Rumors of WoW TCG's demise greatly exaggerated
by Michael Sacco 
Nov 15th 2009 at 5:15PM
Apparently not that reliable! Catching wind of the rumor, Upper Deck responded through its Senior Director, Scott Gaeta, saying that not only was the TCG not "over," but that it was steaming along right on schedule. Said Gaeta:
Good enough for me. Interneterati who heard the rumor attributed the TCG's purported demise to a myriad of culprits, including Blizzard's new microtransactional Pet Store, Activision grand poobah and laser-precise IP exploiter Bobby Kotick, or even the iron tabletop gaming fist of Magic: The Gathering. Of course, none of those ended up being the case."Plans for future sets have been moving along as normal and we even announced a good chunk of the 2010 product schedule a week ago. Just recently the Upper Deck team was at Blizzard to discuss plans for 2011 and just today we were at Blizzard to get a sneak peak of Icecrown Citadel, to help in the development of the 2010 Raid Deck and Treasure Packs. We have lots of great plans for 2010 and beyond and look forward to another great year for the WOW TCG. Thanks for your enthusiasm and support! "
Me, I'm glad to see that the TCG isn't going away, but let's start seeing some of those cool vanity loot card items attainable through other means, yeah? And the rocket mount an Engineering item.
Filed under: Fan stuff, News items, Rumors
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
AltairAntares Nov 15th 2009 5:34PM
Sorry, but I've never quite gotten the point of TCGs, what exactly are you supposed to do with them? It seems like something you buy hoping in 10 or 20 years you'll be able to sell them for money, right until your wife throws them out...
Alex Ziebart Nov 15th 2009 5:40PM
You play with them, usually.
thesane Nov 15th 2009 5:46PM
Trading CARD GAME. As in: you play the game, using the cards.
I used to play the Star Wars TCG and Magic. And I actually prefere the WoW TCG, it is a lot of fun.
Urza Nov 15th 2009 5:46PM
They're card games. What makes them "collectible" is that the packs are randomly packed, and that the games used a general common scheme of rarities for each card; Common, Uncommon, Rare, Ultra Rare. The typical 12 card per pack distribution usually goes... 8 commons per pack, 3 uncommons per pack, 1 rare per pack, 1 ultra rare per BOX.. the ultra rare either taking the place of a common or rare in the pack depending on the company.
Max Nov 15th 2009 5:46PM
The idea is to play them ^^
Having said that I do admit that that does not happen as often as it should with these games.
Clydtsdk-Rivendare Nov 15th 2009 7:50PM
@Urza
Of the four biggest TCGs right now (or rather, the only ones that I know for sure are profitable because I still see new packs released at the local card shop) the only one I play right now is Yugimonz.
It uses a rarity scheme of $4 MSRP packs, nine cards per pack, seven commons and a normal rare guaranteed in each pack (beyond packaging screwups which happen every now and then, usually for the better), and then either a Secret Rare (originally 1/72, were later removed and re-added, seems to be higher now--based on the usefulness of the card goes anywhere from $10 to $250--the latter being DAD when it was new), Ultra Rare (1/12, was 1/24 for a while, goes for up to $50 again depending on the card), Super Rare (1/5, was 1/6 when UR was 1/24--mostly under $15 but occasionally higher), or another common; it used to replace the rare but newer packs replace a common instead. The highest mass-release promo price I've seen was Crush Card Virus (for those who watched the original anime and quit when YGO became uncool, don't worry as it's much nerfed from the anime version--though QQers got it banned anyway... no, I don't own one) which was $250 minimum (these are Ebay prices I'm talking about BTW) and as high as twice that.
For shiny cardboard.
I play for fun personally, and most of my useful shiny cardboard is under $20 Ebay should I choose to get rid of it.
Fun fact for WOWTCG players who may or may not know it: YGO, in the US at least, was a collaborative effort between Upper Deck and Konami; the latter recently kicked the former out (bad move IMO, but this post is already huge). Take from that what you will.
Katalliaan Nov 15th 2009 5:38PM
Nice take on a Mark Twain quote, but IIRC that's not the way he worded it...
