Square Enix Plans a Decade of Updates for Dragon Quest X

[Cognimancer]

Square Enix Plans a Decade of Updates for Dragon Quest X

If you like killing slimes, you're in luck - they aren't going anywhere.

August 2 marked the Japanese release of the latest Dragon Quest title, the tenth in the series. The Wii MMORPG, published by Square Enix, is not only the first game in main series developed for the Wii, but also the core series' first foray into the MMO market. Though some fans are concerned about bringing the traditionally single-player franchise online, Square Enix has some ideas to keep the game from getting stale: the publisher has announced plans to keep Dragon Quest X supported with content updates for ten years.

Japanese newspaper Nikkei reports that "major version up revisions" will be coming to the game every ten weeks. Square Enix hopes to keep this update schedule in place all the way to 2022, which would be no small feat. Doable, certainly - EverQuest is still getting new content, and it was released in 1999 - but in the competitive market of modern MMOs, it's a long time to keep a game alive.

Producer Yosuke Saito has said [http://www.siliconera.com/2012/07/26/square-enix-will-keep-dragon-quest-x-going-with-new-content-each-week/] that in addition to these updates, the game will be supported with weekly updates following launch. These content patches will include new quests and story segments (presumably alongside standard MMO tweaks and bug fixes). The ten-week interval updates will be larger scale, including things like new gameplay elements.

It's an ambitious goal, but given the immense popularity of the Dragon Quest franchise, particularly in Japan, Square Enix is in a pretty good position to follow through with its promise. As for whether or not the audience will still be there to appreciate it, well, that may be a different story. With so many MMOs struggling to keep players interested after the free thirty days, planning so far ahead might just be a bit excessive. Whatever new content Square Enix has planned, it had better be good if it's going to drag us away from our hoverboards and holodecks.

Dragon Quest X grants players two hours of play time each day for free, but requires a monthly subscription fee of about $13 to play more than that. It is currently available in Japan on the Wii, with plans to release on the Wii U later on.

Source: Andriasang [http://andriasang.com/con24o/dqx_ten_year_plan/]

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[Evil Smurf]

if they can pull it off, good on them

 

[Solo-Wing]

Problems I have found with this:
The Wii is not gonna last for 10 years. The WiiU is coming.
The Wii has a tiny Storage capacity, an update every 10 weeks for 10 years will destroy it.
The Wii has a horrible Online system. They would have fared better with XBL or PSN cause of Usernames and friend lists.

Hell those are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more problems.

 

[viranimus]

So... it means that only 3 will see the light of day, 2 will be spun off into other projects. 2 will become abandon ware due to changes in market demographics. And after two years, SE abandons the notion as it loses interest in following through and begins to move toward other projects, announcing new products and producing tech demos and trailers.

 

[Ruedyn]

Fun game to play before reading (not that you'll see this before you read it) Try to guess whether this game comes from the stupid or evil part of Capcom, the stupid being an okay game with a few turds in it, and evil being games seemingly created to make people cry...

Answer seems to be 'stupid'

 

[Solo-Wing]

Fun game to play before reading (not that you'll see this before you read it) Try to guess whether this game comes from the stupid or evil part of Capcom, the stupid being an okay game with a few turds in it, and evil being games seemingly created to make people cry...

Answer seems to be 'stupid'

This has nothing to do with Capcom. This is Square.

 

[Beautiful End]

I'll be that guy:

So...KH3 now, yes? Or FFXIII Versus? Seriously, what the fuck is Square-Enix doing with those half assed decisions that most people don't give a shit about?

 

[Shinsei-J]

Um.. Pretty sure the Wii is being replaced already so wh for the Wii?
Revelation ahoy! The Wii has been out for 6 years and the PS2 has been running strong for 12 years in Japan.
So if you think about the fact that a connsoles life span are bigger in Japan along with Dragon quests target demographic living there and then if they are running on the assumption that the Wii is going to live just as long as the PS2, The whole idea becomes alot less farfetched. Think if every household who owned a Wii bought this game and it became a must have for the system, that's a profit.

I still don't think that they will pull through for the whole idea is full of flaws, the Wii housing any data is laughable, the Wii online system is so user friendly it might aswell punch me in the crotch and even with it lasting as long as the PS2 has (highly unlikely) the timeline still won't fill and it will eventualy be dropped.
it was just food for thought.

