In a press conference held yesterday on September 5, Square Enix has confirmed the existence of the next numbered game in the long-running Dragon Quest series. Dragon Quest X: Rise of the Five Tribes Online (ドラゴンクエストX 目覚めし五つの種族 オンライン) will be released for both the Nintendo Wii and later for the Wii U, with some currently unknown 3DS connectivity features. Yousuke Saito, the producer of Nier has been given the producer reins for DQX, and it is being handled in-house by Square Enix, a first for the series.

The biggest part of the announcement is the "Online" part of the title. While Square Enix has confirmed that the game can be played as a solo experience, the company stated in a response on the DQX support page that "It's possible to play offline for the first few hours after the start of the game. However, to play all elements of the game, an internet connection is required." A news post on the Dragon Quest series portal has also hinted at "Usage Fees" for both the Wii and Wii-U versions, although these are still listed as "TBC".

DQX has been stated to be a single player game, with players able to create up to three characters from five different races. Players may either team up online, or make use of NPC characters to fight alongside.

The official website for DQX can be seen here, which advises people to check the website soon for details of an upcoming beta test. DQX is currently scheduled to release during 2012 in Japan.