The Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series, originally published as Dragon Ball Z: Sparking!(ドラゴンボールZ Sparking!Doragon Bōru Zetto Supākingu!) in Japan, is a series of fighting games based on the anime and manga Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama. Each installment was developed by Spike, while they were published by Bandai in Japan and Atari in all other countries, up to Ultimate Tenkaichi. From Raging Blast onwards, Bandai's role will now be filled by the merged Namco Bandai Games and Atari's PAL distribution network has been absorbed into Namco Bandai Partners. Namco Bandai will also handle developing in North America for Raging Blast and all other games beginning in 2010, effectively ending Atari's involvement.