When Namco-Bandai brought the Dragon Ball video game license back in-house from Atari in 2009, the American branch of the company heavily promoted the franchise and their upcoming games over the course of the next year. After that, however, the promotions were significantly scaled back. The European branch of the company, on the other hand, has consistently been in the mix with fans to hype up whatever releases are on the way at the time. In fact, the vast majority of promotional videos for Ultimate Tenkaichi — highlighting game features like character creation — were done in-house by the European branch exclusively.
It is perhaps no surprise that the European branch is the one teasing what is likely a new video game announcement (link available only to European Facebook visitors):
So far, there is no real information on what the big console game for the franchise — if any — will be this year. Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission on the Nintendo 3DS remains exclusive to Japan (despite comparatively-fantastic sales), J-Stars Victory Vs has yet to receive a release date in Japan (never mind an international announcement), and there is still no word on any possible home console port of Zenkai Battle Royale. Tap Battle for Android-based (and eventually iOS) devices also has no international announcement just yet.
That all being said, Namco-Bandai’s big games preview day is coming up soon this month, and it would be the prime place for an announcement of this type! Last year’s “Global Gamers Day” brought us the formal reveal of Dragon Ball Z for Kinect. Hopefully we get a pleasant surprise this year.
Thanks to John-Edvard for the heads-up and screen grab!
12 Comments
It’ll probably be a Tap Battle international release.
Heh, just realized I forgot to add that one to the end of the paragraph and was editing it in when you commented :P. Nice catch.
Please tell me they’ve contracted Telltale to make an episodic, original story set in Dragon World.
when would any type of annoucncement be? is there a con or something big in Europe in the near future?
Always hoping for something different when it comes to DBZ games rather than it just being traditional fighting, so here’s hoping. Also, you spelt “Kinect” wrong Mike ;P
Woohoo, my second time helping to spread the news! 😀
Although it`s kinda funny that you creditet my username (songohan619) last time, but my real name this time xD
And btw, Genius is my real last name, if you were wondering.
Considering the European fans have been the ones that talk more to Namco and the developers (through Nostal and some other French fans) I’m not surprised the European page is the first to get anything out there. I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a new console videogame out sometime this year, probably following some of the suggestions from the fanwishes Nostal gave to Spike and Namco last year. 😛
They could still…y’know…release Ultimate Butouden….Come on….
Well, if you look deeper into the “Plan to Erad….ahem…conquer the world”, if they released Ultimate Mission for the 3DS, Zenkai Battle Royal for the PS3, XB360 and maybe Wii U, J Victory Versus on the PS3 and Vita AND Ultimate Butouden on the DS….You’re looking at a game that has Dragon Ball in it on EVERY major console.
Or maybe I’m looking to deep into this? Maybe it’s just the Sparking HD collection.
Going into the comment right above me, I don’t understand why Ultimate Butoden wasn’t localized when it released back in… what, 2009, 2010?. All it really would’ve needed was the current English voice cast, translated text, and a possible name change. I can understand why Ultimate Mission stayed Japan-exclusive (though I would’ve liked to play it), but why didn’t they bother with Ultimate Butoden?
In any case, after Ultimate Tenkaichi (which is one of the worst cases of buyer’s remorse I’ve ever experienced in my life) and its Kinect port, I’m praying this year’s DBZ game–assuming it’s a new title and not a re-release–is at least decent.
^
They wouldn’t even need to dub it (as seen in Attack of the Saiyans). And the possibility of Ultimate Mission staying in Japan makes less sense when the 3DS Naruto SD game was released in the west last month, when Naruto SD itself has not left Japan.
Everyone knows what Heroes is, they can release it.
@rukura Technically Naruto SD has left Japan. It’s available on Crunchyroll.
@zfighteramuro Ultimate Butoden probably didn’t come over due to it being on the DS. Many Japanese DS games (as well as PSP games) stopped getting localized around that time for a variety of reasons. Some of the big ones are rampant bootlegging and retailers simply not giving decent games shelf space due to the overwhelming amount of garbage games that stupid kids/parents are buying (Anything that says Babyz, for example).
i just hope its going to be Zenkai Royal … or another real good game … a good RPG for the PS3 would be HOT and nice !!! greetings from germany ;))