Covering ALL the Anime Games.

Will A New Challenger Join The Anime Game Arms Race?

Don’t think I didn’t notice, [redacted].

In the 2000s, Bandai was not the only major publisher to put out anime games. In fact, almost every Japanese company with some merit had something cooking. Konami had not just Yu-Gi-Oh!, but Shaman King, HUNTER×HUNTER, Ashita no Joe, Fairy Tail, and Rave Master. SEGA shared BLEACH with Sony, but also locked down Fist of the North Star and Osamu Tezuka’s catalogue, and shared Haruhi Suzumiya with Bandai. Capcom not only used the Tatsunoko brand for crossovers, but also released games for Black Cat, Kenichi, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. TOMY pushed Zoids heavily, while sharing Naruto with Bandai. Square Enix actually utilized the IPs they own and released five Fullmetal Alchemist games. But the company that came closest back then to encroaching on Bandai’s territory was Marvelous. 

While others companies stuck with known or up and coming IPs and rarely ventured out past some form of action game, Marvelous cast a ridiculously wide net. Action games based on Busou Renkin and Kujibiki♥Unbalance. An Oh My Goddess! puzzle game. A Negima arena fighter reminiscent of Power Stone. Three visual novels based on The Familiar of Zero. And, of course, the Ikkitousen action games that directly led to Marvelous’ own hit IP Senran Kagura (in which Ikkitousen is also featured several times in crossovers). 

By the 2010s, most companies cut back their anime game output or stopped making them altogether. SEGA released Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax in 2014, updated it in 2015, and released anime-themed Like a Dragon (Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise) and Virtual-On (A Certain Magical Virtual-On) in 2018. Konami’s last non-Yu-Gi-Oh! projects included an Arc System Works-developed Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan fighter in 2011 and five Fairy Tail games between 2010 and 2012. Capcom’s last two games were Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars, before they threw Eighting on Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and a canceled Attack on Titan arcade game. Square Enix’s last projects before diving into Dengeki Bunko mobile game hell were Soul Eater: Monotone Princess and two Fullmetal Alchemist games on Wii. Marvelous almost bowed out completely after Senran Kagura’s console run was unceremoniously shuttered by Sony regulations, leaving Ikkitousen nowhere to go but mobile games. They’re also running a Naruto arcade game in North America.

As all the major names dipped, Bandai re-solidified themselves as the “only” anime game publisher. Not “only” as in “actually the only publisher,” since Koei Tecmo, MAGES., and Bushiroad are around, but “only” as in “the only publisher that consistently releases anime games people care about.” But, as of 2024, the tides of battle may finally be shifting. Anime is more popular than ever, and more publishers are either returning to anime games or joining the fray for the first time. 

SEGA is handling Sony subsidiary Aniplex’s Demon Slayer games outside Japan and, if the rumors are true, they also have a Neon Genesis Evangelion game in the works. (If those rumors ARE true, you’re welcome. I will not elaborate.) Hiro Mashima’s series have become a hot commodity; Koei Tecmo released a second Fairy Tail game, Kodansha also put out two indie Fairy Tail games in 2024 and have a third one on the way, and Konami is finally releasing their EDENS ZERO game in 2025. Spice and Wolf creator Isuna Hasekura’s company, Spicy Tails, released two Spice and Wolf VR games. The developer of those games, Gemdrops, then developed and published two Laid-Back Camp VR games and has an Etrange Overlord project in the works. Bushiroad has been on a run, publishing games based on Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Goblin Slayer, Macross, Mushoku Tensei, and DanMachi. But there’s one company I feel hasn’t shown their hand: Capcom. 

As stated before, Capcom has published several anime games in the past. They’re also the original developers of the Gundam VS games. Capcom’s last attempt at an anime game happened while the company was, financially speaking, in hell, but now that they’re much better off and anime is much more lucrative, I wouldn’t be surprised if they gave anime games another shot. They may already be laying the groundwork as you read this. 

In a recent edition of Weekly Shonen Jump, it was announced that Street Fighter 6 would run a collaboration with Undead Unluck. This is the fourth manga collab for the game, after Baki in 2023, SPY×FAMILY in January 2024, and Pop Team Epic in July 2024. These events could be Capcom testing the waters for either a crossover character in SF6 or a full-fledged anime fighter. If they don’t want to jump straight in, they could also port one of their older games. After all, a Fate Fighting Collection (Fate/tiger colosseum upper and Fate/unlimited codes) go perfectly with Fate/stay night and Fate/hollow ataraxia’s remasters and Heritage for the Future’s 25th anniversary just passed. 

But if Capcom does have a new anime game in the works, who would make it if they’re still maintaining SF6? Looking back on their previous contracts and staff, there are four viable companies: Dimps, Byking, Eighting, and CyberConnect2.

Eighting probably has the best track record, but they’ve only worked on one fighting game at a time once the “PS2 Sweatshop” days passed. Since they’re currently working on HUNTER×HUNTER: Nen Impact, I don’t see them being available for anything else for another year. 

CyberConnect2 developed Asura’s Wrath for Capcom back in 2012, but haven’t worked with them since. Although some may think CyberConnect2 would be a good fit, their games are notoriously expensive and they have a habit of working on multiple games at the same time, to the detriment of everything involved. For example, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven (terrible online), Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 (blatantly and embarrassingly unfinished), and Final Fantasy VII Remake (they were allegedly kicked off the project) were all in development at the same time the team was working on a prototype for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. They’re currently working on Dragon Ball DAIMA DLC for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot and Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles 2 and, for everyone’s sake, it should stay at just those two. 

Dimps and Byking are both composed of ex-Capcom staff; Dimps CEO Takashi Nishiyama directed the original Street Fighter, while Byking CEO Shinichiro Obata was a planner for multiple Darkstalkers games, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and every Gundam VS game from OMNI vs. ZAFT to the original Gundam Extreme VS. Dimps has a stronger case at the moment, since Byking is still working on My Hero Academia: Ultra Rumble and is likely gearing up for One’s Justice 3. One may think Dimps is in a similar position with Xenoverse, but their staff is a lot more spread out than one would expect. As of right now, Dimps is working on the following:

The credits for Xenoverse 2, Breakers, and Fractured Daydream are available, and there is very little overlap in staff among each other outside of upper management. Additionally, the current Xenoverse 2 team is almost completely different from the team at launch.

https://twitter.com/MobileSuitRocc/status/1793476970824782003

It’s possible that a good amount of the original Xenoverse 2 team moved onto another game (my guess is Legends), but that still leaves the Street Fighter V (and Soulcalibur VI) team unaccounted for, and the other games don’t seem like they’d carry fighting game staff. Super Divers in particular is likely just the Dragon Ball Heroes team, who’s been working on the series since before Xenoverse 1 was released. 

I think there’s a 50-50 chance that Capcom has a new anime fighter in development. When we take scheduling, relationships, developer workload, and the depth of the unknown in account, if Capcom hired another developer for this project, Dimps would be the best choice overall. A specific IP would be difficult to guess, but if this is actually a thing, expect something obvious or something off-the-wall.

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