upper-deck-entertainment
Latest
Upper Deck comments on loss of WoW TCG license
Upper Deck has issued their own news release statement regarding the dropped license of the World of Warcraft: Trading Card Game. The decline in sales and economic downturn has been cited as the cause of their discontinued product. For now though, it appears that World of Warcraft products will still be up for sale until the end of March. However, their future products like the Class Starter Decks, Wrathgate Boosters, Souls of Vengeance Starters, Deluxe Starter and Boosters will not be produced. This announcement comes at the heels of the Yu-Gi-Oh! counterfeiting controversy revealed a few short weeks ago. Upper Deck has been caught printing hundreds of thousands of counterfeit Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and managed to settle with Konami. We're not sure if the two are related but it may have had an impact on their agreements. Who knows? There is no information right now as to which company will partner with Blizzard in regards to the WoW: TCG. I tried out the game myself at BlizzCon 2009, but I had recently gone back into Magic: the Gathering, and there is no way I can afford to get into another hobby at the moment.
Landro's Pet Box available for UDE points
Upper Deck recently announced a new item available in-game for players to claim using UDE points accrued from collecting the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. The item, Landro's Pet Box, is a grab bag of sorts that can randomly give the character one of the following loot items: Papa Hummel's Old-Fashioned Pet Biscuit, Path of Cenarius, Sandbox Tiger, Dragon Kite, Ethereal Soul-Trader, or Bananas, the Monkey. Items previously available through UDE points were limited to a selection of epic tabards, permanent fireworks, and a Carved Ogre Idol that turns characters into ogres for 10 minutes. According to the product description, Landro's Pet Box will more commonly give out Pet Biscuits, Paths of Cenarius, or the Sandbox Tiger, but will occasionally grant the rarer vanity pets. Players will not receive duplicates of vanity pets already obtained through the Pet Box. The item can be purchased through the UDE points store for 2,000 UDE points (the same cost as tabards) and is only available on US and EU realms. Landro's Pet Box marks the first time items previously available only through loot cards would be made available through UDE points, allowing players who miss out on elusive loot cards another shot at obtaining the items.
Naxxramas Raid Deck and Treasure Packs now available
Following the success of their previous raid sets, Onyxia's Lair, Molten Core, Magtheridon's Lair, and the Black Temple, Upper Deck has released the first Wrath-themed event pack with the Naxxramas Raid Deck and Treasure Pack last December 22. Unlike their previous raid offerings, however, the Naxxramas Treasure Packs are stand-alone products which can be used separately from the raid deck. According to Dan Bojanowski, Upper Deck's World of Warcraft TCG Senior Brand Manager, the stand-alone approach "was created as a direct result of customer feedback." Aside from containing the standard content such as exclusive foil cards, the set would also include "alternate art heroes featuring heroes from the Drums of War block in Naxxramas-themed gear and settings." The Raid Deck, which is available for $29.99, contains a 110-card raid deck, 15 oversized boss cards, a 16-card Treasure Pack, and a UDE points card (or Loot card) and rulebook. Treasure Packs retail for $9.99 apiece and contain 15 random foil Treasure Pack cards out of a total of thirty collectible cards, a hero in Naxxramas-themed armor, and a UDE points card or Loot card. Hero cards are drawn from the Drums of War expansion set with variant art, with a total of ten cards with new art to collect. Each Treasure Pack also has a chance to contain a random Loot card from the Fields of Honor expansion set.
WoW 5th Anniversary Giveaway: Spectral Kitten loot code
In honor of World of Warcraft's 5th Anniversary today, we are kicking off three days of giveaways with one of the sweetest, shiniest, most drool-worthy prizes we could get our hands on: the ultra rare Spectral Kitten from Upper Deck's upcoming Scourgewar TCG expansion. The code from this card can be redeemed for an in-game non-combat pet called the Spectral Tiger Cub (complete with miniature armor) that follows you around playfully and meows when you click on him. How do you get your chance to win this? Put down the E-Bay bid and step away slowly, pet collectors, we have a better way for you here at WoW.com. Simply leave a comment in this post by 12pm (noon) tomorrow ET. That's it. Limit one entry per person and make sure you're registered with a valid email address. We'll be choosing one winner randomly from the entrants and contact them via email after the close of the contest. Note that we won't be emailing the code to the winner until mid-December when it is made available to us by the fine people at Upper Deck. And the best part? This contest is open to all readers regardless of where in the world you live. So leave your comment below, cross your fingers and hope for the best. And even if you don't win this one, there are plenty of contests to come here at WoW.com over the next three days. Screenshot of the Spectral Tiger Cub in-game after the jump. EDIT: Contest closed. Thanks so much for participating!
