That game was also the first main series game to be released outside Japan and North America. Dragon Quest games are released in Japan and, until 2004's Dragon Quest VIII, were later localized for the North American market under the Dragon Warrior title. The original game in the series, renamed Dragon Warrior outside Japan, was released in 1986 in Japan and in North America in 1989. It has been cited as Japan's most popular and favorite gaming series by many publications. Dragon Quest is Square Enix's second most successful franchise internationally behind the Final Fantasy franchise, having sold over 78 million units worldwide to date. In addition to traditional role-playing games, the series includes first-person adventure games, portable games, massively multiplayer online role-playing games, and games for mobile phones. The first game of the series was released in Japan in 1986 on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and Dragon Quest games have subsequently been localized for markets in North America, Europe and Australia, on over a dozen video game consoles. Dragon Quest is a series of role-playing video games created by Yuji Horii, which are published by Square Enix (formerly Enix).
