Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Players Pay Tribute to Akira Toriyama

Several Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 players came together in order to pay respects to the late creator of the franchise, Akira Toriyama. Many players went into the online lobbies of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, joining a community-wide effort to honor Akira Toriyama. These tributes were posted on social media.

On March 8, it was reported that Akira Toriyama had passed away at the beginning of the month, with the reported cause of death being acute subdural hematoma. Toriyama was known for creating the influential Dragon Ball manga, which would later be adapted into a multimedia franchise. His other works included Sand Land and Dr. Slump, along with being the character designer for games like Chrono Trigger, Blue Dragon, and Dragon Quest. He was involved with creating various concepts and characters for other Dragon Ball media, including Xenoverse, where he was a supervisor. The last work that Toriyama worked on prior to his passing is the upcoming Dragon Ball Daima anime.

Since Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is still popular to this day, there are still plenty of active players who heard the news. One fan, Roxaura, felt it was appropriate to show their respect to the late creator. They asked fans who played the PS4 version of Xenoverse 2 to join them as they all gathered at the Dragon Ball pedestal in an online lobby and did the Spirit Bomb emote, raising their avatar's hand in the air, much like when Goku asked the people of Earth to give their energy for his Spirit Bomb attack. The gathering took place on March 8th at 5 PM EST, and several players arrived to pay their respects, with videos and pictures being shared on Twitter.

Players who saw the event spread the word and joined in other lobbies, locations, or platforms to all pay their respects. According to one user on Twitter, the number of players who were online had managed to hit a player display limit. Many players wore Goku's classic Turtle School gi, as requested by Roxaura, or other outfits that fans coordinated together.