About the Future of UniVersus and My Hero Academia CCG...

An interview with Luohan Wei, UVS Games Co-President, at Gen Con 2023. Luohan gives us insight into the future of UniVersus, IPs including Fighting Games and MHA, Organized Play plans, what UVS does for the LGS, and the most exciting parts of the next MHA set, JetBurn!
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Paul and Luohan's previous interview: • UVS Games Unchecked: O...
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[@Arshen]

Hm... I hope the comment at 14:14 doesn't meant they're going to try a Weiss Schwarz-type format. One of the bigger selling points for old UVS/UFS had was that you didn't have to worry about what IP was in your deck, unlike games like WS.

[@boeboe000]

Who is the talented person behind the camera getting these great shots??? They're doing excellent work and really enabling you to work some great editing magic!

[@MaindeckGames]

I had the team-up of Maindeck Jordan and Maindeck Jason for this one!

[@RisingPhoenixOdysseySSG]

Nice that you got some interviews with some of these companies. Wasn't able to go, but glad some i get to see videos like this that got to talk to reps from different games to get better perspective and outlook. Looking forward to more and insight on this years gen con experience

[@MaindeckGames]

I've got some plans for Gen Con content! We have two more interviews from the con, one interview done after the con with a game we learned about there dropping tomorrow, and I'll be doing a "top 5" video plus we'll have a group podcast as well!

[@andrewporat5981]

Luohan is the goat

[@nyghost9991]

Great video

[@MaindeckGames]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

[@nyghost9991]

I'm really excited for this, this system and upper decks system are NOT the same?? Am I thinking that right.....?

[@cetonis2767]

Correct, completely separate and unrelated games. UniVersus used to be called UFS (Universal Fighting System), which launched in 2006 and has been running more or less uninterrupted (though it's bounced ownership a few times) ever since. The VS System from Upper Deck is a reboot/reworking of the old VS System ccg, which ran from 2004-2008.

[@Japaninhimself]

Here are some other anime IP that are extremely popular and I would like to see in UVS. Demon Slayer. Bleach. Naruto. With boosters and starter decks.

[@MaindeckGames]

Great picks!

[@amiasg9305]

Those are in Union Arena, unfortunately, so licensing might be weird.

[@DaranDragon]

Different IPs are neat and all that but, the only reason Im playing UVS is because of the MHA representation and the fact that Magic is kinda meh these days between the focus on commander and universes beyond. I intend to play the MHA format for as long as it sticks around but, I dont really see myself playing the standard format, whatever they might call the new MHA->Forward format. If anything, Id might shift over to the new "Cowboy Bebop" format if that is what they shift to next but, thatd just mean Id stop playing with my MHA cards. Im not really looking to combine IPs like Weiss or the new direction of Magic. UVS is a good game and all but, for now Im only sticking around for MHA. Cowboy Bebop and Trigun were anime that I kept on the TV 23 some odd years ago when I was a preteen and didnt feel like grabbing the remote. They were alright anime at best but, for as much as people talk up those IPs, its just something they watched in the early 00s as a kid and havnt watched any anime since. Ive told my cousins who used to watch anime about it but not anime more Nd they were like "Bebop was so cool --back then-- I used to watch it all the time --back then--" before dropping the conversation and talking about the upcoming year of sports for their kids as school starts back up. Nostalgia can be lucerative but, its also quite a fleeting and fragile thing. Now that they have got rid of DLC they are going to burn through the MHA content kinda quickly. Heck, even if arcs like the pro hero exams and the school music festival are kinda "filler-y," they were packed full of characters and material to make cards from such as Gentle. It was free tendies for UVS to draw from. It was also a head scratcher that they didnt have character cards for Ochaco, Asui, and Ryukyu who were plot critical. Its like they were intending to break up the set in two or create a DLC for it and just canceled it at the last minute. With my gut feeling as an investor and considering all the things that Wei mentioned in the interview: If the quality of the Gencon promos were any indication to the future of the game, the abrupt desire to want to rebrand, and trying to inject new nostalgia bait IPs into the mix leads me to think that they are trying to make "UVS" more attractive to Wall Street before trying to go public. Whats weird though is that changing threir company from Jasco to Universus kinda locks them into the singular game. Itd be like calling Nintendo- "Mario" or Konami-"Yugioh" Rebrands are expensive and kinda wipe clean the slate of any name recognition they might have. Its why people are so confused as to why Elon changed the name of Twitter to X. Moves like those are kinda seen as idiotic unless they are trying to spin off debt or something.

