CCG's - The End of the Road?

A recent comment on a message board really got me thinking over the last few days. A booth holder at a fairly large gaming convention made the claim that the Collectable Card Game as a gaming vehicle was dead, and that apart from the 2-3 games that will inevitably survive (Magic, VS and L5R), the chances of a new game breaking into the industry are zero. Not only have most themes been covered in one shape or form, but the economic crisis that the industry has been collapsing under for a while now has finally taken its toll.

Now is not the time to be releasing a new card game, just ask Decipher. The two key magazines, Scrye and Inquest are sadly no more and recent news includes the demise of WizKids and the scaling back of Upper Deck - both significant players in the industry. On top of that, it seems that the playing community is tired of investing in yet another new game only to find it barely makes its first expansion and the support for it disappears long before there is any inclination that the game has died. I've lost count of the number of CCG's that I have bought into over the years that failed - Netrunner, Cyberpunk CCG, Shadowrun, X-Files, Call of Cthulhu, Spycraft, 7th Sea, Street Warriors. Many were excellent games and with the right company behind them could have been big sellers that could still be drawing crowds at GenCon and emptying shelves in gaming stores.

So, is this the end for card games, or is there something out there that could be the last gasp saviour? Firestorm Ink's DCG concept, despite it needing a lot of actual development still as far as marketing and sustainability goes could be an interesting proposition, and I say this not because I work for them, but because it's a concept that doesn't have PROFIT as it's driving force. It's a game design concept put together to generate great, affordable, and versatile entertainment. Wasn't that what the industry was all about before the big corporate entities changed the face of it?

It's no coincidence that apart from Fight Klub, 2008-2009 has not seen the release of any major Collectable Card Game. They've done their dash. People are too aware of how they quickly become black holes that suck your spare money into and so have become more discerning at what games offer beyond just the gameplay. A game needs to be an entertainment experience rather than just dueling across the table with a friend. It's become quality not quantity, and alas few games in the last few years can truly call themselves quality products. Flashy graphics, cool art, and jazzy packaging don't cut it, they never have, but gamers have finally woken up to the fact.

So yes, the CCG industry is at its lowest point in years. Most of the minor games have now bitten the dust and their players have returned to the big players - Magic the Gathering, VS, L5R, and Yu-Gi-Oh. There are holdouts, as there are with anything but unless someone truly can come up with the next big thing in Collectable Card Games, the End of the Road is just there, on the horizon...