TEKKEN Card Tournament (Free) was Bandai Namco’s attempt to rethink the TEKKEN fighting games by turning the action fighting games into a card fighting game. Although not too many people talk about the game currently, it actually has great reviews on the App Store, so Bandai Namco’s attempt was apparently well-executed. By making the game F2P with IAPs, Bandai Namco was probably hoping that TEKKEN Card Tournament would benefit from the popularity of its sister fighting game and become a strong source of revenue. Alas, as a VentureBeat article points out, that was not to be. TEKKEN Card Tournament, which went live in 2013, has broken into the 1000 highest-grossing iPhone apps only in eight countries, none of them countries with big spenders. Therefore, Bandai Namco decided to reach over into the physical world to summon some help for its card battler.

In an attempt to stimulate the game’s revenue, Bandai Namco decided to partner with printing company FabZat to introduce physical cards into the game. Specifically, Fabzat will produce more than 190 rare cards that will feature some new characters and QR codes so that players can scan them into the mobile game and use them in their battles. Apparently, players can order packs straight from the app, which also means that the booster packs are printed on demand. This is an interesting idea (sounds similar to Skylanders Battlecast) that has worked well for the Skylanders Franchise and might work well in the domain of CCGs too. Many love collecting physical cards, so this kind of move might bring in a whole new crowd to the game. Or, it might not, but it’s probably worth the effort anyway.