At Summer Game Fest 2026, we sat down with Bandai Namco Entertainment's Producer Masayuki Hirano to learn more about Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, the new installment in the action RPG series that was announced earlier this year with a planned debut for 2027.
The game is set in Age 1000, 148 years after the events of Xenoverse 2. The story takes place in West City, which has grown into a major hub in this future setting. As with previous Xenoverse entries, you'll create your own custom hero and join the ranks of the Great Saiyan Squad, fighting alongside both familiar and new allies as events in this new era unfold. A new trailer has also just gone live, by the way, introducing Bulma and Gamma 1. Throughout the game, players will meet a cast of original characters making their debut in the franchise, including Brett, Lilica, ROM, and Tap.
Thank you so much for your time this morning. I always like to start with your name and your position in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3.
Masayuki Hirano: Hi, I am Masayuki Hirano from Bandai Namco Entertainment. I am the producer on Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 and also oversaw the development of Xenoverse 1 and Xenoverse 2.
What is the significance of setting the game in Age 1000? Why go with this specific year rather than, say, 300 or 500 years after the earlier titles?
Masayuki Hirano: First off, I cannot overstate Akira Toriyama-sensei's immense involvement in the development of Age 1000 itself. From the overall worldview to the new character designs, he collaborated with us on almost every aspect, laying the foundation for this game's sandbox.
We wanted to jump into the future because Xenoverse 1 and Xenoverse 2 focused heavily on traveling to the past to fix history. For the third entry, we wanted to look forward. Xenoverse has always been about delivering a completely new Dragon Ball experience that people haven't seen before. Setting it hundreds of years into the future provides an entirely unknown territory for the fans and for us as creators to explore.
Can you talk about how technology has progressed in the universe over those hundreds of years? To clarify, I mean the actual in-universe technology of Age 1000.
Masayuki Hirano: I can't reveal everything just yet, but if you look closely at the gameplay and trailers, you can spot glimpses of systems like Soul Switching and Soul Assist. The future world has progressed significantly, and there is a concrete logical backbone to why things are happening the way they are.
These mechanical shifts tie directly into why original characters are swapping with iconic roster fighters, and why your custom player avatar is interacting with this world. A lot of these unique ideas came straight from Toriyama-sensei, and they serve as major narrative beats you will uncover.
Were there any specific story drafts or concepts left by Toriyama-sensei that you feel could only be told within the structure of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3?
Masayuki Hirano: Yes, absolutely. The core settings and foundational concepts he provided served as the guiding axis for our entire team. We spent a lot of time brainstorming together to flesh out those ideas. It is incredibly exciting material, and because Xenoverse is a game heavily shaped by its community, we want players to experience and live out these stories together online.
How central is the multiplayer focus to Xenoverse 3?
Masayuki Hirano: I would say it is a clean 50/50 split between the single-player narrative and the online multiplayer suite. Xenoverse occupies a very unique genre space because it has a definitive, highly engaging campaign, but it also functions as a massive online sandbox to tackle with friends. Both sides of the game received an equal amount of deep focus and development resources.
Can players take part in the main story mode seamlessly online with their friends, or is that strictly reserved for separate multiplayer missions?
Masayuki Hirano: The main story mode is structurally designed as a dedicated single-player experience, much like in Xenoverse 1 and 2. This campaign is focused entirely on the GS Squad (Time Patrol) dynamics, your custom avatar's unique journey, and exploring the narrative. However, there is an entirely separate, massive pool of co-op and competitive missions specifically tailored for the online environment.
Personal identity has always been the heart of the Xenoverse series. What can you tell us about character creation and customization upgrades this time around?
Masayuki Hirano: Character customization is the absolute core pillar of the franchise. Players want to express exactly who they want to be when entering the Dragon Ball universe. To facilitate that, the range of customization options in Xenoverse 3 is significantly wider than in the first two games.
This mechanical expansion extends heavily into fighting styles. In past entries, player builds felt rigid. This time, we want to accommodate highly specific combat desires. If you want to play a long-range zoning style like Frieza, an aggressive up-close brawler like Goku, or use unique team tactics reminiscent of the Ginyu Force, the suite is built to support those individual preferences.
How many different fighting styles and character races have you showcased so far, and can you tease how many more are planned for launch?
Masayuki Hirano: When we initially mapped out development, we experimented with a traditional "subtraction" style system—meaning choosing strict, locked character classes that limit what you can do. However, we realized that in the world of Dragon Ball, every single character ultimately wants to become the ultimate, multi-talented warrior.
Because of that, we shifted completely to an "addition" style system. Instead of locking you into narrow archetypes, players have the absolute freedom to dynamically swap different skills, attributes, and styles in and out, empowering them to craft whatever type of custom warrior they can imagine.
Does a custom character's height or physical size affect their movement speed or maximum health at all, as it did in previous Xenoverse titles?
Masayuki Hirano: No, physical dimensions do not impact your baseline stats or attributes this time around. When you look at the source material of Dragon Ball, being physically massive doesn't automatically make a fighter slow, and being tiny doesn't mean you are a fragile speedster. Characters break those rules constantly. We wanted to completely separate cosmetic visual expression from gameplay stats, giving players total freedom to look how they want without worrying about optimization penalties.
If a player wants to completely change their character's appearance or mechanical build down the line, can they do so freely, or will it still require gathering the Dragon Balls to make a wish?
