DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO, a new installment of the DBZ: Budokai Tenkaichi fighting game series that brings back the high-speed gameplay of the older titles but with greater visuals courtesy of Epic Games’ latest engine, Unreal Engine 5, has managed to sell 3 million copies in just 24 hours following its release on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam on October 10, according to a press release that Bandai Namco shared today. The news comes on the heels of a report that suggests Bandai Namco, despite this sales milestone, is struggling due to poor game sales, with the Japanese publisher said to be cutting its workforce, canceling projects, and going so far as to send some of its employees to “expulsion rooms”—rooms where they are given “nothing to do.” A trailer for DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO, which features 182 characters, can be found below.
Such oidashi beya, or “expulsion rooms,” are sometimes used by Japanese corporations in a country with some of the world’s strictest labor-protection laws. Employees are typically given no work-related tasks, but are left with the knowledge that their performance will give managers ammunition to cut severance when they do leave. Many employees use their time in such rooms to look for other jobs. Bandai Namco said its goal is not to push employees out of the company.