The Bandai Namco Games XBOX Players Want to be Backward Compatible
A measurement, not a petition.
XBOXGamePreservation.com asks players a single question: which Original XBOX and XBOX 360 games do you want to be able to play again via backward compatibility on modern XBOX consoles? This page pulls out every game Bandai Namco published on those two consoles, and looks at what it owns, what it licenses, and where the demand actually sits.
What is XBOX backward compatibility?
It's the program in which Original XBOX and XBOX 360 titles are given the green light by publishers and rights holders to let XBOX make them playable, and often buyable, again on current XBOX consoles. For rights holders, the key requirement is approval. XBOX handles the technical work required to bring supported titles to modern consoles.
In July 2026, that program expanded to PC: the same approval that brings an Original XBOX game to modern consoles can now also make it playable on PC. That expansion currently covers Original XBOX titles, so the 13 Original XBOX games here would be eligible, and seven of them, including Soulcalibur II, never had a PC version in their day, so approval could bring them to PC for the first time. Those seven are marked ▸ PC debut in the full list below.
Dragon Ball leads, but Bandai Namco's demand is much broader than its biggest license.
Bandai Namco represents 69 games and 24,023 votes, more than 1 in 10 of everyone who has voted on XBOXGamePreservation.com. The demand splits three ways: the franchises it owns or controls (Soulcalibur, Ace Combat, Pac-Man and more, 42%), the anime, TV and film it licenses (Dragon Ball, Naruto, Afro Samurai, 41%), and games it published for other studios (16%). One franchise towers over all of them: Dragon Ball, more than a quarter of the entire total on its own.
* Licensed from an outside media or character owner (anime, TV, film). ** Published on behalf of the studio that owns the game (FromSoftware and others). Games are never combined across platforms: a title released on both Original XBOX and XBOX 360 is counted once on each. Voters do not sum across rows: someone who backed more than one tier is counted in each. Titles already backward compatible are counted separately.
Dragon Ball is more than a quarter of all the demand.
Eight Dragon Ball games on this list draw 6,984 votes between them, more than a quarter of all Bandai Namco demand and the single largest franchise on the page by a wide margin, more than double the next-biggest, led by the Budokai HD Collection (2,366) and Raging Blast 2 (1,544). It is also the block that carries the most rights weight: Dragon Ball is licensed, not owned.
The owned side is the clearer opportunity.
The franchises Bandai Namco owns or controls draw 10,201 votes across 38 games, so bringing them back may involve fewer outside rights-holders. Ranked by total votes.
Two of these stand out as unusually strong single-title signals. Eternal Sonata draws 1,021 votes despite having no active franchise behind it, while Splatterhouse has 672 votes, more than Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, or the two Dead to Rights games combined.
Bandai Namco's owned catalog also runs through Tales of Vesperia, Ridge Racer, The Idolmaster, the Namco Museum collections and more, all listed in full at the end.
Nearly half of Bandai Namco demand sits behind a license.
23 games on this page, 9,876 votes, were published directly under license from a property's owner rather than built on Bandai Namco's own IP. Dragon Ball dominates it, but the licensed catalog runs wider: Naruto and Afro Samurai from anime and manga, and Western film and TV tie-ins including Star Trek, Spawn and Power Rangers. Each of these would need the property owner's approval on top of Bandai Namco's.
The five biggest licensed games, one per franchise
The full licensed list is at the end.
Six Bandai Namco games are already compatible, but can't be purchased digitally.
Six Bandai Namco titles are already backward compatible on modern XBOX consoles but have been delisted from the XBOX store or were never available for digital purchase, so they can be played only by people who already own them: Ace Combat 6, Soulcalibur and Soulcalibur II HD Online, the original Dark Souls, Pac-Man Museum and Ms. Pac-Man. They sit outside the demand totals above; for these games the ask isn't backward compatibility, it's a return to the store.
Dragon Ball is the biggest opportunity, but it isn't the only one.
The 24,023 votes split almost evenly between Bandai Namco-owned or controlled properties and licensed properties. Dragon Ball alone accounts for 6,984 votes, but the owned/controlled catalog contributes another 10,201 across 38 games, led by Soulcalibur, Pac-Man, Digimon and Eternal Sonata.
That creates three distinct preservation opportunities: licensed games with demonstrated demand, owned properties where Bandai Namco has greater control, and already-compatible games that could return to the XBOX Store. The votes provide a map of where players are asking Bandai Namco to look next.
Method and caveats.
Every figure here is a direct count from the site's public vote data, filtered to games Bandai Namco published on Original XBOX and XBOX 360. Games are never combined across platforms: each release on each console is counted on its own. Titles already backward compatible or delisted are set aside and counted separately, not folded into the demand totals.
Publisher and rights notes were checked title by title, to the best of my ability via public information. Games published in the West by another company, such as the early Dragon Ball titles Atari released before 2009, the Ubisoft-published Naruto and Armored Core: For Answer, or the Sega-published Armored Core 4, are not counted here even when they belong to the same franchise, because this is a measure of Bandai Namco's catalog, not of any one property. "Owned / controlled" means Bandai Namco owns or exercises control over the underlying property or the relevant rights; "licensed" means Bandai Namco published the game under license from another property owner. Classification reflects the corporate and publishing relationships applicable to the individual title and does not imply that no additional rights clearance would be required. Vote counts measure interest, not a commitment to buy, and feasibility depends on agreements that are not public.
Every Bandai Namco game on the site, grouped by ownership.
All 69 Bandai Namco games behind the demand figures on this page, grouped by what the company owns, licenses or published for others, with platform and vote count. The already-backward-compatible titles that are not available for purchase are listed last, apart from the demand totals.
Markers: * licensed from an outside media or character owner; ** published on behalf of the studio that owns the game; ▸ PC debut never released on PC (a first-time PC release if approved). Titles that used the Kinect sensor are labeled as such in the platform column, since that hardware is no longer produced.
Every Bandai Namco game on the site across Original XBOX and XBOX 360, excluding titles already backward compatible, which are counted separately. Games are attributed to Bandai Namco and classified as owned or licensed to the best of my knowledge from public information; the specific terms of the underlying agreements are not public.