Dragon Quest IX delayed until July in Japan

Via an update on Square Enix’s official Japanese site, the company have announced that Dragon Quest IX on the DS will not make its March 28 date in Japan, and has instead been delayed to July 11.

Interestingly, the update was quickly removed from the site shortly thereafter, but due to the exact wording used in the statement it seems that the delay is more or less official, and staff of the site may have went live with the news early than they were supposed to. Update: The statement is back up once again, thus confirming the delay.

It is not surprising for a Dragon Quest game to be delayed though, as just about every entry in the series has had some problems in the run up to release. The most notorious being DQ7, which was hit with so many delays it took six years from its initial announcement to finally hit retail

It is currently not know if this new JPN date will push back the release of the game in other territories, but it is highly likely it could, unless the company are shooting for a worldwide release.