"All those low-tier cards? How are you supposed to win with that? You need the ace cards from the very beginning! Isn't that basically an automatic victory?" Reading the comments flooding his livestream chat, Louis suddenly froze.
That... actually sounded reasonable. If he could assemble the entire combo chain, it would undoubtedly be a devastating win condition. The only problem was that the deck's early-game strength was lacking. If he couldn't survive the opening turns, the combo would never have a chance to shine.
But what if he combined it with Blue-Eyes White Dragon support cards? The powerful early-game pressure of Blue-Eyes could carry him through the opening rounds, while the Dark Magician package would dominate the mid and late game. Early game, mid game, and late game, all covered. It sounded like the perfect deck.
Louis's eyes lit up with excitement.
Half an hour later...
After topping up his account yet again, Louis finally completed the fantasy deck he had envisioned, then reality arrived. Staring blankly at the Dark Magician on his opponent's field and the Dragon Master Knight on his own side, he silently examined the cards in his hand.
The Dark Sage combo was missing one piece.
The Blue-Eyes package lacked The Flute of Summoning Dragon.
He had Thousand Knives, but no Dark Magician to use it.
With his final shred of hope, he drew a card that might turn the duel around. Looking at the card named Sage in his hand, a card specifically designed to work with Dark Magician Girl and summon Dark Magician from the hand, Louis's smile vanished instantly. His expression became completely blank.
"Find the guy who said Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes together are unbeatable. Give him a three-day mute in the chat, then pour cement over him and sink him into the river."
The chat immediately exploded with laughter. Since the launch of Yu-Gi-Oh!, countless players with VR headsets, or access to nearby VR experience centers, had rushed in to try the game.
Thanks to the popularity of the manga and anime adaptations, the learning curve had been streamlined considerably. Compared to the version from John's dream memories, this Yu-Gi-Oh! was far easier for newcomers to understand.
At first glance, the rules seemed complicated. But after a duel or two, most players could already grasp the fundamentals and start enjoying themselves. More importantly, several beginner-friendly starter decks had been prepared for new players.
One of the most popular was Joey's Warrior deck. Unlike the Blue-Eyes White Dragon deck used by Kaiba or the Dark Magician deck centered around Yugi's iconic cards, which relied heavily on monster effects, spell cards, and trap card interactions, the Warrior deck followed a much simpler philosophy: Attack and then attack harder.
The deck was filled with aggressive warrior monsters boasting high attack values and supplemented by numerous attack-boosting spell cards. It didn't care much about complicated combos. It simply charged forward and smashed the opponent's defenses head-on.
Even if its early-game momentum stalled, cards like Time Wizard, Devil's Dice, and other luck-based effects could still turn the tide of battle in spectacular fashion. Of course, whether those cards actually worked depended entirely on fate.
For someone with insanely good luck, they were miracle-makers.
For everyone else? It was probably time to go to sleep.
On its first day alone, Yu-Gi-Oh! attracted more than 500,000 players and generated over 2.6 million dollars in revenue. The game immediately climbed to the top of the VR platform's bestseller rankings.
When third-party analytics platforms released the statistics, the entire gaming industry was stunned. Compared to previous blockbuster titles developed by PixelPioneers Games, these numbers might have looked modest, but context was everything.
The VR market was still relatively small. Current estimates suggested that domestic VR headset ownership remained below three million units. Even after accounting for VR experience centers and shared-access venues, the total active VR player base was only around five million. Under those circumstances, for a VR-exclusive title distributed solely through Warwick's channels, Yu-Gi-Oh!'s performance was exceptional.
Even more impressive was the game's player reception. Although Yu-Gi-Oh! featured in-game purchases, players generally felt the monetization was fair. Thanks to the extensive design knowledge John had inherited from his dream memories, the game's balance between card power, rarity, and deck-building possibilities had reached an unusually mature level.
The interactions between cards felt meaningful.
Deck archetypes were distinct.
Combo chains were satisfying to execute.
Most importantly, both paying players and free-to-play players felt rewarded.
Players willing to spend money could obtain rare cards more quickly and gain access to additional deck archetypes and strategies. This gave them a compelling reason to purchase card packs.
At the same time, free-to-play users were far from excluded. The starter decks were competitive enough to remain enjoyable, daily missions awarded a steady flow of currency, and the PvE system provided numerous opportunities to earn additional rewards. As long as a player's luck wasn't absolutely terrible, building one or two fully functional decks wasn't particularly difficult.
Of course, expecting to spend neither money nor time while obtaining as many decks as paying players was unrealistic. No game could work that way.
Faced with Yu-Gi-Oh!'s outstanding performance, Warwick wasted no time. According to its agreement with PixelPioneers Games, the title had already proven its commercial potential. Now it was Warwick's turn to push promotion efforts to the next level.
Across offline VR experience centers, dedicated Yu-Gi-Oh! duel arenas began appearing alongside customized VR hardware designed specifically for the game. Warwick spared no effort in its marketing campaign.
Meanwhile, inside PixelPioneers Games, John was busier than ever. Contrary to what many players imagined, the period immediately after a game's release was often the most exhausting phase of development.
Before launch, there was still time to breathe. After launch, there wasn't.
New content had to be planned.
Player feedback had to be reviewed.
Balance issues required attention.
Unexpected bugs needed immediate fixes.
Every decision ultimately landed on John's desk.
At the same time, development of the Metal Gear Solid: Phantom Pain DLC, Snake Eater, was nearing completion.
As if that weren't enough, Martel had finally returned to the studio after spending months traveling. The planning phase for the team's next major project was about to begin, and Martel needed to discuss numerous details with John.
As a result, John's schedule was overflowing. He was so busy that he barely had time to rest, let alone enjoy the leisurely lifestyle many players imagined whenever they saw him posting updates on the company's official social media account.
Inside the Yu-Gi-Oh! project office, Koch looked toward John. "Boss, are we transferring the majority of the team to the PC and mobile versions next?"
Although Yu-Gi-Oh! was performing brilliantly on VR platforms, everyone understood a simple reality. The future of VR looked promising, but the mainstream gaming market still belonged to PC and mobile devices. If the company wanted to maximize profits and reach a broader audience, expanding onto additional platforms was inevitable.
John shook his head. "No rush. The art assets and core systems are already complete, so porting them won't be particularly difficult. What matters most right now is the upcoming PvE content."
He paused before continuing. "That content will directly affect the game's long-term retention and future revenue. We need to make sure we get it right."
Koch understood immediately. His concern wasn't really development speed; what worried him was the possibility that competitors would seize the opportunity to release similar card games before PixelPioneers Games expanded onto other platforms.
However, John remained completely unconcerned. Because Yu-Gi-Oh! wasn't just another card game.
Anyone could copy spell cards.
Anyone could imitate trap cards.
Anyone could create monsters with effects.
But recreating the balance between thousands of card interactions, deck archetypes, combo chains, and carefully tuned values was an entirely different challenge. Without the knowledge preserved in his dream memories, even John and his team would have struggled to create such a system from scratch while maintaining balance. That was why he wasn't afraid of imitators.
Others could copy the appearance.
They could mimic the interface.
They could borrow the basic concepts.
But they couldn't reproduce the soul of the game, unless they copied everything directly.
And if someone was foolish enough to do that, the resulting lawsuit would be a straightforward victory. Who knew? They might even earn back a substantial amount of money from the settlement.