It didn’t hit me until today just how long the Wii is going to stick around. Forget the fact that Nintendo have sold millions upon millions of consoles in record time or that the box continues to sell in vast quantities on a monthly basis. The real metric is Dragon Quest.
Consider this: there have been just three new Dragon Quest games released in the last seventeen years. The shortest gap between games was the three years between Dragon Quest V and Dragon Quest VI, the longest the five years before VII was released. Square-Enix plans to release Dragon Quest IX in July, a full five years after Dragon Quest VIII. This averages out to a new Dragon Quest every 4.25 years.
Dragon Quest X was announced for the Wii last December. It’s reasonable then to assume we won’t see DQX until early 2013. That’ll be the Wii’s seventh year and Dragon Quest X’s release will guarantee the system at least one million more consoles sold that year.
Dragon Quest X + Wii = Potentially the longest shelf life for a Nintendo home console.
Math is fun!
Related links:
The 61FPS Review: Dragon Quest IV – Chapters of the Chosen
The 61FPS Review: Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
Dragon Quest III Remake Translation Patch Released
The 'Bout Time Report: Dragon Quest IX Gets a Release Date