Ten years of waiting. And it's finally here.

A decade after Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 shipped over 10 million copies worldwide, Bandai Namco has officially unveiled Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, and it's built around something no one expected: an entirely new future Dragon Ball world with original characters designed by the late Akira Toriyama himself.

A 10-Year Wait Ends with a Brand-New Timeline

Bandai Namco Entertainment revealed Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 on April 19–20, 2026, at the "DRAGON BALL Games Battle Hour 2026" event held in Los Angeles. The action-RPG is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam in 2027.

This is the first new mainline Xenoverse game since 2016. The mystery "AGE 1000" project that Bandai Namco teased back in January 2026 during the "Dragon Ball Genkidamatsuri" event in Japan turned out to be this Xenoverse sequel all along. Development is once again handled by Dimps, the studio that has worked on every entry since the series began.

The Final Designs Toriyama Left Behind

The biggest surprise isn't just that Xenoverse 3 exists, it's where it takes place.

The game is set in AGE 1000, a far-future era of the Dragon Ball universe. At the center of this new world is a dramatically expanded West City, still home to the legacy of Capsule Corporation. And every major new character in this world was designed personally by Akira Toriyama before his passing in March 2024.

According to Bandai Namco, development on this project began in the late 2010s, meaning Toriyama invested more than half a decade into designing an entirely new Dragon Ball universe, one that jumps far beyond anything he illustrated in the original manga. For fans, this effectively makes Xenoverse 3 one of the final creative works Toriyama will be credited on.

The announcement trailer revealed several key elements:

  • Players take on the role of a hero of the "Great Saiyan Squad" (GS Squad), transforming into a costumed fighter to deal with incidents around the city
  • A new character named "Bret" is shown receiving training from Gamma 1, the android superhero from the Super Hero film
  • A character resembling Piccolo appears in the footage
  • A female character rides a bike marked with the license plate "AF4029", the same number as Bulma's bike in the original manga, a wink from Toriyama himself

So this isn't another nostalgia tour through scenes fans have already lived through. It's an original Dragon Ball story you experience as your own custom character.

Why Xenoverse 2 Set an Impossibly High Bar

To understand why this reveal matters, you have to understand the absurd staying power of the previous game.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 lets players create a custom warrior, travel through the Dragon Ball timeline, and fight alongside Goku and the gang. By 2023, the game had:

  • Surpassed 10 million copies worldwide
  • Grown to a roster of 129 playable characters (including DLC), the most of any Dragon Ball console game
  • Maintained one million monthly active users seven years after release
  • Continued receiving DLC for nearly a decade, with "FUTURE SAGA Chapter 4" arriving Summer 2026 as the final chapter, capping off a 10-year support run

Put simply: Bandai Namco has spent a decade reluctant to retire Xenoverse 2 because it refused to stop selling. The fact that they're finally moving on signals confidence that Xenoverse 3 can carry that community into the next ten years.

For context, Xenoverse 2's sibling Dragon Ball FighterZ also cleared 10 million copies, meaning the two flagship Dragon Ball games have sold over 20 million copies combined, a statement about how massive this IP remains globally.

What "AGE 1000" Actually Means

In Dragon Ball's original timeline, Goku's adventures take place around AGE 774, and the epilogue of Dragon Ball GT (where Goku's descendant Goku Jr. appears) is set around AGE 1000. In other words, Xenoverse 3 is set in the same far-future era GT only hinted at, a time Toriyama had rarely explored in detail.

Given that Toriyama personally designed this era's new characters, cities, and vehicles, this game is essentially an answer to a question fans have asked for decades: What does the Dragon Ball world look like centuries after Goku?

Platform Note

As of now, no Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 version has been announced. Given that Bandai Namco has already brought Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO to Switch 2, a later port is possible but unconfirmed.

What We Still Don't Know

Bandai Namco has said that detailed information about gameplay, combat systems, character creation, and the full story will be revealed gradually over "the coming months." Steam, PlayStation Store, and Xbox Store pages are already live, so wishlisting has begun globally.

What's clear is that Dragon Ball, a franchise that started in 1984 and is still, 40+ years later, one of the most recognized pieces of Japanese pop culture on Earth, isn't slowing down. And with one of Toriyama's final creative contributions coming to life in 2027, Xenoverse 3 carries a weight no previous entry in the series ever had.

How is the Dragon Ball fandom in your country? Whether you grew up with Budokai Tenkaichi, got hooked on FighterZ, or are coming in brand new with Sparking! ZERO, tell us what Dragon Ball games shaped your relationship with this franchise.

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