7 million would be quite a step up for this series. Probably VII or VIII would be the previous tops. VIII came in at just under 5 million, and VII was probably in the same territory. For 7 million to happen the series would basically need to keep doing ~4 million (or more) in Japan, while also exploding in the west.
I don't have the numbers by me to check on this, but I doubt the western releases of Rocket Slime, Monsters Joker, IV, and V combined have come anywhere near multiple millions.
Just because the Japanese have a big marketing budget doesn't mean that they can they market their way to success. Sometimes even high quality games don't grab the interest they should in the United States of America.
Where is the data from that chart taken from? Unless I know I have a hard time believing it. I agree that sales will increase due to this being on a popular portable system. I will have to take more time later to dissect this stock, as you probably noticed, I'm going through old stocks at the moment and trying to revive discussion on them.
In this URL, you'll notice that DQVII (aka Dragon Warrior 7) is only 190K, while DQ8 is 539K (183% improvement)
The article you mentioned read like a fanboy rant, so I wouldn't put much stock on it. I mean, hating Akira Toriyama is one thing, but insinuating that Koichi Sugiyama is not real ? Come on, get real, author (not you, Gaara42).
One thing to remember when comparing DQ9 vs DQ8 : DQ9 is on portable, which mean one household might buy more than 1 (1 for each brother / sister), while DQ8 is on console, which more often mean only 1 copy per household (brother & sister share the game).
IF (a big if, may not happen) DQ9 enjoy 150% improvement in sales # compared to DQ8, it will get 1.3 Million US sales. In Japan, it is possible to get 4.2 Million (only 20% improvement over DQ8 #).
Those two region give us possibility of 5.5 Million. I don't have figure for Europe sales, so I could not estimate what is the reasonable LTD for DQ9, but expecting 1.2 Million from Europe & others is not too farfetched, IMO.
People in America don't buy Dragon Quest games because they are one big long (and boring) level grind that don't introduce anything new (no good twist, bland story, derivative character design, etc.)
Read this article and you will understand why this game sell horribly in America compared to Japan. If Dragon Quest IX doesn't fix these problem, then I doubt it will be a commercial success in America either.
HOw many copies did dragon quest 8 sell. I could easily see this surpassing it quite easily. BUt it's not in japan where i see it making up ground. Handhld games tend to be less of an investment. The cheaper price will make it easier to sell to people that havent bought the games in the past, primarily North America and Europe.
You also have to remember that there arent a huge amount of hardcore RPG's on the DS. Especially compared to the PS2. The genre isnt really canibilizing itself in this situation.
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