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Tekken Card Tournament opens the door for usable physical card purchases

In an effort to stimulate sales, Bandai Namco is taking a unique approach to Tekken Card Tournament, offering up physical cards that will work within the game.

Ozzie Mejia

August 27, 2015 11:22 AM

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If any trend has taken off in gaming over the past couple of years, it's been the digital collectible card game. Blizzard has definitely nailed down the formula and is dominating the market with Hearthstone, while there are also some other notable entries in the genre, like The Pokemon Trading Card Game and the upcoming Elder Scrolls Legends card game. Meanwhile, Bandai Namco is star-crossed in that while Tekken Card Tournament was among the first card games to hit mobile devices, it has not fared as well as the publisher might have hoped.

That's why it appears Bandai Namco is taking a new approach with Tekken Card Tournament's new 3.35 update. According to Venture Beat, users can now enter a shop for actual physical cards that will work within the game. Manufacturer FabZat will print over 190 rare cards on demand, each of which will include a QR code to then scan into the game. The cards will also include AR capabilities that will see physical characters pop up when scanned with a camera app.

If nothing else, even if this tactic to boost sales doesn't work out, Bandai Namco may be ahead of the game here and may have opened up a path that other digital card game creators may want to consider down the road. Tekken Card Tournament is available as a free-to-play game on the App Store and Google Play store.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?