Card games are really having their moment, aren’t they?
On October 25th, the Ultraman Card Game launched in Japan and 10 other regions simultaneously, a major opening gambit for a new card game irrespective of the established IP behind it. Bandai are currently undergoing a beta for a new Gundam card game ahead of a launch next year, amazingly their fifth attempt at making a card game based on the IP. Other recent new card games launched in Japan include a new version of Bushiroad’s Weiss Schwartz named Weiss Schwartz Bleu and Detective Conan, all while Bandai’s own anime crossover card game rival to Bushiroad titled Union Arena is celebrating its 1.5th anniversary. You even had Quintessential Quintuplets recently launch its own card game!
Japan has always been a large market for card games, a popularity that was turbocharged by a renewed interest during the pandemic. With everyone stuck indoors, people who had lapsed from card games in their youth returned with renewed vigor, boosting long-running cross-generational favorites like Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! to new levels. The growing market created space for new games to find an audience, also, as Bandai saw with the launch of the One Piece Card Game.
Most of all, rather than returning to pre-pandemic norms once restrictions were lifted, the card game industry has maintained its renewed interest. You see the impact of this popularity everywhere. Almost every Tokyo convenience store has a large selection of card game packs on sale by the register, you still have to queue and register interest for new releases, Shibuya Tsutaya’s questionable renovation included a Pokemon Card Lounge, and even many Book Off stores have expanded their intake to include second-hand trading cards that can reach values in the hundreds of thousands of yen. Right now, Coco's Restaurant have their second Yu-Gi-Oh!-themed collaboration offering food based on the series and free cards to patrons.
It’s truly a boom period, the intimidation of card games being replaced by fervor and excitement to collect and play. It should be no surprise that the growing market and excitement has encouraged more companies to release their own games. But can there be too much of a good thing?
While the recent boom in interest for card games is undoubtedly a good thing for the stores that sell them, especially independent card stores that serve a community purpose for the players who regularly attend, many of these stores survive on an audience of players for stable, established games. A store will have no issues finding an audience to attend a local Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokémon tournament, and can even use the larger player base to cater to various skillsets. Yu-Gi-Oh! even has its own secondary format known as Rush Duel aimed at new, younger players.
Their size means you have everything from locals to massive global events or major championships that are as much an event as they are a tournament. There are incentives for stores to partner with the game’s creators for access to prize packages. Their scale was only showcased when both these titans hosted World Championships in Japan in 2023, with the latter engaging in a full-city takeover of Yokohama at an impressive scale.
Any newly-launched card game faces a cyclical issue that can be difficult to break free from. The monetary investment to buy starter decks and booster packs to build decks in many card games is high, and understandably leaves many players seeking established franchises over new ideas to avoid being left in the lurch if support is dropped due to a lack of players to justify continued investment from their creators.
Familiarity in IP is where games can overcome this, and this has proven a successful strategy post-COVID. The One Piece Card Game was certainly not the first attempt to create a card game based on the series, but succeeded from both fortuitous timing and the utilization of a popular IP with an artistic focus (much of Oda’s original manga art alongside new art was used for cards). While other games like Shadowverse, Digimon, Battle Spirits have found enduring success, its monumental rise has supplanted the series alongside Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! as a major card game of the moment.
This new wave of games is certainly taking cues from this winning strategy. People know Gundam, and the monumental success of The Witch From Mercury with new demographics means interest in the series is high. Ultraman has popularity with both younger and older audiences alike. Still, this doesn’t make the launch of any of these games any less risky.
Bandai’s numerous attempts at Gundam card games alongside now-out-of-print games like Bleach headlined a rush of card games in the early 2000s that launched in Japan in attempts to capitalize on the success earned by Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon. Most do not exist today, and many ended circulation within years or even months.
To endure beyond its launch, perhaps offering something collectible to a dedicated fanbase can create a sustainable fanbase, even without it being a mainstream hit. Although it’s a successful series, it’s hard to imagine the Quintessential Quintuplets card game finding an audience beyond its hardcore fans. Perhaps that’s the point, though. Promotions have centered heavily in areas like Akihabara, and this is a series that remains a moneymaker even after its initial explosion in popularity cooled once the manga and anime concluded thanks to an otaku fanbase making it a merchandising and arcade prize figure mainstay. Is there an audience more primed to sustain a niche, in-group card game than this?
Similarly, it’s hard to imagine the Hololive card game or Kamitsubaki Card Game reaching beyond the hardcore sectors of their core demographics. On a small scale, as an in-community quirk? These are games taking advantage of renewed interest in the hobby to create an in-group card game that increases bonds with the IP and fellow fans. It’s sustainable, and only possible thanks to the growing market for these games.
Rather than asking the question of if we have reached peak card game, with three titanic games and many successful midrange games like Duel Masters and Shadowverse, is there room for another mega card game to sustain and succeed?
Card games are bigger than ever. As a means of connecting with like-minded people this is undoubtedly a good thing. Can the Ultraman and Gundam Card Game succeed? They will need audiences beyond their core to sustain a global launch. With the former in public hands and the latter shuttling towards launch, we won’t have to wait long to find out.
