Dragon Ball license leaves Atari, returns to Namco Bandai

by Andrew Yoon on Jul 2nd 2009 4:15PM

Atari's slow collapse continues with the loss of the company's most lucrative franchise. No, not Ghostbusters -- it's Dragon Ball, which has produced approximately a billion video games so far. The franchise will now go back to Namco Bandai, the original Japanese publisher of the series. According to a statement by Namco Bandai, the agreement will run for five years beginning in January 2010 and will supersede any existing publishing rights. In addition, Namco Bandai will publish the upcoming Dragon Ball: Raging Blast game for Xbox 360 and PS3, Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo for Wii, and Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans for DS all this year.

The loss of the Dragon Ball franchise is perhaps the greatest evidence of the financial challenges that face Atari. Earlier this year, the company pulled out of E3, sold its European publishing division, and even sold exclusivity rights for Ghostbusters, all presumably for a small cash influx. With Phil Harrison recently stepping down from his position at the company, it's clear that Atari will see even more troubled times ahead.

Tags: atari, dragon-ball, dragonball, namco-bandai

Reader Comments (74)

bit of a bummer. first Midway now Atari. losing alot of classic companies to this economic crisis.

More like losing them to horrible games and mismanagement. This has nothing to do with the collapse of the fractional reserve banking system.

The Atari from the past is long gone. This is Infogrames.

yay?

It's sad to see the first major video game company slowly enter a downward spiral into bankruptcy.

Oh Atari went down ages ago. This is only Atari by name.

Yeah, Atari's been bankrupt a few times, portioned off, resold, new management, etc.

Really, the Atari of 1983 (the crash), was not at all similar to the Atari of 1973 (and the glory of Pong), it had already been gutted by that point

I still have a special spot in my heart for Dragonball Z...When I was around 11 my family moved to a new development where our house was the only one finished. Dragonball Z got me through that friendless summer. My brother and I still buy the games once they get to the $10-20 price point.

I'm 22 and I still have a soft spot for it. : )

Yeah, I'm 21 now. Whenever I visit the parents we go out and pick whatever DBZ game we can find cheap and play it all weekend. Good times.

Im 12 years old and what is this?

What is Dragonball Z? Please don't tell me you're missing out on some quality DBZ.

Phew!, other 22 year olds who hold a soft spot for the DBZ, It just kinda died for me after a while. I mean these are essentially gods fighting, in the first saga they become the supreme fighters and strongest in the world. Only to have to triple that capacity in the next saga and then put some exponent on the power level for the next saga.

If they kept up with those scouters where "over 9 thousand" happened early on, by the end of the series it would be like over 9 septillion or some other number thats too big for me to know.

Yeah I always wondered why they were freaking out about "over 9000" when the people they found later must have been over 9,000,000. I also found it weird how there were no Super Saiyans, but then just about everyone could do it.

http://encyclopediadramatica.com/I'm_12_years_old_and_what_is_this%3F

28. If it wasn't for Taro the Dragon Boy way back in the early 80s introducing me to anime, DBZ would have that soft spot, I just chose to pick a horribly dubbed movie on a decrepit VHS tape.

I like the games

Too bad bethesda didn't buy it. They could have made a pretty damn good rpg, and it could have been the first game of theirs to use the engine from id.

wrong article?

Dragonball would make an awesome RPG if someone would just put some time and effort into it.

Yes, yes it would

The original Dragonball would make a good RPG (and a few have been made, including some sort of quasi-adventure quasi-fighting game coming soon for Wii), but Z and GT only function as fighters. Nothing more, nothing less.

Didn't Atari die once before, only for Infogrames to resurrect them? I wonder if someone else will scoop up the Atari brand this time around.

That would be the present iteration of Atari.
Though after not one, not two, but three PC release fuck ups, I'm kind of numb to their pain and more on the line of "good riddance" as a consumer. Out with the old, in with the new as far as I'm concerned. Maybe someone else can fix this SNAFU called the pc version of Ghostbusters: The Video Game.

http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=657

ill miss atari and all, but burst limit was just terrible, and it showed that they were running out of ideas, and cant find a way to improve the fighting system. I just hope namco can make the next 360/ps3 game worth playing.

