While Square Enix’s turn-based Dragon Quest RPG series is incredibly popular over in Japan, it decidedly has less of a following here in North America. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata is striving to change that, though, and wants to help bolster the franchise’s popularity with the release of Dragon Quest IX.

With the release of Dragon Quest IX, there are two things I’d like to make 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.

This is perhaps the first time I’ve heard Nintendo be so passionate about a third-party title. Might we see Nintendo throw some of its marketing budget on this one? Maybe. This also makes it easy to understand why Square chose to release Dragon Quest X on Wii — the company seems to be forming a stronger relationship to Nintendo, akin to the early NES and SNES days. Of course, the success of both Wii and DS has no doubt played a significant role in Square’s decisions.

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Nintendo to Help With Dragon Quest Promotion in U.S.? [1UP]

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