When Spike Chunsoft needed to do something good for the fans of Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, the company comes up with an over-priced DLC.

In just one month after its release, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero‘s Steam player count has already fallen by almost 90%, despite its impressive sales figures. During its spectacular debut, the game sold three million copies in a single day.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero was released on October 8, 2024. | Credit: Spike Chunsoft.

Naturally, a sharp decline in player numbers, especially so soon after launch, would raise concerns. Since then, there hasn’t been a noticeable increase in the number of players. Spike Chunsoft made a bold move by increasing the price of the new DLC, but it could have backfired.

The dying Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero‘s first DLC is not cheap

Sparking Zero unveils its first DLC. | Credit: Spike Chunsoft.

The first DLC of the game, the Hero of Justice pack in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, was recently made available to those without a season pass. Content from Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, which had just been released, was one of the primary things that fans questioned would be included in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero when it was first announced.

Unfortunately, as most people anticipated, Beast Gohan and Orange Piccolo were reserved for DLC and weren’t included in the original game. Earlier this week, the Hero of Justice DLC pack was made available to season pass holders.

It included the Gammas and Cell Max as new characters, as well as Superhero forms for Gohan and Piccolo. The Hero of Justice DLC’s unexpectedly high price was made public when it was released for general players as a separate download, leaving its early access.

When the player count was rapidly dropping, Spike Chunsoft might have thought about making the Hero of Justice pack its trump card. However, it seems that the company might have to pay a heavy price for this overpriced DLC.

Instead of making players return to the game, this DLC has even made players leave the game because of its absurd price. It’s a pretty shame that despite being a great game, the developers have failed to continue the momentum.

Fans are absolutely dissatisfied with the price of the DLC

The first DLC game hasn’t fulfilled the expectations. | Credit: Spike Chunsoft.

As Twitter user DBGameNews noted, the Hero of Justice DLC pack’s release also disclosed that it costs $17.99 for those without a season pass. Fans strongly disagreed when DBGameNews asked them if they thought the price was worth it, presumably in response to the high cost.

Since the DLC is really just about the characters, the majority of the problems appear to be related to the fact that there isn’t much content outside of them. Regardless of how fantastic Beast Gohan is, most people seem to think it’s a shame that more bonus content wasn’t included because Xenoverse 2 has done a great job at it, and Sparking Zero needs it after launch.

Many fans have responded to the price by advising anyone who is interested to simply purchase the season pass, which is $34.99 and essentially entitles them to one of the three DLC packs for free. It appears that the first wave of DLC for Sparking Zero will cost about $53 without that pass, which is comparable to the cost of the entire game.