The Dragon Quest franchise has always been more popular in Japan than it is elsewhere in the world. It easily sells millions in its home country but struggles to do the same in international and Western regions. Dragon Quest XI Echoes of an Elusive Age producer Hokuto Okamoto warns that Dragon Quest 11 sales have to reach “a certain amount” in order to justify localizations for future installments.
In an interview with IGN Japan at the recent Tokyo Game Show 2018, Okamoto said that Dragon Quest 11 needs to sell well enough in Western regions outside of Japan if fans of the franchise want future installments to keep receiving localized versions. Dragon Quest XI was originally released for the PS4 and Nintendo 3DS in Japan last year in July 2017. The highly-anticipated game was only released worldwide for the PS4 and PC around a year later, in September 2018.
“We need Dragon Quest to sell in the West, even just a certain amount, if we want to keep making [localized versions],” he said. Since launch, Dragon Quest 11 has received glowing reviews from many Western publications, including from us at GameRevolution. We gave it a 4.5 out of five in our review, describing it as the “ultimate expression of the traditional JRPG.”
At the time of writing, the developer has not revealed any specific Dragon Quest 11 sales figure. If the UK game charts are any indication, the game sold well enough to grab second place in its debut week. However, it fell all the way to twenty-ninth position in its second week, which was a massive 86 percent sales drop. For now, we will have to wait until Square Enix announces the official sales figures sometime in the future.
In other related news, the developer recently unveiled the Dragon Quest 11 Nintendo Switch port at Tokyo Game Show 2018. It will be given the title Dragon Quest XI Echoes of an Elusive Age S. According to franchise creator Yuji Horii, the ‘S’ in the title not only stands for ‘Switch,’ but also for ‘Special’ or ‘Speak.’
