A Corporate Blunder, or How Konami Managed to Dominate Yu-Gi-Oh! Game Licensing (Part 2)

     On the other side of the coin, we have the company known as Konami. Kagemasa Kozuki founded Konami on March 21, 1969 and incorporated it nearly 4 years later on March 19. 1971. The company began as a rental shop and repair for jukeboxes before business shifted to building amusement machines for video arcades. They made their first coin-based video game in 1978 and began exporting to the US in 1979.

In the 1980s, Konami came into its own as a video game developer. Frogger, Super Cobra, Time Pilot, Rock'n Rope and Track & Field were massive commercial successes. However, Konami also branched out into the home console market. They're most famous for the creation of the Castlevania, Contra, and Metal Gear franchises in that space along with other hits. By the time the 1990s came, Konami was a $300 million company with a reputation for making strong and popular games. This was their reputation when Konami received the Yu-Gi-Oh! video game license.

YU-GI-OH! MONSTER CAPSULE: BREED AND BATTLE

    Released on July 23, 1998, MCBB became the first Yu-Gi-Oh! video released not only on console, but also overall in the franchise. Instead of being the card game we're familiar with though, it was instead based off of Capsule Monster Chess. Region Freedom is useful when it comes to understanding more details on this game than I'm willing to put pen to paper on. Suffice to say that 255,490 copies sold in Japan as an exclusive is a respectable number. The point is that MCBB was a solid success despite it not being Duel Monsters. 

    What's more important for the modern game was that MCBB came with Konami's first ever printed cards.

    These collector's cards proved Konami was able to make their own quality cards and proved instrumental in getting the license. But how did it become possible for them to gain control of said license?

    The 1998 fiscal year saw the beginnings of the collapse of Bandai's business empire. The stupendous failure of the Apple Pippin meant Bandai was in the red for the first time since it had become listed on the stock market. As a major loser in the console gaming market, Bandai had hopes of rebounding from the major loss. However, the next fiscal year proved to be as bad as the last. While information on this is scarce, it can be guessed that the Bandai YGO CG wasn't performing that well in the face of a downturn in the CCG market. While Yu-Gi-Oh! itself was increasing in popularity, Bandai's game was dull and uninspired. 

That heavily displeased creator Kazuki Takahashi. While again detail on the matter are scarce, it's believed that Konami executives met with Takahashi and convinced him to give control of the Yu-Gi-Oh! CCG license to themselves. Bandai, in the midst of their own problems and lagging sales, acquiesced to the change of licensee. 

With full control, they were able to create their next Yu-Gi-Oh! game without being restricted on what they could do.

What they created was Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SHONEN JUMP SPECIAL EDITION!! - Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game Official Guide Starter Book! (Part 1)

Image
     The Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game Duel Monsters Official Guide Starter Book (「遊戯王 オフィシャルカードゲーム デュエルモンスターズ 公式ガイドスターターブック」 Yugiō Ofisharu Kādo Gēmu Dyuerumonsutāzu Kōshiki Gaido Sutātā Bukku ), or just the Official Guide Starter Book (「公式ガイドスターターブック」 Kōshiki Gaido Sutātā Bukku ) is a 130 page Guide Book published by Yu-Gi-Oh! copyright owner Shueisha on May 5, 1999.  It was released as a special edit in conjunction with the newest version of the Yu-Gi-Oh CCG from KONAMI.      The promotional card given with one's purchase is the 2nd ever Ultra Secret Rare. This time it's the Fusion Monster Card "Flame Swordsman." While this is the 1st Fusion Ultra Secret Rare, this card is further historic by being the first card with alternative art. Games use alternative art to make new copies more distinctive from their original counterparts while also potentially adding nuggets of lore for their worlds. However, the alt-art of "Flame Swordsman" is also from the manga
Read more

THE NEW RULES!! - Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game Official Guide Starter Book! (Part 2)

Image
 (Part 1 can be found here .)       As mentioned previously, the Official Guide Starter Book held a lot of information for the aspiring Duelist. The most important of this, and what would further build upon the foundations of the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" Collectable Card Game as a whole, are the EXPERT RULES!!! The Expert Rules (「エキスパートルール」 Ekisupāto Rūru ) were the next rule set introduced by KONAMI. Previously, the Official Rules were made with the idea that beginners could learn the game rather quickly without needing to know any extra mechanics. While it was interesting to play like Yugi and friends, there were issues with the Official Rules that made it less interesting and more luck based than other card games in the market.   The First Wall speaks of most of the issues in more detail. Suffice to say that KONAMI and Takahashi-Sensei adjusted the rule into something more strategic for advanced players. Let's consider them now: FUSION SUMMONING With the Official Rules, one had t
Read more

OCG Official Rules (Vol.1)

Image
    On release, the Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game (OCG) established many of the core rules and mechanics by which we play to this day. However, there have also been many changes in the past 23 years that many people aren't aware of. This post is intended to put this information down into the English-speaking space for posterity.      The OCG Official Rules ( 公式ルール Kōshiki rūru) were the first rules under which Yu-Gi-Oh! was played. They lasted from release to the official date of April 20, 2000. As mentioned previously, these rules established the core tenets of Konami's Yu-Gi-Oh! to the world of cardboard. So before we cover the unique elements of the Official Rules on release, we'll first be covering the basics of the Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG Official Rules BASIC RULES AND CONCEPTS     Yu-Gi-Oh! has both players begin with a minimum of 40 cards in their Decks. The Deck consists of the Monsters, Spells and Traps that the player will be using in that Duel. At the start of the Duel,
Read more