YGO sneak peak

Although Cascade Games is not running a YGO prerelease you can find a list of events here http://www.yugioh-card.com/en/events/index.html#rgbt

also the Samurai comics has asked me to give them a shout out.

YGO RAGING BATTLE SNEAK PEEK

Sunday May 3rd at BOTH Samurai Comics locations
The battle begins at 11 am at both stores.

$20 entry fee. 

Preregistration is now open at both Samurai  Comics locations 

Every participant will receive five packs from the RAGING BATTLE expansion set, and the exclusive BATTLESTORM foil promotional card! 

Prizes include a Raging Battle game mat and Raging Battle deck boxes.

Samurai Comics
10720 W. Indian School Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85037
623-872-8886
www.samuraicomics.com

Samurai Comics
5024 N. 7th St.
Phoenix, AZ 85014
602-265-8886
www.samuraicomics.com

Nationals on track for YGO in Europe and Latin America

From icv.2.com

‘Yu-Gi-Oh! European & Latin American Championships To Be Held as Planned Published: 04/28/2009 04:38pm Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH has announced that all European and Latin American National Championships for theYu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Gamewill be held as planned in 2009.  Duelists can now start preparing their decks for their national championships.  Winners of national championships in Europe can compete for the European Championship, and the top four finalists in the European Championship tournament will win a paid trip to Japan to compete in the World Championships.   Players interested in competing in the National Championship tournaments should visit the yugioh-card.com Website and click on their country’s flag for details on how to participate.

Konami rolls out OP – via barcode scanner

http://www.yugioh-card.com/en/news/news_090414gama.html

Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. to Address Hobby Store Owners on Plans for Organized Play, New Rankings System & Demonstrate Innovative New Barcode Scanner For Tourney Stores at 2009 GAMA Trade Show

El Segundo, CA – (April 14, 2009) –Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (KDE) will unveil much anticipated Organized Play plans, their new rankings system – Konami Card Game Official Tournament Support System – and an innovative Barcode Scanner for use by Official Tournament Stores to enter players into events and to record their rankings. 

The Barcode Scanners have been in use in Japan and will be utilized for the first time in North America this year. Registering players for your events will now be a snap – Konami’s player ID cards feature a barcode system which allows you to input your players’ data directly into the COSSY system with a single swipe through the USB-enabled barcode scanner.  COSSY will also track each player’s record during the event. Once the tournament is over and final results have been submitted and confirmed, the COSSY system will update your players’ rankings online – automatically.  There are an estimated 300 lucky Store owners that are Official Konami Tournament Stores who will be the first to utilize the Barcode Scanner absolutely free.

“The Games Manufacturers Association Trade Show offers the perfect environment to meet with our hobby store partners and to educate them on what our plans are for the coming year and beyond,” noted Yumi Hoashi, Vice President of Card Business, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.  “GAMA is also the place for us to receive first-hand accounts of how things really are in the hobby.  This is why we chose this event to detail our organized play efforts and the new rankings system – Konami Card Game Official TournamentSupport System.”  

KDE will have a slew of new products for the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG and the Blue Dragon Role Playing Card Game (RPCG) to unveil to the GAMA Trade Show audience.  Upcoming releases for the the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG will be highlighted included Raging Battle, 2009 Yu-Gi-Oh! Starter Deck, Raging Battle Special Edition, Gold Series 2009.  Additionally, KDE staff will be presenting the Blue Dragon RPCG demo kits, the Light and Dark Shadows Starter Deck and Destinies Unite booster set.
Hobby stores interested in setting up accounts, hosting Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME events or tournaments should contact KDE customer support at 310-220-8630 or us-cardsupport@konami.com.

 

About The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG

The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME is the #1 trading card game in the world with more than 18 billion cards sold. It is a game of strategy, where players create individual decks of cards collected from Structure Decks and Booster Packs. Two players engage in a duel while using cards that represent powerful Monsters, magical Spells and surprising Traps. Duelists with well-constructed decks, dominating monsters, solid strategy and good fortune are the victors in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG.  Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. is the exclusive licensee and rights holder to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG in North America.

About Konami

Konami is a leading developer, publisher and manufacturer of electronic entertainment properties and traditional trading card games.  Konami’s software titles include the popular franchises Metal Gear Solid®, Silent Hill®, Dance Dance Revolution® and Castlevania®, among other top sellers. 

