Bandai Namco’s 2024 anime lineup started off poorly with the release of Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash, but quickly turned things around with Sand Land and SPY×ANYA: Operation Memories, and stuck the landing with Gundam Breaker 4, Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream, and Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO back-to-back. Bandai even managed to salvage Cursed Clash after the Shibuya Incident DLC although it was way too late to bring the player base back. But what could the future hold?

The Pillars of Bandai Namco

Dragon Ball and Gundam are the most consistently successful licensed IPs Bandai holds, with Gundam Extreme Vs. remaining an arcade powerhouse for more than a decade and Dragon Ball console games selling over 36 million copies since 2015. Bandai obviously wouldn’t neglect these two, as both have already teased or outright announced new games: a Gundam SEED game was announced in 2021, while Dragon Ball has PROJECT:Multi in development for smartphones and PC and will probably make it to consoles, too. However, knowing Bandai, this isn’t all they’ve got in the works.

Dragon Ball has multiple anniversaries that will be celebrated over the next two years, including the 10th and 20th anniversaries of the Xenoverse and Sparking!/Tenkaichi series in 2025, the 10th anniversary of Dragon Ball Super in 2025, and the 40th anniversary of the Dragon Ball anime in 2026. Bandai has four major paths they can take here:

1. As we all know, Fu’s story in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 will end with the 4-part Future Saga DLC. The jury’s out on if Fu will be destroyed or become the annoying friend (or if we’ll be able to make that choice ourselves), but it will mark the end of an era for Xenoverse 2. Lately, Dimps has been making sweeping quality-of-life changes to the game, like adding the more elaborate festival skills, producing better-directed in-game cutscenes (not the ANIMA-produced cutscenes), and updating characters’ facial animations. The cause of this was that not only did Xenoverse 2’s producer change—the new producer is Jun Song—but a sizable portion of the development team has also been replaced. Some people moved onto different projects, others left Dimps entirely, and others just aren’t (publicly) accounted for. With the end of Xenoverse 2 likely in sight and the 10th year of Xenoverse upon us, Xenoverse 3 may finally be on the horizon. I discovered evidence that implied its existence similar to the domain hunt that led me to conclude that My Hero Academia: Ultra Rumble was a console game one month before the game was officially announced. (Xenoverse 3 is a whole topic on its own, so I’ll leave things here for now.)
2. I think this has a significantly lower chance to happen now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Bandai adapted modern Dragon Ball (from Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return to the end of Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Super) in one game.
3. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot will adapt the Dragon Ball DAIMA story. The first part is due out in 2025 and, depending on when, the second part may release as early as late Summer 2025 or as late as early 2026. Either way it’ll keep DAIMA in people’s minds long after the anime ends. To capitalize on the fact that fans would now be more used to a smaller Goku than usual, 2026 would be a perfect time to release a comprehensive game covering from Pilaf to Piccolo Jr., especially since 2026 marks the 40th anniversary of the Dragon Ball anime.
4. Seeing the reception to Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO—both critically and commercially—Bandai may decide to dive deeper in their nostalgia bag and release, or at least announce a new Dragon Ball Z: Budokai game within this timeframe. Again, a sizable amount of Dimps’ staff is unaccounted for.

One other possibility for Dragon Ball would be the team realizing that Dragon Ball: The Breakers can’t link to current-gen Xenoverse 2 and porting it to current-gen to fix that problem.

Gundam is much harder for me to predict. Bandai recently filed to trademark “Battle Destiny” so, considering there that a Gundam SEED game was confirmed to be in development back in 2021, it’s possible that one of the next games will be another Artdink-developed project. Within the next two years, we could also see anything from a second Battle Operation spinoff with a brand new story to a console port of Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs. 2. If Hell freezes over, we may even see something close to the Gundam game I think Bandai should’ve made years ago.

A “Big 3 Reunion”

The definition of the “Big 3” is heavily contested, but it most commonly refers to three Shonen Jump manga that were the most influential in the mid-2000s: One Piece, Naruto, and BLEACH. For years, the Big 3 had been divided by their game publishers. Bandai held One Piece and shared Naruto with TOMY, while Sony shared BLEACH with Sega. As of 2024, for the first time ever, all three series’ console games will be published by Bandai Namco.

