1710956:
Personally I think for the game as a game overall Yu-Gi-Oh! will benefit from the take over, which I will explain in the following section.
One obvious reason on why Konami may take full control is that the profit margins may just be better; however, I don't think this is the sole reason because of the messy legal battle and potential for panic in the player base. My personal opinion is that Konami was upset with how UDE was distributing the game. Konami designs the cards, but UDE determines everything about how players obtain them. For instance a card can be common in a set in Japan, but over here it can be a secret rare (similar to the level of loot cards, imagine if you needed loot Slashdances or The Red Bearons for your deck). UDE has over the past year or so began a policy of printing less and making the better cards harder to get. If you don't believe me check the past market values of the cards in the top decks ( I say past because of the current issues going on could skew results). The average cost of a card in the tier one tournament winning deck is probably around $20-25. As a result of tournament decks costing easily into the $1000+ range people have left the game, refuse to start playing the game, or have become angry with the difficulty to keep playing the game. People all the time at my store complain about the cost to play Yu-Gi-Oh! and everyone agrees it is too much.
Now a savvy person may say, "Hey, why don't you play with the more common, cheaper foriegn version of the card?" The reason you can't do that is that UDE purposely changed the back of the English Yu-Gi-Oh! card, so a player can not play with foriegn Konami cards and English UDE cards in the same deck. Under UDE tournament policy it is illegal to play with essentially non-UDE made Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. If you knew the market value of some of the cards these factors make a huge cost burden on the player. An example is Dark Armed Dragon Japanese = $15.00 (only a rare) and in English = $180 (secret rare, which means one per case...and the set was short printed).
If Konami has control over the game then they can determine how easy the cards are to get and ultimately how the market value of the card, because Konami controls the supply. If they do it right, which I feel they will given the current prices of their cards, then Konami satifsfies all of the problems with the cost to play and barrier to entry of the game. What you have to understand about Yu-Gi-Oh! is there is no Block Constructed, Vintage, Extended, or even great limited play like draft. All players have is constructed with a banned and restricted list ranging from all the sets ever printed. So when Dark Armed Dragon is $180(need 2 for top deck) and Crush Card Virus is $280 (need for every deck, like ODJ for WOW or Black Lotus for Vintage MTG) it is exciting for a player without infinite money when a new company takes control. The bad news is for the people that get stuck holding the expensive cards when they drop if they become more available. With the current press release I think people will have plenty of time to make a decision and you can not make everyone happy; therefore, I would rather do stuff to make the game more affordable and accessable to people to play, which is not what UDE has been doing over the past year.
Personally I really hope Konami makes an effort to reduce the cost of playing Yu-Gi-Oh! because the theft and violence at Yu-Gi-Oh! events is unparalled compared to other games. Since the cards are worth so much it attracts a lot of criminals and criminal behaivor. Almost very regional in my surrounding area there is a story of a kid getting jumped outside a tournament site for his deck and/or collection. If people's decks weren't worth $1000-2000 then the risk and occurance of these types of events would be less. UDE over the past year has had a policy with Yu-Gi-Oh! that has pushed the values and cost to play up. I am hoping that Konami changes this.
Another important factor to note about Konami controlling the distribution is that the sync-up between Japan and North America could be a reality. Right now they are about 1-2 sets ahead, but if Konami does everything they could try and get everyone on the same page. A big reason on why North American Yu-Gi-Oh! has so many little things different about it is to specialize UDE's product. For example if Konami releases a set first and then UDE gets it why would you buy UDE's product when you already ordered it months ago overseas. With one company controlling everything all players around the world have a better chance of eventually having access to all the cards at once.
Another reason why I think the game will overall be fine is that Konami has been designing the cards for over a decade and Yu-Gi-Oh! is the #2 TCG. I know UDE helped contribute to Yu-Gi-Oh!'s success, but I do not think the game will die as a result of a lost licensed distribution network. As I have mentioned before Konami has already taken the steps to do a smooth transition in this aspect of the game. Since the design team is going to be the same don't think the take over will affect this department. This is good for the player base because unless Konami was planning major changes to the TCG, nothing as far as mechanics, gameplan, and rules will drastically change.
The important thing to watch about this situation is how the OP is structured. This is the biggest area of uncertainity and as we know a huge cornerstone in a game's success. Konami should know this and I do not think they would attempt this take over, in these economic times, if they didn't think they could handle it. We shall see what happens; however, it is important to note that UDE will lose a huge revenue stream from this takeover. It could be bad because the company as a whole could collapse and all its games slowly die, because UDE can not take as many risks because they can not fall back on Yu-Gi-Oh! anymore. I am optimistic and hoping that it kicks UDE in the butt to make sure that there now true flagship brand (WOW) takes off.
Here's my 2c on this and Yu-Gi-Oh.
I used to play Yu-Gi-Oh, quit a little while before the sets with Lightsworns, Dark Armed Dragon/Allure and GBs' popularity rise. When I came back for fun one week, the game was terrible. The only people that stood a chance were those with $1000+ decks, there was no possibly way to have a chance without spending heaps of money. Every deck has some unnecessarily expensive card thanks to UDE's shenanigans explained in the quoted post.
So I ignored it for a while, assumed Yu-Gi-Oh would do what they usually do and make some gamebreaking new forbidden/limited list. I recently came back to see how it was doing, and if I thought it couldn't get any worse, I was sorely mistaken. Even more money driven than before, ONLY people who spend LOTS of money can possibly stand more than what, 3 turns. It's pathetic. I didn't even have any fun AT ALL playing, it was utter decimation. Back in the day, it was still OK to lose because you had fun playing the game, but now it's just - you lose. In a few turns. Forget long games with back and forth advantages, if one person spent more money than you, you get destroyed. Don't stand a chance. I can't stress that enough. I was seeing it at every table, the only 'close games' if you can even call them that were between the people who spend as much money as they can to get every good card.
Anyway that's my rant. I haven't read past page 2 btw so sorry if I missed something.
