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Dragon Ball FighterZ is the best fighting game of 2018—and one of the year's best titles overall— - but the game has been pulled from two popular tournaments for unknown reasons.
Organizers for EVO Japan, which will be held in February, announced the tournament's lineup of featured games a few weeks back. Dragon Ball FighterZ and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate were surprisingly absent from the list.
Insiders from the fighting game community explained what they knew about the situation. Rod Breslau took to Twitter to share some information he gathered: " According to my sources and cryptic tweets, the rights holders for both games told EVO they could not be used. Nintendo of Japan for Smash , and Namco Bandai/Toei for DBFZ ."
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EVO is the largest fighting game tournament in the world, with the main show in Las Vegas acting as the Super Bowl for the community, so the absence of Dragon Ball FighterZ from the lineup is a major development.
A week later, Aksys Games informed its followers that Dragon Ball FighterZ was being pulled from Anime Ascension due to "unforeseen circumstances." This tournament will also take place in February in California.
The Dragon Ball IP has a few holders. Bandai Namco owns the rights to merchandising and gaming, Toei Animation runs the animation side and Shueisha oversees the manga side. While it's unclear why the game is being pulled from tournaments, many speculate its because the game doesn't make financial sense for holders of the IP.
Toei has come out on Twitter stating they have no knowledge of preventing tournaments from having Dragon Ball FighterZ.
A game's inclusion in a tournament may not seem like much to publishers, but it does a lot for a title's exposure. The popularity of the game also leads to more content and support, like DLC. It's too early to tell how Dragon Ball FighterZ being pulled from tournaments will affect the reception of the game, but if it continues on this path, gamers will likely move elsewhere.
Dragon Ball FighterZ is approaching its one-year anniversary on January 26, and Bandai Namco has just announced the Ultimate Edition, which includes all the DLC fighters in one package. The Dragon Ball FighterZ Ultimate Edition announcement sets the Japanese release date for January 31 on Xbox One and PS4. It's unclear whether the Ultimate Edition is coming to the West or to Nintendo Switch.
What do you think of the current state of Dragon Ball FighterZ ? Will you be following the fighting game in tournaments in 2019? Let us know in the comments section below.
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