Dragon Quest III Remake sales exceeded Square Enix’s expectations

As a publisher, Square Enix has rather high aspirations for its games’ sales performance, with pretty much every title released by them winding up selling below their expectations. It therefore comes as quite a surprise that the recent Dragon Quest III remake actually managed to exceed said expectations.

As part of the company’s latest fiscal earnings report, Square Enix specifically highlighted Dragon Quest III HD-2D’s success as a major factor for its higher-than-expected operating income, writing:

“Operating income up mainly due to stronger sales of ‘DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake’ than initial assumptions.”

Given the publisher’s historically high expectations for its games, it is surprising to see Dragon Quest receive such a shoutout. That said, despite launching in November of last year, Dragon Quest III HD-2D actually managed to become the second-best selling game of 2024 on the Japanese PlayStation Store – with first place going to Square’s other major release ‘Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’.

The HD-2D style has been a great format to remake older pixel-art games and so it is encouraging to see Square Enix acknowledging their success.

KitGuru says: What do you think of HD-2D? Should more games take inspiration? What other classic would you like to see remade next? Let us know down below.

Become a Patron!