Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, lasting nearly ten years, is impressive, but it also creates a strange problem for Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3. Most anime games don’t get that kind of runway. They launch, receive a few updates, maybe get some DLC, and then everyone moves on to the next licensed project. Xenoverse 2 didn’t really follow that pattern. It kept growing through new characters, missions, transformations, and updates, while fans continued returning to a game built around the simple but effective fantasy of creating their own Dragon Ball character and throwing them into the chaos. So, yes, a sequel makes sense, but it’s also going to have to work harder than most sequels.
If players spent years building characters, learning systems, buying DLC, and getting comfortable inside Xenoverse 2, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 can’t walk in and expect everyone to start over just because the number changed. A new roster alone won’t be enough, and a shinier hub won’t carry the whole thing either. Even the familiar online structure needs to feel like it’s evolved, because if this ends up feeling like Xenoverse 2 with a new coat of paint, fans are going to notice.
A New Era: Age 1000 and a Rebuilt Engine
During a 1:1 interview at Summer Game Fest Play Days, series executive producer Masayuki Hirano-san made it clear that the team is aware of the situation. Xenoverse 2 wasn’t some forgotten middle entry that could be easily replaced. It became the foundation for an entire community.
“Xenoverse 2 had ten years of lifespan in it, which is very, very amazing,” Hirano-san said through a live translator. “Obviously, we’re really excited and happy about that, but I’ve also been thinking about what a new experience might look like.”
I think that’s the right question to ask, and more than anything, it’s probably the only one that really matters for Xenoverse 3. Dragon Ball games are in a much different place now than they were when Xenoverse 2 was released. Fans have seen Dragon Ball FighterZ deliver ridiculous animation and real fighting game depth. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot gave players a full RPG-style retelling of the Z saga, while Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero brought back the 3D arena fighter spectacle people had been asking for. Xenoverse no longer feels like the only modern answer to the question of what a big Dragon Ball game can be, which puts this sequel in a very interesting position. So what does Xenoverse 3 do with that pressure?
For Hirano-san, the answer starts with looking at a different part of Dragon Ball’s world. Age 1000 is a new interpretation of a point in the Dragon Ball timeline previously explored through Dragon Ball Online. Instead of running players through another familiar version of the Saiyan saga, Namek, Cell, Buu, or the usual timeline-breaking greatest hits, Xenoverse 3 is moving further into the future. It’s a more technology-focused corner of Dragon Ball, and frankly, that’s probably the smartest move this sequel could make.
The series needs space after years of remixing familiar history. Xenoverse has always been built around messing with Dragon Ball’s timeline, but there are only so many times a game can ask players to stop Raditz, Frieza, or Cell before the novelty starts losing some of its power. Age 1000 gives Xenoverse 3 some breathing room, and just as importantly, it gives the team something connected to Akira Toriyama’s own ideas to build from.
Hirano-san explained that Toriyama-sensei and the team had created a “completely different world setting and lore” for this part of Dragon Ball. Bringing that material back for Xenoverse 3 wasn’t presented like a random pull from the archive. It sounds more like the team saw an opportunity to give the sequel a different foundation at a time when the series really needs one. “So I thought this is the right timing to kind of bring that back into the conversation,” Hirano-san said.
On paper, I like this direction a lot. Age 1000 gives Xenoverse 3 permission to stop acting like another trip through the same Dragon Ball museum, while still leaving room for familiar characters, fan service, ridiculous matchups, and the transformations people want. A future setting also gives the developers room to create new characters, remix familiar faces, and make the world feel less like a waiting room for another timeline emergency.
Player Expectations, Roster Concerns, and Style
Of course, Xenoverse fans aren’t exactly shy about what they want, and this is where the sequel has to be careful. Players are going to care about the roster, customization, and the years of content they’ve already invested in Xenoverse 2 because, for a lot of them, this series isn’t something they casually reset. Nobody wants to hear “new era” and then realize that everything they loved now has to be slowly resold or reintroduced over another decade.
Hirano-san seemed aware of that expectation and said the team knows fans love the large number of characters in the Xenoverse games. However, he also confirmed that Xenoverse 3 isn’t being built on the same foundation as the first two entries. “Xenoverse 1 and 2 shared the same core game engine,” Hirano-san said. “But with 3, we rebuilt the engine in order to develop the game.”
