Dragon Quest 10 for Wii U will be compatible with the Wii version

Players who own a copy of Dragon Quest 10 for Wii U will be able to play the game against those who have the Wii version, Square Enix officials announced during this morning's Japanese Nintendo Direct stream.

Players will be able to join the same game world as those who are playing on the Wii, but the Wii U version will display in HD.

The game will be playable with just the Wii U Game Pad, and if the game is played on a television then the Game Pad can be used as a keyboard.

Those with characters saved in the Wii version of Dragon Quest 10 will be able to play as those same characters in the Wii U version because the game's save data is handled on a server, Nintendo announced.

The game will be launching a beta in February 2013. Anyone in Japan who purchases the Wii U Deluxe set will be able to join the beta. Nintendo said in their stream: "People were very sad when their beta test characters in the Wii version were deleted at the end of the beta test. [In the Wii U beta], 99 percent of people will be able to keep their characters."

The Wii U version of Dragon Quest 10 will be available in Japan in Spring 2013.