least have the option to import the game. With the recent nod the playstation brand got with dq heroes it seems to be a step in that direction at least.

Well the games I referenced, in particular, were long into the life of the Wii and long after the "damage was done". XSEED didn't seem to mind (Last Story is still their best selling game ever, I believe) and Nintendo ended up just buying Monolith. That's to say, at least as far as competition is concerned, the RPGs will still sell well even against Nintendo's own brands so-long as they are "good". Tales of... still has its second best seller on the NGC which was a very under populated console. There seems to be a definite trend for untapped RPG audience on Nintendo hardware.

Not to mention that, in general, how frequently does Nintendo release an internal RPG? Zelda is once or twice per generation at a time.

Just look at what's happened to the WiiU/3DS indie scene as of recent with its larger-than-the-norm returns on "good" platformers, shooters, and rpgs. There's obviously a market for them amongst the gamers that are on the consoles but no one but indies are actually tapping that market and, obviously, Nintendo alone can't actually pump out that many games at a time.

We joke about the PS4 being an indie machine but I think the WiiU has been creeping into that territory little by little via Kickstarter and other methods.

That would be a good idea, but we all know that it won't happen anytime soon... :S

Well according to your logic, they couldnt skip 3DS for FF and KH3 because it's money wasted, still they did, so... Dont tell me it's different, it's not, they could have made less ambitious games but no, they prefered to make an ambitious game for next gen. If they have the same ambition for the next Dragon QUest, it's easy to understand why they aim big screen and why PS4 will be the platform.

Especially if they want to export Dragon Quest with a good marketing, they know the best choice for that, most populair console with not a lot of games yet, not like 3DS where there is too many japanese games.