Konami is also the manufacturer of the wildly popular Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME™, which has sold more than 18 billion cards worldwide.  The latest information about Konami can be found on the Web at www.konami.com.  Konami Corporation is a publicly traded company based in Tokyo, Japan with subsidiaries Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, Japan, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. in the United States and Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH in Frankfurt, Germany.  Konami Corporation is traded in the United States on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol KNM.  Details of the products published by Konami can be found at www.konami.com.

 

Update on hotel rooms for the GP

Again – I don’t know if the hotel is going to sell out or now – I haven’t ever rented a block of rooms before – so I am just providing the numbers and letting you draw your own conclusions on how many rooms have been rented for GP – Seattle.

Currently for the 100 room block (numbers are rooms rented each night) so we will have at least 50 players at the GP  

Fri – 50

Sat – 50

Sun – 22

The future is coming

I just read an interesting article on Icv2.com

 http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/14795.html

discussing how one of the sites that sells RPG’s in PDF format is going to sell them in POD format. So what does this mean? POD is print on demand. Thats means they don’t print the book until you order it.  This is a really important facet to their business. Many if not most of the smaller RPG companies have huge amounts of money tied up in the cost of printing and storing books that sell quite slowly.  If a company is able to print only the books players want – even if they pay more per book – they come out way ahead. So – this is really good for game publishers and players.

However – we also need to think about how this impacts retailers. If you sell RPG’s as a brick and mortar store why should you support a publisher that allows players to buy on line and go around you? The answer to this is complex and I think each retailer needs to figure out this for themselves.  However I do know this is trend we are likely to see more and more of in the future.

Tim

 

POD Joins PDFs

OneBookShelf to Add POD

Published: 04/22/2009 02:23am

OneBookShelf, parent of the DriveThruRPG and RPGNow gaming PDF e-commerce Websites, plans to add print-on-demand capability later this year.  “Improvements in POD are going to enable us to offer a new service; we’ll be able to offer print book options in addition to PDFs in one click,” Sean Patrick Fannon,  RPG Marketing, Communications, and Publisher Services Manager for OneBookShelf told us. “The model we have come up with for our publishers, including some very large and well-known publishers, will allow them to abandon doing print runs on their own.”

 

In addition to continuing to sell directly to consumers, the company also plans to make POD publications available through hobby game retailers. 

 

The company is hoping to kick off the new program at Gen Con, but no firm date is set yet.  Initial efforts will be devoted to the RPG category, expanding later to the company’s other categories, including comics. 

 

OneBookShelf is “going from the world’s largest PDF download store to become the biggest RPG store, period,” according to Fannon, due not only to the new POD initiative, but also to the launching of sites in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. 

 

The company recently took a hit to its volume when Wizards of the Coast abruptly halted sales of PDFs of its products (see “WotC Ends PDF Download Sales”).  Although Fannon acknowledged that the move was a negative for PDF sales, he said that Wizards of the Coast was “not even close” to half the company’s sales.  He pointed to steady growth, even during the current Great Recession, and the steady addition of new material, including the recent addition of Palladium Games titles to the PDF offerings.                            

YGO court case – Europe only

Remember this is EUROPE only – you don’t live in Europe – at least that what the web tats for this blog say. But if your keeping score – its Konami -2 Upper Deck – 0.

from icv2.com

Konami Wins Appeals Court Ruling In European ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’ Distribution Case Published: 04/15/2009, Last Updated: 04/16/2009 02:52am The Amsterdam Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Konami Digital Entertainment B.V. in an appeal proceedings against Upper Deck International in a case stemming from KDE’s termination last December of its distributorship agreement with Upper Deck that designated Upper Deck International as the exclusive distributor of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game in Europe, Latin America, and Oceania.    The Appeals Court ruling overturns an injunction against KDE’s termination of Upper Deck as a Yu-Gi-Oh! distributor that was granted  by a Dutch court on December 24th, shortly after Konami had announced that it was ending Upper Deck’s role as the exclusive distributor of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG (see “Dutch Court Sides With UDE”).  The new ruling by the 3-judge Appeals Courtpanel reverses the previous injunction and upholds the termination of Upper Deck’s contract with Konami, which means that, absent any contradictory ruling from a higher court, Upper Deck International is no longer the authorized distributor for theYu-Gi-Oh! TCG in Europe, Latin America, and Oceania.

GAMA report – YGO and the state of things

I’m in the Los Vegas airport writing this.  On my way home to Portland from GTS. What is GTS you might ask – well GTS is a professional only, show for people working in the game industry. Its a small show and getting smaller – but an amazing chance to meet, discuss and network with people who publish paper game (no video games) http://www.gama.org/   

So heres the deal – I can’t spill the beans on YGO but its clear that things are getting better already – Chris Wong is running a Shonen Jump in the LA area in a few weeks and its only logical to think more are to come.

