Dragon Quest X, the MMO iteration of one of Japan's most beloved role playing franchises (yes, even more so than Final Fantasy in many people's mind), was released onto the Wii late last summer in Japan. And it's performance has been disappointing to put it mildly.
Though many assumed that players were simply waiting for the Wii U version, for various (and perhaps obvious) reasons. Well, it's finally out, and according to Destructoid, the second coming has not fared much better either. Only 33,302 units were sold during its first week, lagging just behind the PlayStation Vita port of Muramasa: The Demon Blade.
Its performance comes as a shock to many. While not a horrible debut per say (it still debuted in the top ten, at number six to be exact), as Destructoid notes, no one thought it would post numbers comparable to its hey day on the original Famicom, but we all thought it would do considerably better.
Many are trying to pint point what the problem might be. Opinions are sharply divided. Some believe that it's just indicative of how stagnant the interest in the Wii U is in general. According to Destructoid's source, NeoGAF, Game & Wario's debut wasn't that much better. It came in at number ten, which equally is shocking for such a major Nintendo franchise.
As for the top fifty list as a whole, there are only two Wii U games, the ones we just listed already. Meanwhile, interest in Nintendo's other platform, the 3DS, remains as strong as ever. Animal Crossing: New Leaf is close to three million copies sold, and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon has successfully maintained its number one stop for the second week running, with 390.991 copies sold thus far.
Of all the platforms represented on the list, the 3DS is the most visible, with 16 games on it.
Back to Dragon Quest X; the other major reason cited is how many are ultimately uninterested in a multiplayer version of a game that has always been a single player experience. Which one is it? Maybe it's a combination of both? Only time will tell, though the sad truth is, this is not helping its chances of making out to America the least bit.
