Upper Deck’s Entertainment division has been going through a variety of changes, but now the company is preparing to release a mix of new products based primarily around the Marvel brand. Trading card game (TCG) and Marvel fans have a lot of questions about what the staff at Upper Deck Entertainment has been up to lately and what they can expect for 2011. We sat down with Upper Deck’s Vice President of Marketing, Jason Masherah, to ask him the questions our fans have been wondering about.
Question: What is the state of the Vs. System Trading Card Game and will you be bringing it back?
Jason Masherah: “While we certainly appreciate that there is a loyal following for the Vs. System TCG, it did not continue to perform at levels strong enough to sustain it. Basically, we had some very passionate fans, some players who loved the Organized Play aspect of it, but not enough casual players to reach sales numbers we ultimately needed to support the game. We do not have intentions of bringing it back at this time, but I can’t say we haven’t explored that option because we do appreciate the fact that there is a following for it. The best way to qualify it is to say that game is on the shelf for now.”
Although UD no longer produces new Vs. System products, there are still pockets of fans who enjoy playing the game.
Question: Would you be willing to sell the Vs. System to another company who would get behind it?
Jason Masherah: “Well it’s not entirely accurate to say that we didn’t get behind it. We spent a tremendous amount on the Vs. System Organized Play program, promotional items, tournaments and much more. To answer the question, however, we do not have any intention of selling the Vs. System TCG at this time.”
Question: What happened to the World of Warcraft TCG?
Jason Masherah: “Our contract with Blizzard Entertainment ended and unfortunately we were not able to come to terms on a new agreement. I would call it an amicable split.”
Upper Deck produced a regular trading card game for World of Warcraft and this minatures game as well while the company was under contract with Blizzard
Question: Many Upper Deck employees ended up at Cryptozoic, which is now producing and distributing the World of Warcraft TCG. What happened there?
Jason Masherah: “Personally we wish those former Upper Deck staffers all the best. But professionally, we now view them as competitors.”
Question: Upper Deck was testing a new Marvel TCG less than a year ago. What happened to that and will Marvel fans see a new TCG any time soon?
Jason Masherah: “Our plan is to release a Marvel TCG in 2011. We have been in the development phase for quite some time of what that TCG will look like. We are excited to release details on it, but we do not want to have a situation like we had last time where we spend time and money promoting a product that’s just not ready. We will share details on the new Marvel TCG when we are close to releasing it, hopefully later on this year.”
Question: What is the status of your Organized Play division?
Jason Masherah: “When we release the new Marvel TCG we will announce details about our Organized Play programs. I will not put the cart before the horse, however. We’ve got to have the TCG ready before we share details on Organized Play. And it is a critical component of the success of a TCG, it’s one aspect of the business we will not neglect.”
Upper Deck is looking forward to launching their first Marvel release in quite some time when Thor trading cards hit shelves March 15
Question: Interest in the theatrical release of Thor is on the rise. What can fans expect from your Thor trading card release?
Jason Masherah: “We are very excited about the release as well, and I know people are really loving the first looks they are seeing through movie trailers and online exposure. Great photography will help bring the movie home for fans so that’s first. More importantly, however, is that there are plenty of great chase elements that will have collectors very excited. We’ve got some awesome sketch cards from top artists that will be included. We have autograph deals with Chris Hemsworth (star of Thor who also played George Kirk in Star Trek); Kenneth Branagh (Director of Thor and three-time Oscar nominee); Clark Gregg (plays Agent Phil Coulson, a reoccurring character in both Iron Man films and the upcoming Marvel films The Avengers and Nick Fury); Tom Hiddleston (plays Thor’s brother, Loki); Joshua Dallas (plays Fandral); and Jaimie Alexander (she plays Sif). There will be movie memorabilia cards as well. Where else can you get a card with Natalie Portman’s movie-worn pants on it?”
The film cell cards should be a big hit with collectors
Natalie Portman is one of the biggest actresses in the business today, now collectors can own a piece of her movie-worn memorabilia
Chris Hemsworth will have autograph cards in the set as well as movie-worn memorabilia cards
The one-of-one sketch cards came out better than we expected
UD partnered with a variety of great artists to bring these cards to fans
Artists really had fun with this projects and turned out some great final cards
We will be sharing more of these sketch card images on the new Upper Deck Entertainment Facebook Page and Twitter accounts
Autographs of the Mighty Thor can be found in Upper Deck's latest Marvel release
Question: There was quite an online controversy over Upper Deck cutting up movie props of Loki’s knives and Thor’s Hammer. What did you decide with regard to how those pieces will be used?
