Dragon Ball Game Sales [Those phone games ... yikes]

[Super Sayian Prime]

Seems this trend is continuing with DragonBall DS 2. Yikes.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

Ten years in America, twenty years in Japan... I think people are done with Dragonball games.

[Commander_Red]

If I'm right, maybe Kai will change that!

Be better if they came out with a new series with an original storyline. *Hurls the dead horse over his fence back at Toei*

[Kendamu]

If I'm right, maybe Kai will change that!

Be better if they came out with a new series with an original storyline. *Hurls the dead horse over his fence back at Toei*

You mean like Dragonball GT?

[JulieYBM]

If I'm right, maybe Kai will change that!

Be better if they came out with a new series with an original storyline. *Hurls the dead horse over his fence back at Toei*

You mean like Dragonball GT?

Yeah, sure, why not. Anything for modern, pretty looking animation.

[Vashkey]

I think it's a combination of market saturation, loss of main stream interest and poor marketing. Dragon Ball hasn't been on television in years, up until like 2008 there were like five Dragon Ball games a year and after Namco got the publishing rights to Dragon Ball games the advertising just hasn't seen the same sort of effort Atari put into it.

Burst Limit ad campaign>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Raging Blast ad campaign.

If Namco puts more effort in advertising and Funimation can get Kai on the air though, I think they can turn things around.

[Vashkey]

Question is, what are the numbers compared to when Atari had Dragonball?

That's a good question. I think the only game that did notably well(as far as I know of) was Budokai 3. I think low sales have to do with the fact that many casual fans are sick of a new game year after year. Every time I went to check out news for Raging Blast(or hell if any gaming site did any stories for them) all the comments were "not another DBZ game, I'm so sick of them."

Actually, I'm pretty sure every major Dragon Ball fighting game on the consoles that Atari published sold a million or more.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

Question is, what are the numbers compared to when Atari had Dragonball?

That's a good question. I think the only game that did notably well(as far as I know of) was Budokai 3. I think low sales have to do with the fact that many casual fans are sick of a new game year after year. Every time I went to check out news for Raging Blast(or hell if any gaming site did any stories for them) all the comments were "not another DBZ game, I'm so sick of them."

Actually, I'm pretty sure every major Dragon Ball fighting game on the consoles that Atari published sold a million or more.

What really? Do you have a source for this, I'm not knocking your claim but I'm interested in seeing some numbers. And yes, I'd have to agree with your other post, Atari did a lot more marketing for the series than Bandai has. I think during its release I only saw one commercial for Raging Blast and it was a pretty lame one at that.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

What really? Do you have a source for this, I'm not knocking your claim but I'm interested in seeing some numbers. And yes, I'd have to agree with your other post, Atari did a lot more marketing for the series than Bandai has. I think during its release I only saw one commercial for Raging Blast and it was a pretty lame one at that.

Yeah, I've also noticed that. Bandai Namco does way less marketing than Atari, maybe that's why the sales for the games are so poor.

[Vashkey]

I was going off of VGchartz, a game sales tracking site. According to vg chartz...


Budokai 1 - 2.8 mill

Budokai 2 - 2.17 mill

Budokai 3 - 1.90 mill

Tenkaichi 1 - 1.57 mill

Tenkaichi 2

PS2 - 640 thousand
Wii - 220 thousand

Tenkaichi 3

PS2 - 2.20 mill
Wii - 860 thousand

Burst Limit

PS3 - 760 thousand
360 - 470 thousand

You can see it all here http://www.vgchartz.com/games/index.php ... ragon+ball

vgchartz didn't track the sales for most of the handheld games nor did they track the Gamecube versions of Budokai 1 and 2. I think these are the only numbers your really going to find for worldwide. I never really saw Atari talk about how much the games ever sold except make the early super successful games back in the early days. I think I remember hearing about Legacy Goku selling like two or three million.

I'm too lazy to dig any deeper. You can accept the number or not, but I'd say they work as rough estimates at least.

