An interesting FUNimation! Dragon Ball Super conundrum...

[Crinchy]

As you may or may not have heard, XENOVERSE 2 is coming out soon and it WILL include Dragon Ball Super characters (https://youtube.com/watch?v=vb9uM2Mp0e4) and we have not heard anything about licensing from FUNimation! or related information regarding dubbing DBS characters, we have heard that Sean had doubts about voicing BLACK yet the game is due in a few months.

What do you think they will do regarding this game? If they are frantically auditioning talent for SUPER characters for this game, could we hear an announcement from FUNimation? I'm sure they knew this for a while as it takes time to record all of the dialogue that is required for this game (dialogue, grunts etc.) and I am sure any voice talent they choose for the game would be concrete in regards to the show.

Thoughts?

[Nejishiki]

The process for voicing video games is a bit different from working on dubs. Whoever the directors hire may not necessarily come back with the same roles in a Dragon Ball Super dub. This is just one of those cases where a video game arrives first and throws things out of the field without established roles already picked before. Perhaps if they do well enough with original characters, Funimation will hire them instead of auditioning?

[TheBlackPaladin]

This is not entirely unprecedented. They cast Beerus (and, I think, Whis) for a videogame first, and their voice actors ended up coming back for BoG (and all their subsequent appearances in the videogames and RoF).

On the other hand, FUNimation also handled the English dub of the first Fullmetal Alchemist videogame, and while the vast majority of the actors they cast in the videogame ended up doing the anime, Armstrong was recast with Chris Sabat (Travis Willingham originally voiced that character in the first videogame).

So, it could go either way.

[Danfun64]

Well, even if the Funi Super dub doesn't come for years, Viz is doing the manga, accurate fansubs exist, an alternative English dub is coming out very soon... and of course, Funi's is dubbing Xenoverse 2. Sure, the situation isn't the best, but it could be a LOT worse...

[Hellspawn28]

I remember that we hear Jaco's English voice in XV1 before ROF was released in theaters.

[Kaboom]

6 years later and we still, for some reason or another, haven't had an English-dubbed release of the "Heya! Son Goku and Friends Return" special from 2008. But that didn't stop Tarble from getting an English VA for Raging Blast 2 in 2010. Same deal here.

[precita]

TOEI really needs to stop sitting on FUNImations hands. After FUNI made DBZ so popular in the U.S. you'd think TOEI would cut them some slack and just give them the series to dub already.

[Lord Beerus]

Well, The Plan To Eradicate The Saiyans OVA never got dubbed or even officially released in West but that didn't stop FUNimation from giving Hatchiyack a English VA in Raging Blast 2. Same deal with the 2008 Son Goku and Friends Return OVA and Tarble.

[Puto]

The remake of Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans was included subtitled with that very same game.

[Mewzard]

The remake of Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans was included subtitled with that very same game.

From what I remember hearing, they just didn't have the time to dub both the game and the special for the release (feel free to correct me if I'm misremembering something).