Yuji Horii
On July 10, 2010, one day before the official release, "Dragon Quest" creator Yuji Horii visited the Nintendo World Store to commemorate the release of Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies in North America at a special launch event. The North American release of "Dragon Quest IX" was heavily promoted by Nintendo - the company ran commercials featuring Seth Green in theaters and on television, featured "Dragon Quest IX" for two weeks on "Nintendo Week", and sponsored special "Dragon Quest IX" events at select GameStop, Best Buy, and Simon Mall locations from July 31, 2010 through August 2010 where players could obtain exclusive downloadable treasure maps. "Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies" was also the subject of two segments of "Iwata Asks", where Satoru Iwata interviewed Yuji Horii and Ryutaro Ichimura concerning the North American release of "Dragon Quest IX". The August 2010 issue of Nintendo Power also featured "Dragon Quest IX" on the cover.