Dragon Quest IX a DS Exclusive

Joystiq and Kotaku reported this morning that the next installment of SquareEnix's blockbuster Dragon Quest franchise is going to be an exclusive for the Nintendo DS.

This is major, major news. The Dragon Quest series is to Japanese gamers what the Final Fantasy series is to American gamers---only moreso. There's actually a federal law in Japan prohibiting Dragon Quest games from being released on a school day, in order to prevent millions of ordinarily well-behaved children from cutting class and running wild in the streets, trying to get their hands on a coveted copy of the game.

I've confirmed this in the Sydney Morning Herald, which appears to be a reputable news source despite being located down under.

This is terrible news for Sony, whose PS1 and PS2 installments enjoyed the success of DQVII and DQVIII, respectively. I'm not surprised to see the next installment going to Nintendo, considering that SE had previously announced a desire to support both Sony and Nintendo with their bestselling franchises (sorry, Microsoft). However, I'm surprised to see such a major game coming exclusively to a handheld.

I should look into acquiring a DS in time for the joyous event.