 

[Stalydan]

Problems I have found with this:
The Wii is not gonna last for 10 years. The WiiU is coming.
The Wii has a tiny Storage capacity, an update every 10 weeks for 10 years will destroy it.
The Wii has a horrible Online system. They would have fared better with XBL or PSN cause of Usernames and friend lists.

Hell those are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more problems.

I can add on to it with:

If they're going to release a Wii U version later, why bother with the Wii version at all?
If there's a free to play option, even if it is only for two hours a day, why would you charge $13 a month in subscription? The price for some bigger MMOs with much more content costs much less than that, some being completely free to play.
Even though Dragon Quest is a popular series, did they think an MMO was seriously the best decision to make for releasing one for the Wii?

 

[Ruedyn]

Fun game to play before reading (not that you'll see this before you read it) Try to guess whether this game comes from the stupid or evil part of Capcom, the stupid being an okay game with a few turds in it, and evil being games seemingly created to make people cry...

Answer seems to be 'stupid'

This has nothing to do with Capcom. This is Square.

So you're right... I misread something fierce Sorry everyone, but I did give everyone a fun game to play.

 

[weirdee]

frankly, i don't see anything wrong with this arrangement besides the memory capacity

if it's easy to get a used wii, it's easy to play their game

 

[gigastar]

10 years of updates for a console MMO?

Thats ambitious. Bordering on stupidity.

 

[Aardvark Soup]

I still don't think that they will pull through for the whole idea is full of flaws, the Wii housing any data is laughable, the Wii online system is so user friendly it might aswell punch me in the crotch and even with it lasting as long as the PS2 has (highly unlikely) the timeline still won't fill and it will eventualy be dropped.
it was just food for thought.

I agree data storage is a problem whenever updates were to contain new 3D-models and other graphics, but if they would only contain patches, new quests and such you really don't need that much storage space. You can also store some of the stuff server-side (although that would increase loading times, unless done very strategically) or even deliver an SD-card along with the game.

Furthermore, Nintendo does not force developers to use their awful friend code system so Square can (and certainly will) build a separate online framework.

As far as the Wii's life cycle goes: the Wii U is completely backwards compatible. Furthermore, console life cycles are far longer these days than they used to be. If the Wii U would be as successful as its predecessor more than enough (Japanese) people would still have one standing next to their TV in 10 years. I personally don't believe this will be the case, though, and it would not even surprise me if it will turn out such a flop that might even lead to Nintendo stepping out of the console market.

 

[Olrod]

There's going to be a Dragon Quest X? This is almost worth getting a Wii U for.

But I can play free for only 2 hours per day? Sorry, guess I wont be getting a Wii U to play Dragon Quest X on after all.

I wonder if the department that's making Dragon Quest X is the same one that was responsible for making Final Fantasy XIV?

 

[XDravond]

I find this max 2h a day limit kinda fun since not that many "average" people play more than 1h/day sure some days I can play 12h+ but those are kinda unusual for a reason.... But I can't see how a 2h limit would limit all that many players sure hardcore gamers would find it to short and "have" to pay for it but still...

And for ten years? I'm not so sure the company still exist then and what kind of hardware would still be able to run something that was made for a console that was out of date 10 years ago... Yea the Wii is really out of date by now...

 

[cerealnmuffin]

Dragon Quest X,
Getting updates every 10 weeks,
For a decade?

I think someone at Squenix must be an <url=http://www.decca.com/file/TheThreeTenors.jpg_4bcddb5cb3e15-articleImage.jpg>opera fan

The pun was so groan inducing that it was amazing =)

 

[Towowo]

Problems I have found with this:
The Wii is not gonna last for 10 years. The WiiU is coming.
The Wii has a tiny Storage capacity, an update every 10 weeks for 10 years will destroy it.
The Wii has a horrible Online system. They would have fared better with XBL or PSN cause of Usernames and friend lists.

Hell those are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more problems.

I can add on to it with:

If they're going to release a Wii U version later, why bother with the Wii version at all?
If there's a free to play option, even if it is only for two hours a day, why would you charge $13 a month in subscription? The price for some bigger MMOs with much more content costs much less than that, some being completely free to play.
Even though Dragon Quest is a popular series, did they think an MMO was seriously the best decision to make for releasing one for the Wii?

I think what this article forgot to mention was that in Japan, the game is coming with it's own 16 GB USB drive to accomodate for game updates and the like, so storage will most likely not be an issue.

 

[Mrsoupcup]

Why do MMO Devs keep planning content BEFORE they even know their game will even be a success?