Dragon Quest IX delayed till July 11

[granville]

An official press release has confirmed that the Japanese version of Dragon Ques IX has been delayed until July 11, 2009.

http://release.square-enix.com/news/j/2009/02/i7sdhgt9s.html

Using a basic google translation, here is what it said:

Square Enix Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, President: Yoichi Wada), 2009 Saturday, March 28 was the latest Dragon Quest series will be released in the "Dragon Quest IX Hoshizora no defense "(Platform: Nintendo DS) now that we have to change following the release.


"Dragon Quest IX Hoshizora no defense of the people"
[Change] Release date: 2009 Saturday, March 28
[Modified] Release date: 2009 Saturday, July 11


Film, "Dragon Quest" has been developed as a work committed to providing a new world of adventure, this time, we found that there is no significant level of software development.
Release date for the launch was announced by now, we have tried to verify the repair of defects, and products for you to play with confidence you will need sufficient time to verify repair especially to the conclusion that, a release date in 2009 up to July 11 you have to change.

Hello to everyone involved and those who are waiting for us, and that OKAKEITASU to so much trouble, and we understand our customer?RITAKU, I deeply apologize.

Probably to code in some elaborate anti-piracy code.

 

[War]

This SUCKS! I was really looking forward to this :< I guess V will have to suffice.

 

[Celice]

Ditto.

But I wonder if they're going to add in something better for the wait...

 

[Maz7006]

WHY!?! And they have delayed it 4 months, o well hopefully Mario and Luigi 3 (either the E or the U release) and GTA CW will keep me occupied when they come out.

 

[Link5084]

Look at it this way, they are taking the Zelda approach which is a good thing. Remember when Twilight Princess got delayed?

 

[granville]

Look at it this way, they are taking the Zelda approach which is a good thing. Remember when Twilight Princess got delayed?

It's pretty obvious that the game is finished and they aren't improving the actual game. No, this delay was probably made for 1 of 3 possible thing (or maybe ALL):

1- they're drumming up some more hype. Lets face it, this game has been in dev since late 2006 and many people probably forgot all about it. They'll likely start a robust hype train within the next 5 months to try and get people on the hype train.

2- they're coding in an elaborate new anti-piracy feature. This is what I am betting on. The interesting thing that made me think of this was the uncanny timing of the delay announcement. It happened just 2 days after Mario and Luigi 3 was hacked. Likely, they had the same piracy protection planned for the game and were keeping a close eye on the Mario and Luigi game to see how the hackers would cope. Seeing how easily it was hacked (and also learning of their failure with protecting Dragon Quest 5 in Japan) they likely decided put the game on hold until they can figure out how to beat Narin and his team.

 

[concealed identi]

That's super weird...I can't agree that it's to drum up hype or to make an anti-piracy code, considering this game is hyped to all hell and pre-orders started at every place that could get their hands on it in December. Commercials were shown during the Superbowl, and every video rental place, convenience store, whatever has displays for it. I also can't imagine they would sacrifice all of this hype for an anti-piracy code, and there's no way they'd dedicate 4 months of development time to it. This game is going to make a LOT of money, and I think they're more concerned with piracy protection within the first week than a permanent one, since there's so many people who will want this game once it is released.

 

[granville]

Well we'll see just HOW tough the piracy blocks will be when it's released. I stand by what I say, but I accept that you have just as much chance of being right as me.

And now SE has put out a suspicious statement that seems to point to more possible game delays:

“The next term’s schedule has been fixed yet. Presently, I cannot say what kind of effect we will experience from moving the Dragon Quest IX launch from March to July. I cannot say there won’t be an effect.” - Square Enix president Yoichi Wada

http://gonintendo.com/?p=72595

Funny thing there is that they say that if any delays happen with OTHER game, it might be DQ9's delay that caused. What a strange statement. Game dates being affected by other games??? It sounds suspicious and like maybe some of their other games need a retooled piracy block as well.

 

[m3rox]

It was announced on December 12, 2006, it's now 2009. How many more delays are we going to see?

 

[elixirdream]

Well, one of the big shot from Square Enix once said Dragon Quest 9 will sell at least 5 million copies in Japan

i won't be surprise if they delay the release date due to the anti-piracy cracked.

hmmmm by the way this game has been delayed for a couple of time...

 

[Rommstain]

This game is going to make a LOT of money, and I think they're more concerned with piracy protection within the first week than a permanent one, since there's so many people who will want this game once it is released.

