Dragon Quest XI is headed to a variety of platforms, including PS4, 3DS, and eventually the Nintendo Switch. A presentation held earlier this month revealed the release date for the PS4 and 3DS versions as July 29th, 2017 for Japan. Unfortunately, it’s looking like the Switch version may come a bit later.
Famitsu listed the title as a 2017 release date before this presentation on their official page, but that’s now been updated to be TBD instead of listing the game as coming this year for Nintendo Switch. So far, Square Enix has not confirmed anything about the Switch version of the game, so we don’t know if this is a delay or what.
There have been some debates about whether Dragon Quest XI will see a Western release, with the most recent coming in January when producer Yu Miyake was asked whether or not the game will see release in the West, since Dragon Quest X didn’t make the cut. Miyake says the popularity of the Dragon Quest series in the West is a factor, since it isn’t as popular as Final Fantasy.
“We’re still trying! [Laughs] It’s a topic we have been thinking about a lot internally: the question of why Final Fantasy is so much more popular than Dragon Quest in the west. […] One thing that does stand out: in Japan the target audience for Dragon Quest is vast. It ranges from primary-school students to people in their 50s. Now, Akira Toriyama’s art style is cartoonish, and in Japan that doesn’t alienate anyone; it’s not seen as childish.”
So at this point we don’t know if Dragon Quest XI will be getting a western release and if this new update to Famitsu is to be believed, it may be a while before Japan sees it on Switch anyway. But hey, at least with the region-free consoles this generation, if the game doesn’t make it to the rest of the world, you can import the Japanese version and play it.
[via NeoGAF]
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