Right alongside the massive flop of their Western venture, Unknown 9: Awakening, an “inclusive” mess penned by Kim Belair of Sweet Baby Inc. that Bandai Namco somehow thought would launch a media franchise, the company struck gold with DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO, raking in three million sales within 24 hours and pulling in profit to mitigate the damages caused by their hundred-million-dollar loss on inclusivity pandering.
Now, though, we’re in an era where companies like Capcom treat modding as some kind of criminal offense. The idea of modding an arena fighter with custom characters could add serious fun for both players and creators, but Bandai Namco, in all its progressive, “woke” glory may have other plans.
They’re dishing out warnings, telling players to avoid using mods in custom battles or risk facing a potential ban.
DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO gives players the freedom to create their own intense, strategic fights through the Custom Battle feature. It’s perfect for testing characters, trying new team combos, or just messing around with custom rules, stages, music, and more.
Since Custom Battles aren’t part of online matchmaking, where cheaters are a constant headache it’s ideal for solo play or experimenting however players want.
But users can also upload their custom battle setups to a “world library” for others to download, complete with thumbnails. That’s where Bandai Namco has an issue: modders could create presets with characters outside of the Dragon Ball universe, or even add NSFW mods like nude characters, and those could end up visible in the thumbnails.
Naturally, Bandai Namco doesn’t want mods like these uploaded, so they’re cracking down hard.
Shortly after launch, players quickly realized they could get banned from uploading Custom Battles to the world library for any number of reasons. One player even said they got banned for “duplicate uploads” despite only uploading two totally different presets.
The Dragon Ball Games Twitter account confirmed that anyone using mods could face consequences. Bandai Namco doubled down, warning players to delete modded Custom Battles if they want to avoid a ban.
It’s an overblown, ridiculous attempt to dodge copyright issues, even though modding is widely considered fair use by players. Modded Custom Battles aren’t even transferable.
But as we saw with Warner Bros. going after YouTubers covering third-party mods for the commercial flop Mortal Kombat 1, it’s no shock that Bandai Namco, just one of many Japanese companies now following the Western path to sanitize content for a “global” market is taking a similar stance to kill off any fun and enjoyment for a select few.
