Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

PTCG sales slip according to ICV2

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TheDancingPeanut

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In Fall 2012, Pokemon charted as the #2 mass-channel and overall collectible game. According to ICV2, it was passed by Yu-Gi-Oh! for Spring 2013, slipping to #3 mass-channel and overall.

The slip in mass-channel ranking worries me. Either Konami has found a better way of marketing its brand to big-box shoppers, or Pokémon is losing relevance. (i.e. we can't know if Pokemon declined or Yu-Gi-Oh! expanded.)

Either way, I am concerned about the growth strategy for the brand. What do you think? How is the health of the game and the brand in your area?
 
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I am mostly confused and perhaps disappointed in consumers; most of my concerns with the Pokémon TCG are that it has become to "Yu-Gi-Oh" like. Yu-Gi-Oh basically drove me off due to its reliance on gimmicks and "stupid" rares (often needed for competitive decks), and how this basically encouraged experienced players to feed off of new players.
 
I laugh whenever people bring these things up as if it matters. Pokemon, YGO and Magic (and likely Vanguard I'd imagine) are MORE than healthy enough, and none are in danger of being eclipsed by the other. One slightly edging the other out in sales means little.
 
Well, the metagame has been fairly stale since big EXs came out, so I'm not surprised to see players playing other games.
 
rivershock said:
I laugh whenever people bring these things up as if it matters. Pokemon, YGO and Magic (and likely Vanguard I'd imagine) are MORE than healthy enough, and none are in danger of being eclipsed by the other. One slightly edging the other out in sales means little.
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With regard to this comment and to Prime's, I want to say that I'm raising this point because I think it's a worrisome sign the the brand as a whole. Keep in mind that we're talking about mass-channel sales, not hobby channel sales. As has been discussed on this forum many time, it's unlikely that OP is responsible for supporting a majority of those sales, because it's likely that most of those sales are made to people who have no relationship to OP. (And, of course, maybe all of these assumptions are false--without being able to see the data, we can't ever know for sure.)

So if we're seeing a decline is mass-channel sales, that probably represents a downward trend for the brand as a whole as opposed to a reflection of the state of organized play. But I think this is significant because this product probably cannot sustain itself in its current form from hobby sales.

That's why I raise this point, and why I mentioned in my first post that I'm concerned about the long-term strategy for brand growth. I've always believe (perhaps wrongly) that the Anime was a critical factor is driving sales to mass-channel, 12-and-under consumers. We've seen (correct me if I'm wrong) steadily declining Anime ratings. If that trend continues, is there a strategy for keeping this brand relevant beyond its relation to the video games?

Yu-Gi-Oh! is marketed to a slightly older demographic, and its consumers align more fully with the profile of a typical comic or hobby shop customer. On the other hand, it seems like getting young, mainstream kids into comic and hobby shops to play PTCG has always been a challenge, because typically those spaces are not designed for or welcoming to young kids.

Maybe my question really is this: Do you think that Pokémon as a brand is in decline, and do you see that reflected in the TCG?

I don't have a position on this, but I wanted to post those charts because I think it's concerning if PTCG is losing ground to other games in a channel that it used to dominate.
 
Maybe more people just started playing Yu-gi-oh, but Pokémon didn't necessarily lose players? I've noticed an influx of Yu-gi-oh players around the Chicago area myself. I'm not sure what about this game appeals to people, but it does seem to be drawing crowds.
 
I wonder how sales are going for Pokemon as a whole. Pokemon is one of these special series where people have fans from all over who like different Pokemon and Black and White has not done a great job showing all of the Pokemon off. A lot of Pokemon still have not had cards printed and most of the Pokemon in the card game just suck. The Pokemon in the video game suffer from imbalance and needs to be rebalanced.

I'm not all surprised to see the TCG sales dropping due to the power creep and current rarity system. They need to use it as a learning tool for XY.
 
Remember also that sales fluctuate at any given time and may not indicate a problem in the market. What's important to note is patterns, so if we see a consistent decline in sales we can make a bigger assumption about the market or the game as a whole. The information we have now is not useful for making any sort of conclusion.
 
Before they moved the Pokemon stuff to a larger area at my local Walmart it seemed like they were always out of the latest Pokemon stuff.
 
Myself and other people at league have been double dipping in other games, specifically Weiss Schwarz. A lot of them have been checking out WS mainly because they feel that the current format feels stale.
 
Dont worry too much. Once X and Y are released Pokemon will see a huge increase in sales like every other time a new generation has started. I find it a little strange. I don't see yu-gi-oh cards often though, even at big box stores.
 
Recently I have seen a large spike in Magic cards at stores like Target. Where the selection was once maybe a starter deck, it is now 1/3 of the card/trading card (game) section (not counting the cards that are on shelves or otherwise not on "pegs").

I think all the success of Pokemon is intertwined, for the most part. If the XY game and anime are very good, but the cards are only so-so for that gen, people might play the cards more than if the whole thing still was mediocre. This is all generalization and assumptions, but I feel that it makes sense.

Part of the issue for Pokemon is the challenge to appeal to both kids, family, and a broader audience at the same time.
 
Pokemon needs to embrace the "half-pack" giving players half the cards at half the price. Magic and a few other card games do this which allows for a greater impulse buy and is more affordable to kids (and more likely their parents will decide on buying it for them). It would be fairly easy to do and would basically be similar to Japan where it's one rare every other pack.

They also need to completely change their approach to theme decks. Most theme decks are lucky to sport 2 usable Pokemon, but this goes more into the fact that 90% of the Pokemon are unusable. Regardless, it looks like little thought is put into theme decks, and the energy they give isn't even BW checkered energy. Throwing in a "bonus pack" would be encouraging as well.
 
I don't know how popular Pokémon is in the USA, but in the Netherlands and more European country's it's going downhill. Most of the shops don't even sell Pokémoncards only a few list them on their website.
This is because they don't promote it. They don't advertise, don't have the PokémonDay anymore and the worst thing is that the series are only shown on Saterday mornig (and even that is a rerun :( ).
I have a few nephews who liked Pokémon in the beginning of BW. Now they don't bother anymore. They still like it but it's getting old.

Hopefully the X&Y games will bring back a hype (not as big as in 1999/2000 of course).
And I hope they will do things right. Advertise, make a special 50 cards set to give out at supermarkets (1 pack with 2 Boosters for every ...... $ or € you spend, starting the young kids to collect and play Pokémon so we all can enjoy it as long as possible.
 
abv150 said:
I don't know how popular Pokémon is in the USA, but in the Netherlands and more European country's it's going downhill. Most of the shops don't even sell Pokémoncards only a few list them on their website.
This is because they don't promote it. They don't advertise, don't have the PokémonDay anymore and the worst thing is that the series are only shown on Saterday mornig (and even that is a rerun :( ).
I have a few nephews who liked Pokémon in the beginning of BW. Now they don't bother anymore. They still like it but it's getting old.

Hopefully the X&Y games will bring back a hype (not as big as in 1999/2000 of course).
And I hope they will do things right. Advertise, make a special 50 cards set to give out at supermarkets (1 pack with 2 Boosters for every ...... $ or € you spend, starting the young kids to collect and play Pokémon so we all can enjoy it as long as possible.
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I have the same issues too. The game is near dead in terms of competitive play. I heard from posters here is to start your own store so you can play in prereleases but problem is, time, space, and money.

Let's say i am able to open up a store. Then what? Doesn' t change the fact that there are huge holes where pokemon organized play isn't played.

Kaijudo is a new game. Difference is that WOTC tries to promote the game.
 
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