NOV14 Nov 15th 2009 6:47PM
Yea, it's "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Still, +1 internet for the effort.
Kanap Nov 15th 2009 6:19PM
Hurray more TCG loots for those who play.
Pemberton Nov 15th 2009 6:55PM
I swear they're never to be had at the stores I frequent in Pittsburgh. Target, KMart, WalMart. I can never find a set when I am in the mood to try it out.
frzamonkey Nov 15th 2009 7:02PM
i have 7 or 8 binders of Marvel/DC "Vs. System" cards (the predecessor to the WoW TCG) collecting dust in my closet. This game featured the marketing might of the Marvel/DC characters, and is similar to the wow game, but upperdeck chucked it to the weeds as soon as a more exciting IP came along.
I'd like to think that this one will not suffer the same fate when some cute Japanese thing with pink fuzzy ears comes along in 6 months or so...
Kanap Nov 15th 2009 9:37PM
Pokemon is still going man..... and this TCG has been out for a tleast a year to my knowledge.
zulek Nov 15th 2009 7:19PM
i was thinking he got the title from the Rise Against song "Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated," but he probably doesn't even listen to them, even though they are the greatest band to ever write music. It is proven fact ;)
Nublet Nov 15th 2009 8:00PM
First thing I thought of when i read the title of the article =)
slartibart Nov 15th 2009 8:15PM
That's a fine and good theory, but as was stated before, they were actually quoting Mr Samuel Clemens.
JoeHelfrich Nov 15th 2009 7:20PM
Wow. A long way from Collectormania, Scott.
Velaxis Nov 15th 2009 7:49PM
One thing that bothers me about the TCG is its crossover with the online game and the implication of spending real money - in some cases lots of it. Fans of pets and mounts want to add to their collections and work towards the ingame achievements for them, and it seems to me pretty poor that some of the most desirable mounts/pets in the game are tied to the random luck of buying cards/buying on ebay factors. You could buy oodles of tcg packs and not get the pet or mount you're after, or you could look on ebay and wince at the ridiculous amounts people are charging for such cards. $1000 for a mount? Come on, that's just silly. And ultimately it means someone with cash to throw away can acquire ingame items that the majority can't afford to. And that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don't think it's something Blizz should encourage, and I'm personally quite pleased about the new pets they are selling via their in-game store, which seem of equal quality to the cool tcg pets and at a sensible price. But in my personal view, and biased of course, I don't think that people who are better off should be able to get ingame items that the majority can't. That goes totally against the spirit of playing well to get rewards. It should not be about your bank balance.
drakolord Nov 15th 2009 8:59PM
Actually, funny thing about the rocket mount. Apparently 'Love is in the Air' is getting an update with a boss, just as the Midsummer Fire Festival as Ahune and Brewfest has Direbrew. It will drop a special mount; the Big Love Rocket
RobertHMayfire Nov 16th 2009 1:47AM
Okay those rumors have been dealt with. Now Upper Deck can we have some info on WoW Miniatures? Anything? Its no fun playing a great game when everyone around me is loosing the hype. First I hear the rumor that Onyxia raid set is cancelled and I haven't heard much about the next set.
Bossy Nov 16th 2009 3:06AM
CCG are just way too expensive to keep going.
The expansions come way too quick. You need almost 300 Euros per expansion to keep up. And so no one will play the same game over and over when they have to pay 1.0000 Euros a year.
There were really really good CCG out there over the last 15 years, but they were all killed by the greed of the publishers.
A strange limit is put upon these CCG: in order to keep your players playing you need a new set every 4 months ... and by this mechanic you allianate players who don't want to put out the money anymore to upgrade.
So most people who are interested focus on the game leader in CCG (Magic) and most other card games just fade away after 2 years of money making.
I have NO doubts Blizzard will cut it the moment they'll loose money on it. And I think this is happening right now (together with that miniatures game btw - which simply is dreadful).
NOT everything Blizzard touches is turning into gold.
It shows two things: they should stick to video games (and the lucrative merchandising of puppets and books etc) AND their new MMO is not automatically a new massive hit either... They will have to work for it ... hard.