Digimon TCG

[Audio] Hello, I'm Luis Almodóvar and I would like to apologize for using a recording, I'm currently recovering from a cold. I will be talking a newish card game, Digimon TCG, that has grown significantly in the two years of its release..

[Audio] I will cover a description of their products, the marketing strategies they have done, distribution channels, pricing and promotions as of today..

[Audio] Digimon has been around for roughly 22 years, it first came out as an animated series in the late 90s. Contrary to popular belief it was not meant to be the competition for Pokémon. The franchise released a version of a card game in the early 2000s, but the gameplay was confusing so it did not last long. Eventually it just became a memory, until their 20th anniversary was coming up and Bandai decided to reintroduce the card game with a simpler way to play and incorporated a unique take on their game compared to other card games such as Yugioh!, MTG and even Pokémon. For Yugioh! There is a general rule that you can only summon a monster once per turn unless otherwise stated on the card, MTG has their Mana system, and Pokémon has their energy, and support items systems. Digimon incorporated a "memory" system, where the cost on the card is the amount of memory you would need to pay in order to use the card, if the amount you pay passes what you have, your turn passes. I found this interesting, because it can either help you or punish you. It gets competitive very quick, which is something that caught a lot of people's eyes when they introduced an app to help teach people how to play..

[Audio] Bandai keeps introducing new gameplays during each set they release. They release first in Japan and months later they get introduced into English sets. To regulate the use of decks or to keep the " meta" going, a ban list is incorporated. Although the ban list started affecting both Formats in English and in Japan, today they released the first separate lists. The products can be found mainly in card shops and can also be found in Walmart or Target. Although their main website also has a search bar in order to find local shops that carry their products. Tournaments are also held monthly in convention centers or online in order to push out more product and invites for the National Qualifiers happening in February next year..

[Audio] Wholesalers are generally the way card shops keep up with their products and are able to obtain the products that are available. For each set released you can coordinate an amount to be delivered every month, GTS Distribution is one of the main used distributors. You can also purchase straight from Bandai themselves, they also incorporate promotional cards that are released for free by playing one games they set up. Before the release of their regional size tournaments they made a game to test out their servers and interaction with players and gave out a promotional card just by participating, and you could get another one if you won 3 games. I found it to be quite entertaining and gave me flashbacks to Gameboy games..

[Audio] Similar to what I mentioned earlier about the Japanese and English metas, their products also have different pricing. Not just because of the region, but the boxes contain less cards and event packs are given out regularly in different regions. Some event packs can be found in local tournaments, store championship events, regionals, online events, etc..

[Audio] Last year there were a lot of online tournaments, and through these you could get the invite to the National Championship Finals and the exclusive cards, play mats and product from Bandai themselves. These products are highly sought after and get the attention from players and collectibles alike..

[Audio] I have played a lot of card games, spending most of my time with Yugioh and MTG with my friends, but Digimon has a lot of potential and I don't see it slowing down anytime soon. It will continue to grow, because Bandai has a good understanding of what their consumer wants, what will affect them is the releases to English versions and waiting long periods for each set..

[Audio] Thank you for your time.. References. Fernando, J. (2022): Distribution Channel. https:// www.investopedia.com/terms/d/distribution-channel.asp Kotler & Armstrong: Principles of Marketing 18 th ed. (2013 ) Kotler, P., Hibbard, J., Grayson, K. retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/marketing/The-marketing-actors.