Square Enix Chief, Yoichi Wada, had the opportunity to post some surprising numbers for its latest MMORPG called Dragon Quest X. The great news is two-fold: first, the game has acquired over 400,000 subscribers. Second: the current number of subscribers has put the company in a good financial position, having already recovered the cost of developing the game.
It took Square Enix over 18 months for its first MMORPG, Final Fantasy XI, to hit the same subscriber total but do keep in mind that the market for MMOs has grown tremendously since then.
To clear up a concern some market researchers had, Wada cited the fact that they only shipped 600,000 copies of the game, and 400,000 are still active subscribers. For those that do not quite understand MMOs, the retention rate of subscribers is what decides how successful your game is.
Roughly two-thirds of all players who purchased this on the original Wii are still playing the game. When comparing game sales of Dragon Quest X to some of their other games, Wada responded that Final Fantasy XI initially only shipped 120,000 copies when it launched, making Dragon Quest X look even more solid.
This proves that a MMO can work on the Wii and the Wii U going forward and I would expect to see a huge influx of subscribers after the US launch for the Wii U in 2013.
Dragon Quest X is currently available only on the Nintendo Wii in Japan, however it will launch for the Nintendo Wii U in Spring 2013. Square Enix has yet to reveal their plans for localization and release outside of Japan. Let us know how you all feel about a MMORPG making its way onto the Wii U in the comments below. Are you interested in playing it?
