The increase, Square’s largest for 21 months, came after the company released details of RPG Dragon Quest IX, which will be exclusively available on DS next year. The series has only previously been available on Sony consoles.
“Dragon Quest is a money maker and may be a big hit on Nintendo's DS,” head of investment department at Marusan Securities Takashi Ushio told Bloomberg. He added that Nintendo's portable is “getting more and more popular.”
Square chose to introduce its latest Dragon Quest game on the DS because it the console is attracting more users than rivals, added Square spokesperson Yuka Ejima.
Dragon Quest IX: Defender Of The Sky is being developed by Level 5 and sees the return of the team behind Dragon Quest VIII, which was greeted with mass queues when it was released in Japan last year.
The game will feature a single-player story, as well as four-player online co-op play. Unlike previous games, players will be able to fight enemies in real-time.
The Dragon Quest series is Tokyo-based Square's second-best selling game behind Final Fantasy, having shipped 41 million copies since being introduced in 1986.
Square said in May that it expected operating profit to climb 23 percent to 19 billion YEN (€12.2 million) in the year ending March 2007.
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