A rebuilt engine sounds exciting and scary at the same time because it suggests Xenoverse 3 is more than an expansion dressed up as a sequel, but it also means the team can’t casually carry everything forward without work. Hirano-san said getting all the characters into the new game will be a challenge, though he also noted that the team has redesigned a lot of the gameplay mechanics as part of the process.
If Xenoverse 3 is going to ask fans to move on from a game that lasted nearly ten years, it needs to feel like someone looked at the whole thing and asked what actually needed to change. A rebuilt engine doesn’t automatically mean the game will feel better, and fans probably shouldn’t assume that until they get their hands on it. Still, it does show that Bandai Namco and Dimps understand the sequel has to do more than keep the lights on.
The real test will be whether those redesigned mechanics still understand what made Xenoverse work in the first place. This series has never lived or died purely on the sharpness of its combat. It’s about the full fantasy of making your own character, picking your race, building out a moveset, jumping into missions, and existing in this weird shared Dragon Ball space where everyone is taking the material just seriously enough.
There’s a reason the Ginyu Force came up during the interview. When asked which Dragon Ball character he personally enjoys, Hirano-san eventually pointed to the Ginyu Force. Hirano-san said he enjoys characters that feel unique, especially when it comes to how they pose and express themselves. He also mentioned that Xenoverse 3 includes elements that let players explore and customize that level of action performance on screen.
Compared to the bigger discussion around Age 1000 and the rebuilt engine, this might sound like a small detail, but I don’t think it is. Xenoverse is at its best when it remembers that Dragon Ball isn’t only about power levels and some cool blasts. It’s also about style, attitude, comedy, and the specific kind of nonsense that makes people gather in a hub and start doing Ginyu Force poses together.
I remember seeing that kind of thing in the original Xenoverse. Players would group up in the main area and pose together like they had rehearsed it. Nobody needed a quest marker for that. The game just gave people enough space to be weird, and the community filled in the rest.
Hirano-san seems to understand that side of the series. He described Xenoverse as something the developers and players “explore together and elevate together,” which fits an online game built around long-term support. Adding more characters to a list is part of that, sure, but keeping players around for years requires something else. They need enough reasons to stay, mess around, and feel like the world is changing with them.
Xenoverse 2 proved that approach could work, and now Xenoverse 3 has to prove it can happen again without making everyone feel like they’re being asked to reset their progress for the sake of a new box.
Toriyama’s Influence and Final Thoughts
There’s also no way to talk about this sequel without talking about Akira Toriyama’s influence, especially since Age 1000 is tied so closely to the world and lore he helped shape. When asked whether Toriyama-sensei’s passing changed the way the team approached development or added pressure to get things right, Hirano-san didn’t try to dress it up.
“Absolutely. There’s a lot of responsibility and pressure,” Hirano-san said. “We want to deliver the best we possibly can.”
He also explained that Toriyama-sensei had given a lot of support to this side of Dragon Ball over the years. More importantly for Xenoverse 3, he left behind what Hirano-san described as “amazing documentation” on the setting and lore of this world, along with different character designs.
If Xenoverse 3 is leaning on Toriyama’s notes, then Age 1000 carries more weight than a standard new setting. It becomes a chance to explore part of Dragon Ball that still has his fingerprints on it, while giving the team room to build something that can stand on its own. There’s pressure in that, and there should be. Fans are going to look closely at how this material is handled, especially when the pitch involves a future era that many players may not have much attachment to yet.
The encouraging part is that Xenoverse 3 seems to have a clear pitch, even if none of this guarantees an easy win. A rebuilt engine gives it a chance to feel meaningfully different, Age 1000 gives it a stage that isn’t tied down by the same battles again, and Toriyama-sensei’s documentation gives the setting a level of importance the team can’t afford to waste. New engines can introduce new problems, future settings can still fall flat if the writing doesn’t do anything meaningful with them, and a decade of support for Xenoverse 2 means expectations are going to be messy from day one. Still, I get why this sequel exists now.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 isn’t trying to be FighterZ, Kakarot, or Sparking! Zero. It has its own lane, and honestly, it needs to stay there. The custom character fantasy, the online hub, the co-op structure, the ridiculous player expression, and the long-term community support are the reasons Xenoverse survived this long in the first place.
Age 1000 gives the sequel a new stage, the rebuilt engine gives it a chance to feel different, and Toriyama-sensei’s influence gives the world behind it a responsibility that can’t be ignored. Now Xenoverse 3 has to make all of that feel worth starting over for.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 will be released for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S in 2027.