Namco made Burst Limit. (And I don't think it was terrible, but it wasn't nearly as fresh as they obviously wanted it to be.)

The developer was Dimps, maker of the Budokai games (not Budokai Tenkaichi games), I played the first three on PS2 and two on PSP and enjoyed them. Haven't gotten to play Burst Limit yet, looks like a hi-def version of the Budokai games.

son of a bitch, i just grabbed the case and even though its a third of the size of the atari emblem, namcos is there. you're right.

but about burst limit, it was slow, had annoying interruptions you couldnt skip, it was terribly short, had decent controls (but not the best), random spikes in difficulty level, and if you ever tried to play it online, it was always horribly laggy.

You can beat Budokai Tenkaichi on Wii by just clicking A over and over. It is one of the funniest moments ever when you realize it.

I wouldn't say Burst Limit was horrible, but it was nowhere near as good as Budokai 3.

Tenkaichi on Wii lets you do a kamehameha IRL. All flaws are instantly redeemed.

Am I the only person dissapointed that the article said "a billion" instead of of "It's over 9000" ?

yea I was expecting that but its getting overdone now....

lol no I am also disappointed. I wish it said something like, "Its over 9 thousand," followed by, *scouter shatters into pieces*

What!! 9000?!?!?!!!
*followed by sexy music*

It was 8000 in the original Japanese dub, wonder why Funimation made it 9000.
: P

@Chin cos 9000 is OVER EIGHT THOUSAND!!!!

They said it was to lip sync better

I could see a good RPG made from DBZ too, but I wish they made a balanced and challenging fighting game instead. (Maybe not as in depth as virtual fighter 5, but certainly more in the realm of street fighter.) Unfortunately, after seeing the batch of DBZ games out, my hopes are not too high. Please make a decent fighting game....*fingers crossed*

Damn I didn't realize it were that many Drangonball Games!!

Hey Vegeta, you forgot the third reason:

C. *PUNCH*

I miss DSE Girl already.

She'd be suitable for this post too..

Oh, and on topic: People still care about Dragon Ball?

Yes.

"People still care about Dragon Ball?"

Considering the fact that:

A. This is news
and
B. There are more Dragon Ball games in the works

It's very safe to say that people still care about Dragon Ball.

as long as my xbox still get it..im tired of busting out my ps2 to play tenkaichy 3

I knew this was gonna happen!

Guys, since this is just NOW official, it's safe to say this will get priority over Gundam, Tales, Super Robot Wars: OG, and Summon Night, combined.

Guess how profitable Dragon Ball is, in comparison to Gundam, Tales, Super Robot Wars: OG, and Summon Night, combined?

Also, guess at what level Namco Bandai will milk Dragon Ball dry for another 20+ years now?

For both scenarios...

IT'S OVER 9000!

Ack Tim, your such a weaboo otaku. : P

Chin, for the record, Gundam, Tales, Super Robot Wars: OG, and Summon Night are IN-HOUSE NAMCO BANDAI games.

It's just a shame that Namco Bandai is milking Dragon Ball, when those four need more attention, at least here in America.

Also, I do play western games, as I wait for Bioshock 2, Scribblenauts, and the new DOOM, thank you very much. The only reason that prevents me from playing more western games is that stupid starforce protection system, which implants rootkits in my laptop. In addition, as much as I'd love to play CS and Starcraft, I can't, since CS is overrun by 10-year old campers, as Starcraft is overrun by Zerg rushers. >_>

Finally, I just did it for the meme.

So yeah, guess what's the lie?

I know Tales does incredibly well over in Japanland, as do the Gundam games, but so do DBZ games. I suppose we'll have to wait and see how it all turns out.

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Dragon Ball license leaves Atari, returns to Namco Bandai

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