[@MaindeckGames]

There will definitely be players who are interested in one IP or another, but I think the hope is to cast a wide net and get both players who like *one specific franchise* and also players open to combining them. Multiple formats in a game are only truly successful when a game is large enough, and presently it would be tough for UVS to support that with their current base, but the team is certainly optimistic about their ability to grow, and with a bigger playerbase their plans to support individual franchise formats as well as a combined one become more tenable. Your point about Bebop and Trigun (as an aside, it's Trigun Stampede, the 2023 show, not the old one) is exactly why those are Challenger decks and not full sets. It doesn't sound like there's a plan for (another) full set around Cowboy Bebop, but that those decks will support either self-contained play experiences for casual players, or be support for the yet-nameless multi-IP format. It sounds like more popular franchises like MHA will be the "tentpole" releases that come with boosters and starters to collect. I can imagine if they get a good range of those to bounce between - I see people saying things like Demon Slayer and Naruto, which would certainly garner interest - they just might be able to pull it off and bring the game more into the limelight. I'm not sure I share Luohan's highly optimistic view of being #1, but I admire the enthusiasm and I think there is a potential there for a big payoff if they can manage 1. great IPs, 2. solid design/development, and 3. good messaging and OP format support.

[@mrblue3525]

The company was named Jasco (Jason Company). They bought the company from Jason.. of course they were going to rebrand and it also helps with some of the bad reputation the company may have had when it was much smaller and harder for them to please all LGS’s. It’s unfortunate that you would want to leave because of MHA but what I’d say is.. on the interview it is mentioned that MHA will be around for the long haul. They can cycle sets out and remake characters.. Street Fighter has tons of characters that continued to get new versions. After they finish the “story arc” they could easily do Team up, vigilante, the movies, or just make characters as as they wish and not tie it to the storyline.

[@DaranDragon]

@@mrblue3525 By that logic. JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo should change their names too.

[@MeltinJohn2834]

The only kinda irritating thing about this is that Lohan starts almost every answer with "that's a great question" bruh please just answer 😂

[@UncannyGirl]

This interview with Luohan Wei makes me very sad. The mass market outside of Japan time and time again has proven that multi-IP based Trading Card Games fail. This is especially true when a beloved franchise does not have its own established IP for fans of the IP to fall back on. The lack of commitment to a single IP is why UFS nearly faded into obsurity (and most say it did.) The same mistake was made by WizKids' with the Dice Masters Dice TCG as the company ignored the truth that ALL local play was single IP focused and attempted to force cross-IP as the only option for higher level play. Even Magic: The Gathering is experiencing a drop-off of older players, as the company is forcing its Universes Beyond program to attempt to become the Fortnite of the TCG world. While Luohan Wei and the team at UVS Games should be proud of the TCG they stand behind, the interview suggests a huge misunderstanding of their current success. The simple truth is that as of right now, UniVerse is not a successful TCG... the My Hero Academia CCG is where their success is coming from. The My Hero Academia CCG may fall under the umbrella TCG they want to exist, the fans of the game are invested in the My Hero Academia IP not the actual UniVersus system. The second My Hero Acadamia fans are told they no longer have a decicated My Hero Academia CCG the player base will crumble overnight. (The mass majority of the players are in it for the promoted single IP CCG experience as fans of the IP.) The simple truth is that the desire to create this multiple IP TCG experience is the reason why the previous owners nearly tanked their own company. It's the reason why the company was in a position to be sold in the first place because it was failing. The concept that Luohan Wei (as new management) believes repeating the same huge mistake will go over differently this time around is a very scary perspective for fans of the My Hero Academia CCG. (The GenCon booth this literally proof that the My Hero Academia CCG game is succeeding where UFC/UniVersus is failing.)

[@MaindeckGames]

I think it's tricky to reduce the issues to simply the fact that they were multi-IP, especially when we can look to Weiss Schwarz as a multi-IP game that sells well (though its play numbers leave more to be desired). In the previous eras of UFS, for example, there are more confounds at play that are being ignored in this analysis - such as poor game development/balance, low-ceiling IP choice, and general economic factors (FFG took over UFS right in the middle of the 2008 recession). You are absolutely correct that UVS is doing well with MHA at the forefront - but of ALL the IPs UFS/UVS has had, MHA is the by far the most popular/biggest driver of sales (as anime fandom tends to sell more TCGs than any fighting game would). That's not necessarily a testament to the power of a single IP game, because it would have been expected for its sales to eclipse the likes of Soul Calibur and Seventh Cross either way. Who is to say by addressing some of the other potential issues, and using strong IPs like MHA across the board, the model can't succeed more than ever? I'd argue that lacking a solid precedent for it isn't a strong argument for its impossibility. I think UVS Games' plan is to get UVS to sell as well as Weiss, but with a solid game behind it as well. That's a potential recipe for success, and I think you have to admire the passion and optimism with which UVS is approaching the task. It may be herculean, but the company has never had the financial backing that it has now - not under Sabertooth, nor 2008 FFG, nor Jasco. I'm excited to see if they can pull it off.

[@cutecubus]

Whether or not MTG is losing older players, their LOTR set was one of the best selling of *all time.* Multi-IP isn't the problem, especially when it's currently relevant anime instead of various fighting games and original IP.

[@dippendots69]

Had the pleasure of getting a demo demo game from Luohan himself. Love his passion for the game and very excited to see where this game goes. Naruto 🥹?

[@MaindeckGames]

That's awesome, I love that he was getting into the trenches during the weekend too!