Dragon Quest is a nationwide phenomenon as far as the Japanese market is concerned, with each new release being an event in and of itself and the series’ name by itself almost being a guarantee for stellar sales. Outside of Japan, in western markets, though, Dragon Quest hasn’t really had the same success. It hasn’t been a failure – far from it – but in markets such as Europe and the USA, it still remains a pretty niche series.
If that carries on, though, Dragon Quest 11 might end up becoming the final game in the series to receive a western localization. While speaking with IGN, the game’s producer Hokuto Okamoto said that for future instalments in the series to be localized, Dragon Quest 11 will need to sell well in the west. “We need Dragon Quest to sell in the West, even just a certain amount, if we want to keep making [localized versions],” he said.
From a business perspective, this does make sense, even if it is a little disheartening to see that such a prospect even exists for a franchise that pumps out excellent game as consistently as Dragon Quest does. Dragon Quest 11 is an absolutely amazing game, and it deserves to have a strong commercial performance, but the fact that Square Enix had next to no marketing for the game, not to mention that it had a less than preferable release timing, means that its sales will probably be affected.
That said, the game’s Switch version, called Dragon Quest 11 S, seems to be on the horizon, and that’s bound to drive up sales significantly- if it gets localized, that is.