Jason Masherah: “Yes, and I want to thank all the fans for the passionate feedback we received on that discussion. We really took it to heart and listened to what our customers were saying. At this point we made the decision NOT to cut these pieces up and use them for trading cards. That is not to say we may not do so in the future. Our business is trading cards and these items would produce some very unique and collectible memorabilia cards most fans would really enjoy. We can appreciate those purists who hate the idea of seeing them cut up, so for now they’ve been granted a stay of execution, so to speak.
“It is important that those who were against us cutting these props up realize this was not the only hammer Thor used in the movie. In fact, it is a stunt hammer. Not everyone can own something like this so it is a unique opportunity to give several people the chance to own a piece of the history like this. We’ve brought a lot of smiles to people’s faces by producing memorabilia cards and that is not going to change.”
Off the chopping block (at least for now), the Thor stunt hammer and Loki stunt knives have been spared while staff review other ways we can use these items for trading card releases.
Check back early next week where we share Part 2 of this interview with Jason Masherah where he talks about other Marvel releases coming down the pipe, asks fans to share their thoughts on a sketch card question and discusses the past and the future of Upper Deck Entertainment. Don’t miss it! Also, if you’re a fan of Marvel or Upper Deck Entertainment products, make sure you are following us on Twitter and Facebook.
25 Comments
“Where else can you get a card with Natalie Portman’s movie-worn pants on it?”
I could tell you, but you don’t wanna know about it.
bring back the vs system! that was the best tcg ever!!!!!!!! marvel superstars will never be as close as good as that engine!
Vs. System is still the best card game ever produced. And, as we’ve been told by many an ex-staffer at UDE, it WAS still profitable. It just wasn’t hitting the numbers UDE liked.
I think the core TCG players have been burned too many times by UDE to invest in something new – Vs./WoW/UGO/Superstars…it’s hard to believe anything UDE tells us…why should this new game be any different? Why would we put our money into a game that will be dropped due to poor resource management on UDE’s part?
I never liked VS. very much.
I wish that UDE would be up front with its “costumers”. We’ve witnessed some of the shoddiest company/customer relations in the business world and have been thoroughly “burned” as Carlos put it. How about some genuineness from UDE. Admit that you’ve made mistakes, and try to make it right. Until then, I do believe you’ll have a really hard time winning anyone over.
I’m looking forward to the Thor movie product that you’ll be releasing, the packaging & inserts look great. The one thing that I’ve come to loathe is regarding the sketch cards. While they’re unique and extremely cool to collect, it would be over the top awesome to produce these cards by known artists that have worked on the title or character. There are too many unknown artist that are contracted and I have to say that some of the pieces fall flat. Thanks for giving me a voice.
Jose Reynoso
We Still love Vs. I have just finished building a “cube” and we are going to a draft next friday.
Take Vs of the shelf and get it back into production – it will sell!
UDE burned WAY to many bridges with it’s players and stores during the YuGiOh / WoW / Vs era. It would take a miracle for a new game from UDE to be embraced or played by the masses.
As a long-time CCG/TCG player, one-half of The Ring Has Chosen, and a long standing member of the Vs System Player Council, I find the comments regarding VS System difficult to swallow. We, the players, saw where the actual failings occurred at UDE regarding all of the games they produced. Siting lack of profitability is ridiculous when there was little or no marketing, failure to pay or redeem prizing from OP, overspending in organized tournaments while zero support for open play, and a complete lack of support from the highers-up.
The VS System engine was designed to be a universal gaming system, applicable to any license. There was/is rabid player support of the game in it’s prior incarnation, and the Player Organization continues to keep the game alive. If UDE isn’t going to move forward with the engine, then sell the damn thing to a company/group that knows how to market a game and let the only fan base that ever stood behind one of your games (WoW isn’t your game anymore) continue to play.
HomerJ
If it’s fun, competitive, widespread and lasting, then I will play it. UDE can promise the first 3, and if those go well I’d be willing to trust them for a little bit on the 4th.
I will echo the same thing that all the TCG players are telling you.
Either bring back the VS System, or sell it to someone who can so something with it.
Just look at WoW, another company picked up where you left off and they are succeeding with it.
Somewhere along the line, you lost your connection to the players, and things went horribly downhill for UDE. For once listen to the players..
After UDE abandoned VS system? I simply refuse to purchase any UDE product in the future and encourage others to do the same.
“It is important that those who were against us cutting these props up realize this was not the only hammer Thor used in the movie. In fact, it is a stunt hammer. Not everyone can own something like this so it is a unique opportunity to give several people the chance to own a piece of the history like this. We’ve brought a lot of smiles to people’s faces by producing memorabilia cards and that is not going to change.”
I believe most people understand there were multiple versions and amounts of Thor’s hammer created for the film. However, I do not believe that has anything to do with the reason(s)of those who conveyed their feelings that Upper Deck not destroy these “sought after gems”.
The Thor props are still original, artistic creations from a film and should be kept that way.
Once destroyed, the props cease to be the “sought after gems” Upper Deck so accurately described.