Masayuki Hirano: (Laughs) You definitely will not have to completely delete your progress and start over from scratch just to alter your character. We have built a lot of latitude into the system to let players adjust and tweak their builds. That said, we still want your character's growth choices to carry a certain weight, pride, and sense of permanence, so it won't be entirely trivialized.
In Western communities, a very popular meme/customization trend is to take an iconic hero like Vegeta and recreate him perfectly, except for one addition: giving him a gun. Will weapons like guns be available as an accessory or fighting style in Xenoverse 3?
Masayuki Hirano: Custom accessories are a massive part of player identity, and we are absolutely bringing that element back from the previous games. I will honestly have to double-check with the asset team to see if a sidearm accessory is specifically in the current build!
If so, players could finally live out their ultimate fantasy of playing as the iconic Power Level 5 Farmer with a shotgun.
Masayuki Hirano: (Laughs) That is an incredible request. I am absolutely taking that back to the development team as vital community feedback!
Turning back to multiplayer, players love a strict endgame challenge. Can we expect options to replay missions at scaled-up difficulties, or are high-tier challenges kept as separate endgame activities?
Masayuki Hirano: While our baseline missions are individually balanced for a smooth progression curve, we have designed highly specific, brutal challenges for advanced play. When you step into high-tier encounters, the enemy AI shifts dramatically. Bosses utilize completely unique movement patterns, advanced behavior loops, and custom cinematic supers that force your squad to communicate and coordinate strategies to survive.
The Broly fight gave us our first look at the new Soul Shifting mechanic. How did you go about deciding which specific characters from the franchise history would be available to utilize via Soul Shifting?
Masayuki Hirano: I can't talk about the exact roster composition just yet, but you can look forward to seeing characters like Future Trunks and other staples highlighted in upcoming information drops. Soul Shifting is fundamentally about giving players the ultimate tool to break combat open, whether that means triggering a character-specific Awakening or dynamically calling in iconic roster fighters to alter the match rhythm.
Throughout Dragon Ball history, there are dozens of different chronological variations of Goku alone. With Soul Shifting, will players be selecting a generalized version of Goku, or will they be able to pick specific historical iterations of him?
Masayuki Hirano: Our core goal for the mechanic is to provide an incredibly deep array of variations. Goku is the absolute thematic anchor of this entire franchise, and in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, the specific relationship between Goku and your custom avatar forms a massive backbone of the experience. We are creating a broad system for him, so please look forward to future updates detailing exactly how he operates.
Will we see characters or content from Dragon Ball GT or Dragon Ball Daima crossing over into the game at launch?
Masayuki Hirano: Because our sandbox is rooted squarely in a brand-new timeline within Age 1000, how we explicitly bridge the gap to past anime series and spin-offs is a closely guarded secret for now. However, the future setting gives us a clean slate to incorporate elements elegantly, so stay tuned.
Since players are fighting alongside and against iconic characters, will legendary historical battles from the original manga or anime show up as playable setpieces?
Masayuki Hirano: (Laughs) Since our narrative is set entirely in the future, how those classic, beloved historical clashes manifest within our campaign requires a very clever, logical explanation. We have spent an immense amount of time ensuring everything makes perfect narrative sense, and the way those historical battles cross over is something we are eager for fans to see.
Do they still host the classic World Martial Arts Tournaments in Age 1000?
Masayuki Hirano: (Laughs) That is something we are keeping under wraps for a future announcement!
Fair enough! Can you touch upon the projected length of the game? How many hours can players expect out of the story mode, and what does the multiplayer volume look like at launch?
Masayuki Hirano: For a standard playthrough of the main story mode, players can expect roughly 20 to 30 hours of cinematic campaign content, depending on their pace. On the multiplayer side, the launch volume is already massive, but our long-term plan is to treat this as a living world. We are preparing a robust post-launch roadmap packed with community events, drops, and consistent content updates to keep the community thriving.
Can you share any broad philosophies regarding your roadmap goals for Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3?
Masayuki Hirano: While I can't detail specific seasonal content, our structural vision is completely locked in. The implementation of full cross-play across all systems is our absolute priority. We want to remove all platform barriers so that the global community can seamlessly log in, play together, and essentially "live" inside this realization of Age 1000.
Speaking of living in that world, we caught a brief look at the customizable player apartments in the social hub. Can players customize those spaces and invite their multiplayer parties inside?
Masayuki Hirano: I can't dive into specific room mechanics today, but we are heavily prioritizing expanded social features. Looking back at Xenoverse 1 and 2, we noticed that players took immense pride in treating their custom character screen like a business card, taking screenshots, sharing builds, and showing off their style to the community. We want to lean heavily into that behavior by giving players a concrete, interactive space within the universe to showcase exactly who they are to their peers.
Will there be any legacy save data bonuses for players with active save profiles in Xenoverse 2 or Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO?
Masayuki Hirano: We understand that the Dragon Ball gaming community is incredibly loyal, and many players have spent years supporting our past titles. We are actively evaluating and exploring cross-promotional rewards and save data recognition systems to honor that long-term dedication.
To wrap things up so players can plan ahead, what is your current target release window and which platforms will the game be available on?
Masayuki Hirano: We are officially targeting a 2027 release window. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 is being developed for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam (PC).
Wonderful. Thank you so much for your time.
Masayuki Hirano: Thank you very much!
About the author: Kai joined the gaming team of Wccftech in 2016 and has since penned over a hundred reviews and interview pieces, covering a bit of everything from one-man indie gems to AAA masterpieces and whatever lies in between. Over the recent months, Kai has expanded into preview and interview coverage of not only the gaming side of the industry but also tech and consumer electronics.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
