Making and selling video games is a strange and fragile world. One day you are buying up a (relatively) ancient and
revered piece of intellectual property, the next day your own coders make a hash of one of your own games. Both cost you money. And this is what's happened to Square Enix as news emerges that is has been forced to
delay the release of
Dragon Quest IX and also Final Fantasy XIII.
According Square Enix president Yoichi Wada, the
Dragon Quest delay was down to "carelessness" in the debugging it has now been delayed until July. The reason for the
FFXIII delay was not outlined, however, Wada did comment, "The next term's schedule has not been fixed yet. Presently, I cannot say what kind of effect we will experience from moving the
Dragon Quest IX launch from March to July. I cannot say there won't be an effect. There is a possibility that
Dragon Quest IX delay could effect
Final Fantasy XIII."
What is certain is that, according to MCV, the company has slashed its predicted March earnings by 60% to £34.7 million.