Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO has fans of the franchise hyped for a return to the Budokai Tenkaichi style of gameplay, and thanks to a small datamine this week, we might be gearing up for a familiar release window too.
Bandai Namco hasn’t dropped an official release date for Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO just yet, even as we continue to get new character and gameplay trailers every few weeks. But, while the community expects a bigger announcement for the game is coming soon, a dataminer may have discovered the release date ahead of time.
According to Portugese game modder SérgioM3, Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO could be released on October 1, 2024. This information was pulled via the game’s official website—or one of Bandai’s product pages, they don’t specify—likely from data stored accidentally in the backend where they were inspecting. The information is displayed alongside release dates and information for other upcoming Bandai products like SPYxANYA: Operation Memories or Gundam Breaker 4, which are set to release on June 28 and Aug. 29 respectively.
SérgioM3 mentions this info seems legit based on what they have seen but, because some of the dates for Elden Ring’s content are off, they can’t trust the list fully. There is also a good chance that some of these dates for unannounced or games with no confirmed release date are placeholders, though for Sparking! ZERO, history does lend the listed Oct. 1 date some credence.
Sparking! ZERO is the successor to Budokai Tenkaichi franchise for fans in the West but regardless of name, all three of the previous games in the series were released in October. BT1 dropped on October 6, 2005, BT2 was released on October 5, 2006, and BT3 hit shelves 17 years ago on October 4, 2007—in Japan specifically as this was still a time before global releases were normalized for most titles. Bandai does love dropping sequels in franchises in the same month, especially with Dragon Ball, as all of the original 2D Budokai games dropped in November in their respective years as well.
Unfortunately, while the history of releases is there for October, Oct. 1 this year is an outlier since it is a Tuesday and not a traditional Thursday when many larger companies prefer to launch their games ahead of a weekend. That doesn’t mean the Bandai won’t run with it, but it does make it more likely that the listing is off and it is a placeholder for some other date before the end of 2024—which could still end up being in the same ballpark.
