The Xbox 360 has been struggling in Japan since it was released in December of 2005. Sales of the console have only reached about 500,000 units, but Takashi Sensui, Japanese General Manager at Microsoft’s Home & Entertainment Division believes that reaching one million units is not far fetched.
A low number of RPGs on the Xbox 360 is partially to blame for such a low sales count, so in order to cater to the hardcore, more RPGs need to be included in the up-and-coming games list for Japan. One of these RPGs might be a sequel to Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Blue Dragon. In April 2007 he reaffirmed that he wanted a sequel for the game after stating as early as November 2006 that Blue Dragon 2 was being planned.
CVG reports that Sakaguchi talked to korean press about this sequel saying, "we’re in talks with Microsoft about development of a sequel. Specifics aren’t finalized, but there’s a possibility that it will be produced as an online title."
You mean MMORPG? He doesn’t specify to that degree, but what else could it mean? Online co-op, 4-player online adventuring? If it is in fact a Blue Dragon MMORPG, they will really need to push development to the max. Mistwalker is, in relation to other companies, pretty new. Sure, at the helm you have a pro, but the company is still fresh on its feet. A failed attempt to lure in customers to an MMORPG can be the destruction of the company.
Blue Dragon wasn’t a huge success in Japan, but the Japanese still accepted it as a great RPG on the Xbox 360. Is this enough to warrant a MMORPG of an IP that still needs to prove themselves worthy to gamers? The art appeal, similar to that of Dragon Quest, can certainly be appreciated, but Mistwakler would need to do a lot more to win over gamers with an MMORPG, especially on the Xbox 360.
