The chief editor or Japan's largest gaming publication draws out his predictions for the nation's most wanted...

It would be difficult to comprehend the popularity of the Dragon Quest series in Japan with western comparitives. Games like Halo don't even come close. Such is this so that a recent survey polled the upcoming DS title Dragon Quest IX as the country's most wanted game, trumping sure-to-be big hitters like Resident Evil 5, Final Fantasy XIII and Monster Hunter 3.

With less that three months to go to the game's big release, the editor-in-chief of Famitsu has set down his estimates for just how successful he expects the RPG to be at its launch...

"March [DQIX's launch month] will be bigger than the year-end sales war. Even side-stories (such as Dragon Quest Monsters) have sold a million copies, and the previous title in the series (DQVIII) sold 8 million plus (lifetime). It [DQIX] should be expected to sell from 4 million to 5 million copies..."

He also went onto praise Nintendo for their release of the brand new DSi console:

"During the first half of 2008, DS sales were starting to drop, but then the DSi came out. And with Dragon Quest IX, it was terrific timing on Nintendo's part."

Dragon Quest IX descends on Japan on March 28th. No American or PAL release has been announced at this time.