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The story
Bandai Namco announced a new title, Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation 3, revealing it will launch as a free-to-play game for PS5 and Steam. Since the numbering is moving on from the previous title, Battle Operation 2, a reset of paid purchases and rank progress looks unavoidable — prompting one resigned voice on the thread to shrug it off with, “Of course it’s going to be 3, I wanted a reset anyway.” Reactions mixed hope and anxiety, including worries over container-style gacha for mechs, concerns carried over from Battle Operation 2’s unpopular space-combat mode, and pointed remarks about how the Steam version, having launched later, has already become a ghost town.
What people said
More like it's the free-to-play titles that pile up
Sterm → Steam
Does it get reset since it's '3' now?
Of course it's 3 — I want a reset
I already know the playerbase has a bad reputation
Huh? Where are the Switch fanboys? ("buta"/pigs is 5ch slang mocking Switch owners)
Is something wrong with my setup?
It was sitting right under the Dengeki FamiGame promo post for Battle Operation 3
Kind of funny seeing old guys listening to that, but hey, I guess it's fine? Not that I'd know, lol
Total waste of money
Nothing to do with Gundam specifically — a reset is just more fun because it puts player skill back in play
Titles like this one or G-Generation Eternal that they can milk with gacha, or titles like Ace Combat, Dragon Ball, and Naruto that sell worldwide — those get real effort (relatively speaking, for this company)
Titles with no sales potential, like Rogue Orbit or "Sao" (slang for Sword Art Online), get the corner-cutting treatment
Why? Pokémon just did the exact same thing the other day
That "you have to keep playing the same online game forever" mindset seems common among FF14 devotees, am I right? If I'm right, give me some credit
That's a Gundam Online-only thing, so it's probably not happening again
That game had 100-player battles where you could rack up kill streaks or beat higher-ranked players in 1v1s — it was just too hype
Streamers used to scream about it constantly
Wasn't the original one part of the Versus series?
I bet there are still some crazy people grinding it in the arcades
Was that 2?
I think that was Gundam Evolution — I was curious about that one and looked into it a bit, but it seemed mediocre so I dropped it
I'd guess it'll end up something like a 20/80 split, PS5 to Steam
Container gacha
You pull gacha to collect mechs and parts
The top-tier mechs are way stronger than everything else
so you end up pulling nonstop
It's a pay-to-win game
No thanks, not that garbage launcher
you fake Gundam
Bandai Namco's third-rate staff can't pull it off properly, and Battle Operation 2 already exposed that the core middle-aged demographic can't keep up with space combat either — so it's a dead end
The true heart of Gundam is ground combat, starting with Jaburo
There are tons of land-combat variant units and "swim team" amphibious types (Zeon's aquatic mobile suits) — they'd have nothing to do in space
Then they should've just done Steam only lol
Though the Steam version of 2 was overwhelmingly unpopular and has been withering away lol
Probably because Steam launched so late that spending never picked up
Nah, there are plenty of popular games you still can't play that way lol
Cornering the market on a game that only middle-aged guys play and calling that "set for life" is hilarious
That's rough lol
Rot and die
FY2027 Q1 results (April–June 2026)
Net sales: ¥328.4 billion (up 9.3% year-on-year)
Operating profit: ¥69.2 billion (up 33.3%)
Ordinary profit: ¥74.4 billion (up 36.3%)
Quarterly net profit attributable to parent company shareholders: ¥51.1 billion (up 33.4%)
Driven by flagship IPs like Gundam and Dragon Ball, the company posted sharp growth in both revenue and profit, marking record-high results.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The Battle Operation series — Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation and its sequel Battle Operation 2 — are Bandai Namco’s free-to-play titles in which players gather mechs and parts through gacha pulls for large-scale online multiplayer battles. In Battle Operation 2, lingering complaints persisted over the controls and difficulty introduced when space combat was added on top of what had primarily been ground-based balance, and similar concerns resurfaced repeatedly on the thread this time around. Since the title is getting a new number, it’s highly likely that purchase history and rank progress won’t carry over, and reactions were split, especially among longtime players, over having to “go back to square one.” At the same time, the quarterly earnings for Bandai Namco’s April–June 2026 period cited in the replies — net sales of ¥328.4 billion and operating profit of ¥69.2 billion, both up by double digits year-on-year and marking record highs — show that flagship IPs like Gundam and Dragon Ball are driving the company’s results, offering some context for why a new title is being rolled out now. The thread also touched on how past entries have been handled operationally, including the decline of the Steam version of 2 and frustration with Bandai Namco’s proprietary launcher.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry [Geha]) thread “Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation 3 Announced! Coming to PS5 and Sterm as a Free-to-Play Title!“
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