Again, thank you for offering readers an opportunity to weigh in with our views.
VS System was one of the best TCG engines to date. To call it a failure was a failure on the part of UDE and UD management. The fans loved it and you squandered it right along. Just let the license be sold so the game can live on. Even if you are waiting 4-8 years to try again, we won’t trust you.
Here’s what I hope to see in a future TCG that features Marvel characters: a TCG that is 100% relatable to the respective comic book character’s storyline.
Again, many VS fans including those of us who congregate at TCGWorkshop, have a great desire to play a TCG that supports the plot twsit, events and meta of a respective character, but mainly as it relates to that character’s comic book storyline.
VS seemed Primed to capture the comic book reader audience with the release of it’s first SpiderMan – SuperMan sets, but because of the command of the metagame that ultimately appears within a TCG structure, those respective sets… were not allowed to develop to their fullest potential. As a result, sales for those respective sets lanquished and thusly, VS’s potential customer base was not given the oppurtunity or stimulus it needed to grow.
I like so many others learned the mechanics of playing a TCG by playing VS. If surveyed, I’m sure many will agree with me after their own voice that getting the chance to finally play your favorite character or team affiliation is one of the most rewarding experiences ever for a comic book fan.
For me , it was the Heralds of Galactus. I actually finished top 4( out of 70) in a local celebration release. It was my best showing up to that point and I knew that I was going to do well that day just because I was playing the Heralds. I eventually bought 7 boxes of cards from that set as I was chasing after a few of the rares that that set provided. Good times.
Notwithstanding, it just seems that the focus is not to cater to the larger mass of comic book readers(1000000+), but to cater to the few(100) who understand what a TCG metagame is all about.
Dragoncon reported an attendance of over 40000 for it’s 2010 convention. This was an additional 5000 more than the reported gathering of 2009.
San Diego’s Comiccon boosted over 100000 visitors for it’s 2010 affair.
San Francisco’s Wondercon boost over 34000 in attendance for it’s 2010 gathering.
It’s almost a given that every major comic book convention (New York, Phoenix…) will have at least 34 – 35000 in attendance.
VS system is an excellent game engine. I would’nt change it at all. However, I would simply focus on the faithful who are already there. There are enough signs to conclude that there certainly would be an interest.
Silkmane
I would love for UDE to release a Vs related TCG that is long lasting and fun to play.
I don’t know if that will happen but let’s think of the now, not the past.
VS is dead (ask Ike) but we still play Vs as a globe.
I will still entertain an oportunity to crack cards, build a deck and have some fun with it in a competitive or casual format. If that TCG is a Marvel or Dc, I don’t care.
To have fun with friends and playing a great game is what life is about, to me anyway.
I’m ready to buy some boxes of VS. – how about it?
What did I like about VS System? The narrative quality of the game. I think that WHEN you relaunch it, you should investigate the idea of Mission VS, which I believe was being thrown around somewhere when we got to vote for Marvel Universe. Make a Coming of Galactus type box where we get to solve cases with Batman and the GCPD or round up some intergalactic baddies with the Green Lantern Corps. The idea of “questing” with VS is something that is quite intriguing to me, but I think would score well with your target audience.
Vs. or nothin’ for me. This new game of yours WILL fail. I don’t say that because I hope it does, but because you burned so much of your target audiece with your shortcomings and unethical moves handling Vs and WOW.
I will not spend a dime on whatever you peddle if it isn’t Vs.
I spent a bundle on VS, and I’m willing to spend another bundle on a comeback of VS. Not really interested in any other UDE products though.
BRING BACK VS !!!!!!!!
VS is the ONLY game that would lead me to buy any stuff from UDE.
Furthermore I know no other “dead” game with such a big fan base 2 years after they stopped selling it…
Read the writing on the wall. Most comments are about VS. It will sell…. bring it back and make the star character actually good this time. Spider-Man, Hulk, Cap, Iron Man, Wolverine, Doom, Magneto, Punisher, Venom, these character need to be featured in top tier decks. Casual fans won’t play or enjoy being beaten my Sentinels or some guy named Ahmed Samsarra.
VS was the only card game that got me into tcg playing. There’s nothing like it at all. I spent quite a bit of cash buying boxes for specific rares. If Upperdeck has no plans to bring VS back, I suggest selling the property to another company and let them reap the profits of supporting a tcg with a very loyal following.
Bring VS back. VS fans will continue buying cards and lots of new casual players will enter the game due to the current comic-based films boom
The VsSystem is gold, the game is still selling this long after its “dead”. You are missing the chance to make money off of your own product. License different comic companies or different properties, like Transformers or thundercats. There is plenty out there besides Marvel and DC, plus so many storylines have past with new characters, the big 2 would still be good directions to go. If money is that big of a problem, I think the loyal would take lesser art to get the game we love back.