Does anyone else think Square Enix almost has to make the next mainline Dragon Quest a multiplatform console game if they want it to be successful globally? It seems like such a large IP for them to keep only on the 3DS and lose out on capitalizing on the western markets. Then again Monster Hunter being a 3DS exclusive doesn't make much sense. Really any 3rd party game being exclusive makes little sense, unless it is a niche game, or game made by a small team.
DQ8 did like 4.9M worldwide on the PS2, and 1M+ in the west.
DQ9 was 5M+ worldwide on the DS, and 1M+ in the west.
MHTri was just under 2M worldwide on the Wii, and just under 1M in the west.
Those are excellent western sales for Japanese-centric franchises. I'm not sure how much more you can expect, regardless of the platform (or multi-platform) choice.
Now this one has moneyhat writte all over it. The fact that X as an MMO has no PC version is quite strange
Yeah, the lack of a PC version is odd. Although if they were really insistent on using a subscription model for the game, the PC space is a brutal place to launch a new subscription MMO these days. They may have felt that the console space offered a better chance at making a subscription model work.
But yeah - I suspect heavy involvement from Nintendo as well.
(I'm guessing SE will focus more on smartphones from now on).
I get the feeling that Wada's resignation had just as much to do with the failure of the Eidos takeover, and the overall failure of SE's shift in focus on the west, as it does with any of the failures on the Japanese side of the ledger.