Dragon Quest IX pushed back to July

Square Enix announced today a delay for what was likely to be its biggest domestic release of the year, Dragon Quest IX. Originally scheduled for March 28, the game will now arrive on July 11.

DQIX pre-orders at 7-eleven.

A statement from the company cited the discovery of major bugs in the game as reason for the delay. While an attempt was made at fixing these bugs without changing the release date, the company determiend that additional time would be be needed.

The title will still carry its original 5,980 price point.

Related to this announcement, Hori announced that a couple of Dragon Quest IX peripherals will also be delayed. The Dragon Quest IX Protect Case DSi and Dragon Quest Slime Speaker Stand, both originally scheduled to launch with DQIX on the March 28, will now arrive on July 11.

News of this delay comes just as DQIX promotional campaigns appear to have kicked into high gear. Square Enix has been sharing new information on the game with the enthusiast gaming media on a weekly basis, most recently unveiling a new passive form of Wi-Fi support.

Additionally, retailers throughout the country have been holding pre-orders since last year, with banners and signs placed throughout shops. Some retailers have even begun promoting early morning 7:00 launches for the title.

Coinciding with this delay, Square Enix Holdings has issued a revised earnings forecasts for the current fiscal year. Forecasts announced on November 7, 2008 called for operating income of 21,000 million yen on sales of 160,000 million yen. These have been slashed to 12,000 million and 133,000 million yen. While the company's financial statement does not mention Dragon Quest IX by name, it does refer to the delay of a major March title as being one of the factors for the lowered forecasts.