Last weekend, the hardest of the hardcore descended upon Los Angeles to take part in Call of Duty XP, a convention celebrating everything Call of Duty. Each attendee paid $150 for their ticket—but it’s hard to quibble over the cost of the ticket when 100 percent of the proceeds went to a charity that supports veterans—and the closing concert featured Kanye West. A new Modern Warfare 3-themed Xbox 360 was shown, highlighting Microsoft’s dominance in Activision’s world.

Dragon Quest X will be the series' first online RPG, Square Enix said Monday.
Image: Square Enix

The Dragon Quest series of role-playing games has long been a bulwark of tradition in its native Japan. While other game series have evolved far beyond their original scope or disappeared entirely, Dragon Quest has stuck with its original, simple RPG formula ever since 1986. It has never gone out of style, selling millions of copies every time a new edition gets released.

That’s why gamers were shocked Monday morning to hear Square Enix’s plans for the next installment of the series. It was long kno...