A few months ago, Akio Iyuko, the producer of Dragon Ball DAIMA, stated that the franchise created by Akira Toriyama would continue over time. He mentioned new anime, but also video games. We can say that he wasn't lying, because a new Dragon Ball game has just been unveiled in a trailer that may revive good or bad memories for players.
Dragon Ball continues to fail in video games
Dragon Ball has always been recognized as a manga particularly well-served in terms of video game adaptations. Unfortunately, the track record has been less glorious lately. This is due in particular to some questionable choices on the part of Bandai. We are thinking in particular of Dragon Ball Super Divers, which replaced Super Dragon Ball Heroes at the end of 2024, and which turned out to be a failure. However, this may not be the biggest setback suffered by the franchise. At the end of 2024, another game highly anticipated by fans also ended in failure: Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero. The heir to the Budokai Tenkaichi was quickly abandoned by players. Bandai mismanaged its launch by delivering a game that was clearly unfinished, while also being slow to fix issues and add new content. Today, Sparking! Zero only has around 1,000 players on Steam, a low number considering the game's potential. However, this latest setback doesn't seem to be holding back the franchise, which continues to release new, sometimes very surprising, titles. Dragon Ball Launches into MOBA When you think of Dragon Ball video games, the first genres that come to mind are fighting games and RPGs. Seeing the license adapted into a MOBA à la League of Legends is clearly not what comes to mind, and yet, it will soon happen. Ganbarion and Bandai shared the trailer for Dragon Ball Gekishin Squadra yesterday, announcing at the same time an open beta that will take place from June 12 to 16, which you can sign up for here.
Dragon Ball is expanding more and more into all possible areas. The franchise is following a similar path to that of Pokémon, which already has a MOBA called Pokémon Unite, from which Gekishin Squadra notably takes the evolution system. This bet seems risky for Dragon Ball, but the feedback from the first beta has been positive, and the franchise has already successfully ventured into genres that weren't necessarily suited to it. We're thinking in particular of The Breakers, an asymmetrical multiplayer game à la Dead by Daylight that is still regularly updated. Gekishin Squadra could experience a similar fate, or even better.
0 Comments