Case Study: Cyberpunk TCG Uses Kickstarter to Solve the Industry's Biggest Problem
WeirdCo’s launched their major trading card game on Kickstarter to put cards directly in the hands of players and collectors—not price-gouging resellers.
Last year, game company WeirdCo announced their partnership with entertainment company CD Projekt Red on an official physical trading card game (TCG) to create the Cyberpunk TCG.
When WeirdCo and CD Projekt Red first revealed Cyberpunk TCG, it sparked a lot of conversation about the state of the trading card industry as a whole. Trading card games are booming; players are interested in trying new games, as evidenced by the meteoric popularity of recent titles like One Piece TCG, Riftbound, and Lorcana. It’s not just Pokémon and Magic in the popular zeitgeist anymore; there are plenty of new eyes on the trading card industry as a whole.
The Challenge
Unfortunately, the audience interest that has allowed new titles to break into the previously-impenetrable TCG ecosystem has also drawn the attention of the TCG player’s age-old enemy: profiteers.
You’ve probably seen the headlines about people selling Pokémon cards for hundreds of thousands of dollars. But that’s only the tip of the profiteering iceberg; for certain popular games, players can’t even get enough cards to build a deck without shelling out double or triple retail price for sealed booster packs on the secondary market. New set releases are snatched up in bulk by people who have no interest in the game itself, but know they can turn a profit by selling the products at a huge markup to the fans who actually care about it. Inflated prices stop new players from picking up a game while preying on its established community, leading to major player falloff.
WeirdCo needed a way to protect Cyberpunk TCG’s collectibility and desirability– an essential component to the joy of trading cards–while also making sure the people who want to play the most have the access to do so.
With an IP as massive as Cyberpunk, they anticipated a high demand, and high demand attracts card profiteers like moths to a flame. In order to establish a healthy, lasting community, they needed a solution to the industry’s price-gouging problem.
Supplying the Demand Directly
That’s where Kickstarter comes in. Cyberpunk TCG is avoiding scarcity by sending products directly to every single player who asks for it. If you back the Kickstarter, you get the cards.
Of course, there’s a lot more nuance and strategy than that. Beyond guaranteeing cards reach all the players who want them, the Kickstarter serves as a barometer for player demand, too. Cyberpunk TCG is WeirdCo’s flagship game, and the numbers from their Kickstarter campaign will allow them to ensure they print the right amount of cards for their retail release. We’ve already talked about the consequences of scarcity, but there’s danger in over-printing, too. Excess supply means retailers–that is, your local game stores–lose a lot of money and shelf space on unsold products.
Kickstarter also offers customers a transparent metric of Cyberpunk TCG’s popularity, which is extremely important for new TCG titles. Local game stores take on significant resource investment and risk to support a new TCG release; it's a serious financial blow for a small business to allocate shelves and play space to a game that underperforms, when those resources could have made a sure profit with a more-established game. If the campaign does well, local game stores can invest safely.
Meanwhile, WeirdCo gathers crucial data on how to best support localization, foster strong hobby shop and game store relationships, and ensure future products have both accessibility and desirability. With Cyberpunk TCG’s pre-launch page garnering over 48,000 followers, they have a lot of data to work with! The pre-launch period has been instrumental in cementing the identity of the game. If there’s 500 backers in Seattle, you can bet WeirdCo will be investing heavily in the market and local game scene…Regionals, anyone?
Kickstarter
Part of the game’s marketing budget was allocated to producing a limited test print run that doubled as a media kit and an alpha game demo experience.
“On the front-end, we created relationships with content creators that gave us genuine feedback on our product in a timeline that we could iterate on while producing marketing content. On the back-end, it was a test run for our production and internal workflows to help prepare us to scale after a successful launch to meet backer timelines.”
Building a Community-first Campaign
WeirdCo’s mission is to create trading card games that foster lasting friendships and welcoming communities–that’s literally what the company was built upon. When co-founders Elliot Cook and Luohan Wei first met through a mutual mentor, they immediately bonded over a shared love of trading cards. Both of them had worked at some of the largest companies in gaming, but shared a frustration: most games felt designed to trap players in loops, encouraging isolation and addiction instead of connecting players as humans. The trading card games they loved felt like the natural cure to this isolation, as a way for folks to play the kinds of competitive games they enjoy while being part of a local community.
Crowdfunding through Kickstarter is a natural extension of WeirdCo’s dedication to human-first games. They maintain a strict “No A.I.” policy, and are investing heavily in a robust in-person organized play program for local stores. Player enthusiasm is what keeps any trading card game alive and relevant; WeirdCo doesn’t just understand that fact, they love it. And their community has taken notice…Donnie the Intern says hi!
This project’s success was always in the hands of the community. This campaign simply allows WeirdCo to interact with their community directly, hear their passion firsthand, and listen to their feedback to deliver the best possible experience. From the art to the gameplay to the marketing assets, every decision for this campaign was answering “What feels the most Cyberpunk?” and “What do trading card game enthusiasts love about games?”
“We haven’t been shy around why we are doing what we’re doing, and the frequency of community emails saying how much our mission resonates with them instills faith in them investing in us through Kickstarter.”
