Executive producer Yuu Miyake notes that each region has its ”own play style and sensibilities,” so it’s likely to look different here in the West; that means regional servers.
It was the PC that was the ”first that popped into our minds,” said Miyake-san, when the team was thinking about the platform most connected to a network.
”As for whether it’ll be run in the Dragon Quest style in the overseas market, every nation has its own play style and sensibilities, so I don’t think it’ll be a single game worldwide like with Final Fantasy 11,” Yuu Miyake told Famitsu.
”Different countries consume their games at different speeds and the way the communities are run also differ,” added producer Yosuke Saito. “Even the way people enjoy seasonal events is different, so I think we need to divide the running of it by country or region. So we’re thinking about having separate servers for each country.”
Given PCs invasion of practically every home in the civilized world, PC is a natural choice for MMOs.
”The biggest reason was that, when thinking about which platform was most likely to be connected to a network, the PC was the first that popped into our minds,” said Saito-san. “We also live in an era where there’s nearly one PC for every household, and for people who grew up with Dragon Quest, PCs have been a natural part of their entire lives.”
”We figured it wouldn’t seem unnatural.”
The business of today’s games and platforms is different from the bygone era - single platform releases aren’t really enough anymore for studios to be financially rewarded for their efforts.
”Looking across the series from DQ8 onward, is that the business model of creating a retail package and releasing it exclusively on a single platform has become difficult to execute,” added Miyake-san. “Gamers’ play styles and tastes are getting segmented, and we can’t settle on a single platform. We’re also in an era where trying to make back development costs on a title good enough to be part of the main story is getting more difficult with the traditional business model.”
”We have to build a new business model, one that doesn’t end with a retail package being purchased. So, when we decided to have DQ10 be an MMORPG, it was decided it’d be available for a monthly rate. Our direction was to center the game on a console that anyone can pick up and play, then gradually expand out to other platforms.”
The team plan on adding more stores and bosses to defeat as the MMO grows, and to provide a ”comfortable” space for Dragon Quest fans to congregate.
”I’m sure we’ll have DQ11 and DQ12 going into the future, but in parallel with that, I’d like to have a world within DQ10 where we can tell stories from DQ11 and DQ12,” added Saito-san.
“I think it’d be great if we could keep DQ10 going for even ten or twenty years.”
Dragon Quest X released on Wii U in Japan earlier in March, and Square Enix is taking PC beta applications now.