Seeing as there's no such thing as "permanent piracy protection" (except maybe some unique add-on hardware that the game requires to function properly, like a card reader for the GBA slot, but that's a different story) and the chance that SE will come up with one is infinitesimal, I'd say granville is right.
SE will want to hold off the crack for as long as is humanely possible to discourage the lazy "I want it here and now!" demographic from just pirating the game.

 

[Toni Plutonij]

Well, I'm not sure what is their plan, but I agree that they are doing it for piracy measures, also, for them, it would be smart if they release the game at the same time in all regions, if they do that, they will probably sell it more then releasing it only in Japan, and giving hackers time to find a way to hack it, and then apply the same hack to english releases later..

Also, I'm really kinda sick of all those delays, and it's killing this game to me for a bit!!

This game is worst then M3 Sakura with delays..

and to be honest, it's really hard to be worst then Sakura when it comes to that!

 

[Triforce]

Certainly in no way is it to hype the game more, every single Japanese site has a new front page post on this game almost daily. It couldn't be hyped any more, there's been posters, ads and pre-orders plastered all over Japan for 6 months. You can even pre-order this game in convenience stores like 7/11

Take into account that all the promotional material in Japan states a release date of 3/28, all this will need to be replaced. That will cost Sqenix a small fortune from a business perspective.

To use that to Yoichi Wada quote again

I cannot say what kind of effect we will experience from moving the Dragon Quest IX launch from March to July. I cannot say there won’t be an effect
And to quote a guy from neogaf:
QUOTE"The last time Enix delayed a DQ last minute across fiscal years they suffered such a stock market battering that they looked to merge with another company.

Now we have Square Enix.

To emphasize, Enix lost essentially 50% of its stock price overnight (read: over a one-two quarter period) when DQ7 got delayed across fiscal years. That's why they delayed their fiscal release a week. This is a big deal for them from a business perspective."

To elaborate on the piracy thing people are thinking, It most likely will have some kinda of new piracy check/feature which could be added in at anytime really, i doubt it would take a 3 month delay. To think that they would take the risk of losing out on so much financially, (new promotional material for covering Japan, losing stock etc.). They could end up losing more than they will over piracy itself which would be funny. I find it hard to believe the delay is to add new piracy measures but i guess no one really knows.

Personally i believe it is due to the serious bug in the software development (which is the official statement), and to possibly work on the game further.
Since we are all just guessing though it's a case of having to wait and see.

 

[Kamika]

Aww, man. I was looking forward to this game for about two years but hey, I have plenty of games to keep me quiet for months. Legacy of Ys: Book I and II and Dragon Quest V are the games I'm looking forward to the most after Dragon Quest IX.

 

[concealed identi]

This game is going to make a LOT of money, and I think they're more concerned with piracy protection within the first week than a permanent one, since there's so many people who will want this game once it is released.

Seeing as there's no such thing as "permanent piracy protection" (except maybe some unique add-on hardware that the game requires to function properly, like a card reader for the GBA slot, but that's a different story) and the chance that SE will come up with one is infinitesimal, I'd say granville is right.
SE will want to hold off the crack for as long as is humanely possible to discourage the lazy "I want it here and now!" demographic from just pirating the game.

Isn't that agreeing with my post though?


From a business perspective, they are losing way more money by delaying it like they are than they would from a few extra pirates.

It's all speculation, but you have to look at it from a realistic perspective, not the perspective from somebody who browses gbatemp.net and downloads games for free, which is not the majority of DS owners.


If they were basing their piracy protection on a game that came out months before this one, and EVERY piracy protection in the past has been cracked, why would they wait until a month before the game comes out to delay it unless there really was some sort of major bug? They wouldn't make the realistic assumption that this piracy protection would last so long when it has never ONCE done so in the past, especially with one of the biggest franchises they own.

And why would they delay it for so long, and spend all that time and so many resources working on piracy protection at the risk of losing so much money by delaying a game? From a business perspective, it really doesn't make any sense.


Like I said, nobody knows for sure. But I can't think of a realistic reason why they would make this decision unless there really was some problem with the game that would cost them more money than delaying it would. I mean, in the same report, they altered their financial projections to reflect the hit they were going to take from this move. I just don't see an actual reason to think it's anything other than what they stated, and less of a reason to think piracy is behind it.

 

[Rod]

...I have yet to understand why I wasn't saddened by this news, even though I'm a huge Dragon Quest fan. D:

That's probably 'cause is the japanese version anyways. Hopefully they're working on a worldwide date, but in any way, (I think) it's not like it's gonna slow down the localization procedure so much more.

 

[imz]

I'm not surprised at all, the game was originally meant to be released in 2007, if they can delay 2 years then I'm sure they can delay it a couple of months