BLEACH already has a new game in the works but Naruto and One Piece remain unaccounted for, despite the Naruto manga and the One Piece anime both celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2024. However, Bandai games regularly miss the actual anniversary year they’re meant to celebrate, including:

• J-Stars Victory VS (Magazine 45th anniversary project, released the following year in 2014)
• Crows: Burning Edge (Manga 25th anniversary project, released the following year in 2016)
• One Piece: World Seeker (Manga 20th anniversary project, released two years later in 2019)
• Jump Force (Magazine 50th anniversary project, released the following year in 2019)
• Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (Anime 30th anniversary project, almost made the actual anniversary year before being delayed to the following year, 2020)
• One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 (Anime 20th anniversary project, released the following year in 2020)
• One Piece Odyssey (Manga 25th anniversary project, almost made the actual anniversary before being delayed to the following year, 2023)
• Naruto X Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections (Anime 20th anniversary project, released the following year in 2023)

It was recently reported that both One Piece and Naruto had games canceled but, realistically, this would only hinder Naruto. Like Dragon Ball and Gundam, One Piece often has multiple games in development; announcement dates, release dates, producer interviews, and common sense definitively tell us that not only were Burning Blood and World Seeker in development at the same time, but World Seeker, Pirate Warriors 4, and Odyssey were in varying stages of development at the same time. Naruto is in a much more dubious position, especially considering that CyberConnect2 has been involved in all but six Bandai-published Naruto games and is currently working on both the Dragon Ball DAIMA DLC for Kakarot and Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles 2. Only time will tell if we’ll get a full “Big 3” Reunion, but One Piece definitely has something besides Grand Arena in the works.

Confirmed, But MIA

Over the years, a Bandai producer has confirmed the existence of two anime games: a new Digimon Story game and a new Super Robot Wars game. A new Super Robot Wars game was mentioned back in 2022 and the next Digimon Story has been in development since 2017, but Super Robot Wars has the bigger chance of being properly revealed first, considering everything going on with the Digimon team.

Various Switch and Switch 2 Ports

The Switch 2 has finally been unveiled, and Nintendo has confirmed that it’ll continue to release Switch games for the foreseeable future. With that in mind, Bandai has a few anime games that I can see showing up on either platform soon:

• Sword Art Online: Last Recollection (Currently available on PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam)
• Sand Land (Currently available on PlayStation, Xbox Series, and Steam)
• Death Note: Killer Within (Currently available on PlayStation and Steam outside Japan)
• Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker (Currently available on PlayStation 4 worldwide, and Xbox One and Steam outside Japan)
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation 2 (Currently available on PlayStation and Steam)
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation Code Fairy (Currently available on PlayStation)

Various Trademarks

Bandai has registered various trademarks over the last few years. Although “Shadow Labyrinth” was recently revealed to be a PAC-MAN game, several are still unattributed to a game:

• ドリームマッチ (Dream Match)
• Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree / トワと神樹の祈り子たち
• case.mirage

It’s hard to tell what “Dream Match” is, given that both Jump crossover lies rumors died with the announcement of Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO and Dragon Ball PROJECT:Multi. “Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree” is rumored to be an Inuyasha/Yashahime game, as it contains the names of both a major character and concept introduced in the series. “Case.mirage” is the only real toss-up; maybe it’s anime, maybe it’s not, maybe it’s not even a game at all.

The Jump Team

If you don’t already know, Bandai has a team of producers dedicated specifically to making games based on Shonen Jump IP. With this in mind, as well as the trajectory of certain series, I expect the following series to get a, another, or their first game announced by 2026:

• Undead Unluck
• Chainsaw Man
• Dandadan
• Mashle
• Black Clover
• One Punch Man

Non-Jump Manga

Bandai has maintained a strong hold over Shueisha IPs for decades, but they’re also slowly branching out into other magazines. Their partnership with, and subsequent acquisition of Eight Bit made them one of the major rightsholders for the anime adaptations of SHY (Akita Shoten), Blue Lock (Kodansha), That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (Micro Magazine/Kodansha), and the later seasons of Laid-Back Camp (Houbunsha). Bandai has also produced the Wistoria: Wand and Sword (Kodansha) anime, which is animated by their subsidiary Actas. Additionally, their Union Arena card game series is home to Jump and non-Jump IP alike, including Kinnikuman, Sword Art Online, Shangri-la Frontier, and NIKKE.

Among their non-Jump endeavors, I think the following have the highest chance of getting a(nother) game:

• SHY
• Blue Lock
• Wistoria
• Shangri-la Frontier
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (this one may be farther away, since ISEKAI Chronicles just came out in 2024)

By the time we get to the first presentation of 2025, whether it’s a Nintendo Direct or a PlayStation State of Play, I expect we’ll see the first two announcements, followed by at least 5 more before the summer.

Check back throughout the year to see if any of these pan out!