It’s also reasonable to think something similar to YGO regionals will be back.  I don’t have any details to discuss – and if I did I wouldn’t be discussing them in a blog – but the vibe was very positive.

Now for the bad news the overall paper based game industry is in trouble. Wizards is fine, several of the board game companies are fine – and just about everyone else is in trouble. The show was depressing and if you care about the smaller publishers then you should be very worried.

Tim

GP hotel rooms – update

Quick update – I have reserved 100 rooms for the GP at the hotel on site.  For 100% accuracy is next to but not connected to the convention center – but its really really close. Anyway if you are planning on staying at the hotel – of the 100 rooms reserved so far 27 of the rooms have been rented.  I have never arranged a block of rooms like this before so I don’t know if this is a sign that the entire block is going to fill – or if there will be extra rooms. 

I will just try to share the data and you can figure it out for yourselves.

Tim

Yu Gi Oh tournament – SJC

From Pojo http://www.pojo.com/Yu-gi-oh/

Pojo’s Yugioh News
 

Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. Announces the

Return of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME SHONEN JUMP Championships;

Premiere Event is scheduled for Anaheim’s Convention Center April 25-26

 

Company Debuts New Ranking System COSSY, KDE Player I.D. Cards & Mystery Prize Card

 

El Segundo, CA – (April 10, 2009) – A new day is dawning in competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG) play.  Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (KDE) is unveiling today their plans to bring back the SHONEN JUMP Championships, the largest and most prestigious Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG tournament series in North America.  Adding a level of mystery to the event, a new Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s SHONEN JUMP Championship prize card will be revealed for the first time.

 

KDE’s SHONEN JUMP Championship series will begin April 25-26 in the “Big A” (Anaheim, CA) at the Anaheim Convention Center.  Each registrant will receive their KDE “official” identification card at the event.  The registration fee is $20, and each player will receive five booster packs just for participating.

 

“Duelists have patiently waited for Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. to outline our plans for the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME SHONEN JUMP Championships and now we are,” said Yumi Hoashi, Vice President of Card Business for Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. “The SHONEN JUMP Championships, by their very nature, are created to be enjoyed by as many players as possible and are some of the most celebrated events we hold each year.  Those who cannot make this SHONEN JUMP Championship can follow round-by-round coverage online at www.yugioh-card.com/en/events.”

 

SHONEN JUMP Championship Anaheim details:  The Anaheim Convention Center doors will open promptly at 8:00 a.m. for registration with Round One beginning at 10:00 a.m.  The top 16 finalists for the SHONEN JUMP Championship along with the top 32 Duelists of the Sunday Regional will qualify to participate in the 2009 U.S. National Championship, which will be held later in the year.

 

Great family fun:  The SHONEN JUMP Championship in Anaheim offers exciting Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG side events for moms, dads and brothers and sisters not in the main tournament.  The side events for both Saturday and Sunday include Win-a-Mat events, a Team Dueling competition, and special events for Duelists under 13.  There will also be a Regional Qualifier on Sunday.

 

SHONEN JUMP Championship prizes: Prizes include brand new Top 16 SJC game mats, Nintendo  DSi™ units with Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Stardust Accelerator World Championship 2009, Wii™ units and        Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Wheelie Breakers, a 32 GB iPod Touchinstalled with Konami Mobile Games, a paid trip to the U.S. National Championships, and a complimentary subscription to SHONEN JUMP magazine for the Top 16.

 

New Duelist Rankings:  KDE has developed their own proprietary ranking system, called COSSY [Konami Card Game Official Tournament Support System], which will be used at the first SHONEN JUMP Championship in Anaheim.  “By using COSSY in the first event it allows all players to start advancing up the rankings at the same time.  New Duelists have just as much chance to rise in the rankings as veterans.  This is the ranking system that is currently used in Japan,” added KDE’s Hoashi.

 

For more information on Konami Digital Entertainment, the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME or the SHONEN JUMP Championship series, please visit www.yugioh-card.com.

PTQ Austin in Salt Lake City

I was just told that the PTQ I scheduled has a date conflict with the GP Trial (Seattle). I have contacted my site – The Salt Palace and they tell me that they have a room available on May 23rd – so I am likley switching to that date.

If I can get a date in June or July that doesn’t conflict with other PTQ’s I will do so.

Yes the PTQ in Salt Lake does conflict with the San Jose  PTQ that Conan is running. However its 11 hours drive away – so I don’t think this will affect anyone.

Tim