Street Fighter released a post on X (formerly Twitter) to honor Akira Toriyama. This is just one of many; it feels like the whole internet has been cut deeply by the loss of such a great man and creator. Yet he’s gone, which marks a huge hit to the video game industry.
Dragon Ball Games and Legends X accounts wrote posts in memory of the great man. CyberConnect2 even let the Dragon Ball Z Kakarot developers go home early because of Toriyama’s passing. Dragon Ball video games are a huge deal, but the series has inspired others. For example, Dragon Quest and Sand Land took to X to let everyone know that the passing of Toriyama saddened them. Toriyama was responsible for their art.
They’re not alone; even other franchises like Street Fighter have sent tributes to the great man. I’ve been seeing tributes all over X and other platforms. This is especially so for Discords made by Roblox developers because of their anime-inspired games. Akira Toriyama was pretty much the Godfather of Anime. Even the creators of Naruto and One Piece expressed their genuine love of him and his appreciation.
The list of some of those in our industry who made posts to honor Akira Toriyama:
- Xbox
- PlayStation
- Cuphead
- EVO
- Square Enix (through a repost of the Dragon Quest tweet)
- Tekken Director Katsuhiro Harada
- Konami
- Jack SepticEye
- Charles Martinet, the original voice of Mario
- Michael Gamble, who is working on the next Mass Effect
It hit me like a ton of bricks. I’ve never met the man, but like many others, he greatly influenced me. It feels like Goku died, but his lessons and confidence are something we can still have. It hurts my heart, but it feels really good to know the industry I love also looked up to this man.
Dragon Ball is responsible for many games. It was the inspiration for generations of developers in our industry. If this has hurt you, tweet, post, or what have you. It’s good to feel. Based on what I’ve found on X, there are likely far more tributes to come.
Comments