What do big companies care more about?

[psychospacecow]

Yes, Konami owns Yu-Gi-Oh. They still make  cameo cards off of their videogame franchises.

Still I don't know how profitable it is as the fad's passed - are they still being produced/used/stuff?

Chiming in really fast - they are, actually (Cinemarella's brother plays) They're still putting out new decks and whatnot and national tourneys are still being held. Hell, they're still churning out the card battler games, too (though I think they're on iOS now) and I think the cartoon's moved onto "Arc-V" and holy smokeheck how do they keep on making these protagonists so anime. It's being dubbed and released internationally sometime this year.

I think if anyone, psychospacecow might be able to shed light on this, but now that I think about it, Yugioh is totally enough to keep them afloat stateside. I wouldn't be surprised if they start laying off a majority of their games sector though, and keep it primarily focused on mobile development.

EDIT: Also according to the article, Konami owns a company called...are you ready for this
"4K Media"

formerly "4Kids"



oh no, it's back (but in all seriousness, the company is now dedicated to producing dubbed versions of Yugioh cartoons)

The Cow has been summoned. Yu-Gi-Oh! formats last 3 months and until 2013, the OCG and TCG shared the same banlist. The typical trend that has arisen in Yu-Gi-Oh! is actually somewhat simple. A current established set of decks are popular. 1-3 of them are very good, game breakingly so. This continues until either the beginning of a format, or half-way through one. The reason this stops at the beginning of a format is that the deck has had key cards limited or banned in some fashion which hampers the deck. This makes people either buy into another of the decks, or the inevitable better deck that comes out around the same week. So, you have a new, better deck or two that people are gravitating to. These become the norm, and the process begins again. The problem is that this relies on releasing more powerful decks as time goes by, stimulating a massive power creep over the span of one year, and invalidating the hundreds of dollars a player spent getting their HEROES, their Nekroz, their Prophecy, their Dragon Rulers, their Wind-Ups, their Monarchs, etc. etc. etc.. See, though this is bad, its relatively stable. The game because more complicated over time as different strategies come out.

At least, that was the case until around the time 5Ds came out. This put a new spin on things, a new mechanic called synchro summoning. The game sped up tremendously over a few short months, not immediately as the starter synchros really weren't all that powerful at the time (although some of them are practically staples now) due to the complication to summon them, but as the mechanic was fleshed out. Diversity in strategy and play really started to build in 5Ds, and though the speeding up of the game led to more prevalent OTK potential, it was workable. The meta grew more stable and things were well. There would continue to be spikes here and there mind you. The same can more or less be said of Zexal as well.

Single duels became problematic as there really wasn't much that can be done if your opponent just so happens to have a hard counter to your deck, which just so happens to be their deck, but matches got pretty nice.

Probably my favorite period in Yu-Gi-Oh! was the end of Zexal. It was actually the most balanced I've seen the game. You could play basically any kind of deck if you found the initiative and way and though not everything was competitive, you had a chance.

I'm almost certain the same will happen with Arc-V as well, but its got me nervous. The barrier of entry has never been higher and its really feels like we're reaching a point where the current way of doing things isn't going to work. The game has somewhat overstepped its bounds as of now.

(Basically, this guy cannot be removed without having a monster with 3.5k attack, or a monster above level 10 with an effect that can kill this beast, when each turn, you can make your opponent either discard one card from their hand or the field, and the 3 monster requirement is a bit of a joke nowadays because of pendulum summoning, a mechanic which as advertised, allows a player to swarm their entire board in one turn)

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Shaddoll
The ultimate cycling and toolbox engine.

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Masked_HERO
Heroes never die. They just put on masks and disallow your opponent from playing the same game as you.

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Ruler
These guys have a special place in my heart for being the most broken thing I have ever seen in the game, ever. They just flipped them in the ban list. All the adults were allowed but are now banned and all the babies were banned and are now allowed. This was done in response to a non-archetype deck which was starting to gain traction. They were an entire deck of OTK at their prime and when tournaments rolled around when they were full force, there was ONE other deck that was being played and it had this.
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Spellbook_of_Judgment


Just gonna throw a few of these out there.
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Infernoid
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Nekroz_of_Sophia
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Nekroz_of_Brionac
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Nekroz_of_Trishula
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Zefra-Exa,_...lame_Beast
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Zefra-Saber...ord_Master
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Zefra