[Super Sayian Prime]

Don't trust VG Chartz. Really, don't. But you're right in saying that almost all of Atari's DBZ console releases cracked a million, only questionables are Super DBZ (probably didn't crack a million), Sagas (which potentially could have cracked a million with all three platforms), and Infinite World (didn't need a million to make a profit, and wasn't going to crack a million as a PS2 release in 2008).

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

I was going off of VGchartz, a game sales tracking site. According to vg chartz...


Budokai 1 - 2.8 mill

Budokai 2 - 2.17 mill

Budokai 3 - 1.90 mill

Tenkaichi 1 - 1.57 mill

Tenkaichi 2

PS2 - 640 thousand
Wii - 220 thousand

Tenkaichi 3

PS2 - 2.20 mill
Wii - 860 thousand

Burst Limit

PS3 - 760 thousand
360 - 470 thousand

You can see it all here http://www.vgchartz.com/games/index.php ... ragon+ball

vgchartz didn't track the sales for most of the handheld games nor did they track the Gamecube versions of Budokai 1 and 2. I think these are the only numbers your really going to find for worldwide. I never really saw Atari talk about how much the games ever sold except make the early super successful games back in the early days. I think I remember hearing about Legacy Goku selling like two or three million.

I'm too lazy to dig any deeper. You can accept the number or not, but I'd say they work as rough estimates at least.

Cool, Tenkaichi 3 is the highest. Can't say I was surprised though.

[Savage68]

...Budokai 1 sold more than Budokai 2, which sold more than Budokai 3?

Nice.

[Vashkey]

...Budokai 1 sold more than Budokai 2, which sold more than Budokai 3?

Nice.

Yeah, Budokai 1 came out when the Dragon Ball craze was at it height in America then the slow decline popularity for sequels. That and the poor reputation of the first probably affected the sales for the sequel then the same for Budokai 3.

Then with Tenkaichi 3 there was that big marketing explosion with those box sets and Tenkaichi 3 was on two platforms with huge install bases and the hype behind Tenkaichi 3 itself, being called the last big Dragon Ball game or something (which obviously wasn't the case).

[nathantheguitarist]

Did you forget about the Gamecube versions? Or do they just not have those numbers?

[Vashkey]

Did you forget about the Gamecube versions? Or do they just not have those numbers?

Yeah, I said in my post that vgcharts didn't track the Gamecube versions.

[nathantheguitarist]

Oh... well, I'm dumb and skim posts sometimes.

I find it kinda weird that Tenkaichi 3 sold more than Budokai 3 and Budokai 1. Maybe it's just because of what people say, and not trust vgchartz numbers, but it seems like those two games were fucking huge at the times they were out. I mean, isn't Budokai 3 the only game that got a Collector's Edition (in the states, anyways)?

[Vashkey]

Oh... well, I'm dumb and skim posts sometimes.

I find it kinda weird that Tenkaichi 3 sold more than Budokai 3 and Budokai 1. Maybe it's just because of what people say, and not trust vgchartz numbers, but it seems like those two games were fucking huge at the times they were out. I mean, isn't Budokai 3 the only game that got a Collector's Edition (in the states, anyways)?

Yeah I thought it was odd too. But like I said, I guess it's possible that the popularity of the box set DVDs, the large install base of the PS2 and Wii and the hype behind Tenkaichi 3 itself may have helped.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Oh... well, I'm dumb and skim posts sometimes.

I find it kinda weird that Tenkaichi 3 sold more than Budokai 3 and Budokai 1. Maybe it's just because of what people say, and not trust vgchartz numbers, but it seems like those two games were fucking huge at the times they were out. I mean, isn't Budokai 3 the only game that got a Collector's Edition (in the states, anyways)?

Yeah I thought it was odd too. But like I said, I guess it's possible that the popularity of the box set DVDs, the large install base of the PS2 and Wii and the hype behind Tenkaichi 3 itself may have helped.

Yeah it probably was the hype. Tenkaichi 1 was okay, Tenkaichi 2 was miles better and Tenkaichi 3 was supposedly better than the already awesome Tenkaichi 2. Sure got me fucking excited that they could improve the best Dragon Ball Z game at that time.

[B]

Tenkaichi 3 was the only game I remember having a commercial, sans Legacy of Goku.