A good number of readers probably remember the great trading card games in the 90s and early 2000s and the war between them. Entire empires were built around the three most popular; Pokemon, Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh! The former two already had anime, manga, video games, toys and collectible cards when Yu-Gi-Oh! appeared out of nowhere and erected its empire in the United States, though it was already fairly popular in its homeland of Japan. A few iterations and tons of games each later, only one has waned in popularity. Pokemon, with Nintendo’s blessing, recently hit Android. Yu-Gi-Oh!, meanwhile, already has two fairly popular games on Android. This spring, a third, called Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, will hit Android.
Konami didn’t release any details on the new game whatsoever, though. The release window and name is all we have. Presumably, it will be another classic card game affair, like the other two mobile Yu-Gi-Oh! titles, but with some sort of twist that differentiates it from the existing games. The name may imply a link with games on other platforms, which would make sense since this release will coincide with slated releases on the Nintendo 3DS and an online console and PC cross-platform game that, at the moment, is unnamed. Further details will likely come down the pipeline as development progresses, though the release window suggests the game is almost ready.
The massive popularity of Yu-Gi-Oh! makes jumping on the mobile bandwagon a no-brainer, but they will soon have stiff competition with the likes of Pokemon GO. Presumably, Konami is aware of this and have something special planned to make the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise stand out in a meaningful way to both longtime fans and prospective newcomers. Gaming fans may know that after some controversy involving Koji Igarashi and Hideo Kojima, creators of beloved series Castlevania and Metal Gear Solid respectively, Konami has announced it will be toning back its video game efforts. The company soon after announced it was not pulling out of video games entirely, though. That said, we could start seeing a huge shift toward mobile with Konami’s IPs and licenses, though there has been no word on the subject. Konami is unlikely to leave fans in the dark for long, though, since speculation running wild isn’t always a good thing.