It sounds like Nintendo is ready to heavily assist in marketing Dragon Quest in the West. Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's CEO, had this to say:

"With the release of Dragon Quest IX, there are two things I'd like to make a reality. The first is to build a thriving Japanese game market together with Dragon Quest that rivals the West's. The second is to form a strong tag team to promote Dragon Quest overseas. At Nintendo, we were able to popularize the Brain Age series overseas, which was said to be unmarketable. I want to increase the number of people worldwide that understand the appeal of Dragon Quest, which represents all Japanese gaming culture...even if that only turns out to be a single person. I'm looking forward to working together with Mr Horii and Square Enix."

Mr Horii is the creator of Dragon Quest.

Oh shit.

Really?

That.... that's pretty big.

Isn't that big? It sounds big.

Yes, both because DQ is such a big franchise, but more generally, because it means Nintendo is aggressively marketing third party games.

This is the same company which, under Yamauchi, openly mocked the nerdiness of games in the vein of Square's RPGs. Now, not only are they pursuing these types of games, but they're willing to help push and market these games to bring them to the world.

To summarize:

1) This is big news for Dragon Quest, as it gives the game a chance to be a global blockbuster and not just a Japanese mega-blockbuster.
2) It's big news for Nintendo, because it shows the company aggressively courting third party games.

N1nt3nd0 15 g0nn4 8uy 53!!!! Z0mg!

Pretty cool news, and since I myself have never played a DQ game before, I will definitely be looking into this!

Sounds like a great idea!

So this is for both IX and X, right?

Square seems to have a good relationship with this after Sony and FF, but I'm still really surprised.

Okay maybe I'll support this thread too.

The idea of them really trying to push this game in a way that makes it seem in line with the Touch Generation philosophy is going to be very interesting.

Wait... Nintendo is actually going to agressivly promote a third party game?

Did they totally "buy" DQ 10?

great move by Iwata

It makes me jump for joy to hear Iwata say that.. because he hasn't really promoted any games of any consequence since Super Mario Galaxy.

Hopefully DQX will be a huge hit in the US and Europe.

I am ready for the revolution.

OK desu ka?