Has the Definitive Ed. of DQ11 superseded the original in the market? Not simple.
Dragon Quest 11S, the Definitive Edition, was released in Dec 2020 for Steam, PS4, and Xbox. The original version is now (secretly?) withdrawn from the Steam Store, to my surprise. But is this usurpation complete? The story is not simple. Let's examine it.
NB: I took snapshots for most linked pages. So as-of-writing information, in May 2021, is well preserved.
TL;DR: Jump to the summary at the bottom.
No more original in Steam Store
First let us see what exactly happened. Go to the Steam Store page of the original version of DQ11. It says:
Notice: At the request of the publisher, DRAGON QUEST® XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age™ - Digital Edition of Light is unlisted on the Steam store and will not appear in search.
Ok. "By the request of the publisher". Really?
Square-Enix still sells one!
See this Square-Enix page of the PS4 version of the original DQ11. It has the line "Stock status (release date): In stock, Limited amount (2017-07-29)" (The original Japanese: "在庫状況（発売日): 在庫あり 残り僅か (2017年07月29日)".)So here the publisher, Square-Enix, themselves still sell it. The product in this page is the blu-ray package, not the digital, but still perplexing.
So many DQ11's, so many cases
Why this inconsistency? Notice "Dragon Quest XI" is far from unique; there are:
| Version | Date | Platforms | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The original Japanese version | July 2017 | 3DS and PS4 | The 3DS and PS4 versions differ substantially. |
| 2 | The first worldwide version | Sep 2018 | PS4 and Steam | This version enjoyed a small enhancement from the Japanese original one, augmented with voiceover, dash, etc. See this Destructoid article for more. |
| 3 | The Definitive Edition for Nintendo Swtich | Sep 2019 | Nintendo Switch | Both for Japan and the rest of the world, but the Japanese version has some extra contents. |
| 3' | DE for other platforms | Dec 2020 | PS4, Steam, and Xbox. Also for Google Stadia in Mar 2021. |
Essentially identical to the Switch version |
There're several axes to consider:
- The "original" vs the Definitive Edition (of course!)
- Japan vs worldwide.
- Sellers are not single.
- And so on
Japan is special
In Japan, there are two separate official sites, one for the original, and the other for the Definitive Edition On the other hand, there is only a sole worldwide site, which is now for the Defivitive Edition, and the information about the original version cannot be found any more. For the original version, see this Feb 2019 snapshot of the same site.
One single page, as seen in the worldwide site, seems natural, so why two in Japan? The key, I guess, is the 3DS version, which was released only in Japan, and lacks the Definitive Edition. You can still buy its package version and the download version, both from the Square-Enix's site. As for the Japanese PS4 version, the digital version is not available any more, while you can still buy the package version, as I said above.
Time to tie up loose ends
To be complete, let me list these points:
- In the Steam Store, the switching from the original to the Definitive Edition was exactly the latter's release day, according to SteamDB.
- The Japanese Definitive Edition differs slightly from the worldwide one. The former is sold only to the residents of Japan, but they can't buy the worldwide version. See this article in this blog for the details.
- As far as I noticed, Amazon.com is the sole remainig seller of the original Steam version. The PS4 digital version is not purchasable any more. (The disk package is still sold.)
- AFAIK any official stores and keyshops do not have the original version in stock any more.
Summary
As of May 2021, original versions are still sold, counter-intuitively, at these places:
- Square-Enix still sells 3DS's digital version, and the remaining stock of the 3DS and PS4 package versions.
- Amazon.com still sells PS4 digital version, in addition to the package one.
