Major Dragon Ball Games Are Making Controversial Changes, And Here’s Why

Like so many other anime franchises, the Dragon Ball series has found serious success in the digital landscape. For decades, you’d be hard-pressed not to see Goku and his fellow Z-Fighters arrive on various consoles, with mobile devices helping the shonen series to stretch its legs. In a surprise twist, a popular Dragon Ball game has seemingly started the process of shutting down some of its biggest features, potentially causing the death of the game. While the changes are seemingly only taking place in Brazil as of now, there are some big reasons as to why this change could take place in other countries and what it might mean for not just anime games, but many other mobile games.

In Brazil, Dragon Ball Legends, Dragon Ball Dokkan Battle, and Dragon Ball Gekishin Squadra have all gotten rid of their microtransaction systems. While the games themselves will still be available to play, players accessing stores will be unavailable moving forward. While not stated outright, these changes are most likely a result of Brazil’s “Lei Felca” law that went into effect on March 17th last month. The law makes it so that “addicitve features,” such as lootboxes and various gem systems, must be done away with. Bandai Namco has released statements regarding the shuttering of the Dragon Ball shops, and while the games still function outside of Brazil, it could potentially be one of many laws that are instituted as governments attempt to stay up to date within the digital age.

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Bandai Namco’s Statement

For Dragon Ball Legends, the Management Team released the following statement regarding the big change: “To comply with new regulations, we will be making the following changes to the services provided to users residing in Brazil. From today, users in Brazil will no longer be able to purchase Chrono Crystals and other shop items, or new Legend Pass subscriptions. For Legends Passes purchased or renewed before the cutoff date, any perks will remain valid for the pass duration. Legends Passes will be automatically renewed, so please be sure to cancel your subscription. We understand that this will affect the gameplay experience for those in Brazil, but we are making these changes so that your players can continue to play Dragon Ball Legends.”

One of the biggest selling points of Dragon Ball Legends hasn’t just been its “gacha” system that brings in classic heroes and villains alike from the shonen series, but its creation of original character Shallot. A Saiyan from the ancient past, players typically take on the role of this figure during the game’s story mode, seeing the warrior revisit Dragon Ball’s previous battles and changing them in interesting ways. As of the writing of this article, Bandai Namco has not stated whether changes from Brazil will cause changes to the game worldwide. With the franchise still planning to release major anime games in the future, it will be interesting to see if the Dragon Ball games in Brazil ultimately survive.

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