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Data from Famitsu and other sources show that Square Enix has now sold 3.2 million copies of Dragon Quest IX in the 10 or so days since it came out in Japan.  This marks the second DS blockbuster in a row for Square Enix, who had Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days in the top 10 sales bracket as Dragon Quest IX first hit the shelves.  So what’s next for Square Enix?

A few things…

The continuation of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years for the American WiiWare market - with 3 additional episodes released on July 6th 2009 and 3 more due in August before the September conclusion.

Square Enix will continue it’s summer assault of the handheld gaming market in Japan with the release of two more titles in August:  Blood of Bahamut, an RPG from the folks who brought us Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings; and The Game With No Name: The Eye, a “first person survival horror” uhhh… whatever that is.  Apparently this is a sequel to the first Game with No Name.

And most important, the American release of Dissidia: Final Fantasy for the PSP on August 25th, 2009.  Day one.  I guess I’ll have to clean my PSP screen and charge it up for this.

As for site downtime, my apologies.  Hope everyone is still around, feel free to reply to this post with a “hi!” if you are.

The newest issue of Famitsu features a lot of new information on Final Fantasy XIII and IGN has done a lengthy write-up on what new information was revealed.

Among the new details:

The only gameplay area the magazine provides new solid facts about is the Driving Mode — the new form of summon where you get to ride your summon beasts.

Sounds interesting and new for a Final Fantasy battle feature… tell us more IGN:

Driving Mode apparently turns FFXIII into somewhat of an action game. You can freely control the motorcycle with the analogue pad, and attack by inputting commands. You won’t be able to use this mode forever, though. Eventually, you’ll have to execute a finish move, bringing an end to Driving Mode. Shiva will also disappear here, leaving Snow with his more mortal battle members.

I, for one, am sold.  Spring 2010 can’t arrive soon enough.  Go to IGN to read the rest of the article, it’s a very lengthy piece and includes a number of new details on the game.