Rumors of WoW TCG's demise greatly exaggerated
Rumors have been swirling around the Internet this weekend, reporting that the WoW Trading Card Game was ending this year after the release of the upcoming Scourgewar expansion set due to mishandling of marketing by the Upper Deck team. The rumor apparently started at Rawrcast, where it was attributed to a "reliable source". Apparently not that reliable! Catching wind of the rumor, Upper Deck responded through its Senior Director, Scott Gaeta, saying that not only was the TCG not "over," but that it was steaming along right on schedule. Said Gaeta: "Plans for future sets have been moving along as normal and we even announced a good chunk of the 2010 product schedule a week ago. Just recently the Upper Deck team was at Blizzard to discuss plans for 2011 and just today we were at Blizzard to get a sneak peak of Icecrown Citadel, to help in the development of the 2010 Raid Deck and Treasure Packs. We have lots of great plans for 2010 and beyond and look forward to another great year for the WOW TCG. Thanks for your enthusiasm and support! " Good enough for me. Interneterati who heard the rumor attributed the TCG's purported demise to a myriad of culprits, including Blizzard's new microtransactional Pet Store, Activision grand poobah and laser-precise IP exploiter Bobby Kotick, or even the iron tabletop gaming fist of Magic: The Gathering. Of course, none of those ended up being the case. Me, I'm glad to see that the TCG isn't going away, but let's start seeing some of those cool vanity loot card items attainable through other means, yeah? And the rocket mount an Engineering item.
Upper Deck announces Amsterdam Darkmoon Faire
European fans of the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game are in luck as the Darkmoon Faire will be visiting Amsterdam this September. Upper Deck, who host the events, are expecting 350 players to attend and are offering a host of prizes, including a goody bag for every attendee as well as raffle with some really epic loot as prizes. The goody bag contains a T-Shirt, regular and exclusive Mini figures, a Death Knight Starter pack, some battleground cards, a demo CD, a common loot card and an entry form for the raffle.The raffle is where things get interesting. Upper Deck have fifteen prizes up for grabs which have a combined worth of €5000. They are giving away: One Frostmourne sword Two Collectors Editions of Wrath of the Lich King Five exclusive Wrath of the Lich King mousepads Two complete sets of Minis Five Spectral Tiger mounts The event will be taking place at Westergasfabriek between September 12th and 13th. Tickets are free so if you're in Amsterdam that weekend, you might want to pop along.
UPDATE: Fields of Honor Loot Card EU giveaway
I hinted at this the other day but Upper Deck International here in the UK has given WoW.com a set of shiny, brand spanking new loot cards from the latest Fields of Honor TCG expansion, which went on sale yesterday. We're giving them away to you, our lovely EU readers. All you need to do is leave a comment in this post before 5PM GMT (6PM CET) today, July 1st, 2009. One of the Big Giant Heads (aka our beloved editors) will then randomly choose which of our three lucky readers will win one card each. Be sure to comment with an e-mail address you check often and have easy access to, because that's how we will be contacting our chosen winners with the codes. We have three codes to give away, one for each of the cards in the set. That's the awesome chicken mount El Pollo Grande, the Ogre Pinata and the groovy Path of Cenarius.The only caveat is you must have a European WoW account or the cards won't work (sorry to our American brethren) so please make sure before you enter, okay? Also, you can only enter once and, yes, we will know if you enter more than that. Good luck to all who participate!Thanks to Tom at Upper Deck International's UK office for the codes.UPDATE: The competition is now closed! We'll be announcing the winners later on this evening.
Fields of Honor on sale tomorrow
Ahh the smell of fresh loot in the air, it must be summer. Well, fans of loot cards and the official Trading Card Game, I bet you have your calendar marked. Tomorrow sees the release of the latest - and possibly greatest - TCG expansion Fields of Honor. Yes, you too could have your very own El Pollo Grande, the greatest mount in the entire history of Azeroth. We've mentioned this thing was rarer than a spectral tiger's tooth, right? Indeed our very own Turpster has been raving about his (insert slightly rude giant chicken joke here) all week.The best part that is the cards were activated in an earlier patch so you can use them as soon as you find one. No more waiting for 3.1.x or even 3.2. Just to recap, the Fields of Honor loot consists of El Pollo Grande, the Ogre Pinata and the groovy Path of Cenarius. You can also take a peek at Upper Deck's loot card preview page for some really cool screenshots.But here's the best part. After the success of our last EU giveaway, Upper Deck International here in the UK have very kindly given us a set of shiny European loot cards. Isn't that nice of them? We certainly think so! We're going to give them away during this week's maintenance so check back then.
Try out Fields of Honor loot on the PTR
Reader Kongzai sent us a tip this morning that the recently revealed loot cards for the next TCG expansion Fields of Honor are available for testing on the PTR. He hotfotted it down to Booty Bay and reports that it is indeed possible to sample the latest loot using the same codes as in previous PTR tests. All you need to do is enter the following when prompted by Landro:1111 for the Path of Cenarius2222 for the Ogre Pinata3333 for the Magic Rooster Egg (aka El Pollo Grande)Kongzai was also able to shed a little more information on the loot itself. He reports that Path of Cenarius is the common item, coming in stacks of 100 and lasts for five minutes. The Ogre Pinata is, as I predicted, BoP and thirty minute cooldown. He comes with 5000 HP and, when destroyed, leaves a stack of gumballs in his wake which grant a buff that makes you blow bubbles. Awesome. He also told us that El Pollo Grande costs 100g which is not a bad amount for such a cool mount.This news comes mere hours after Upper Deck posted a loot card preview on their official site featuring screens and the first video of the must-have chicken mount El Pollo Grande.
Latest Upper Deck loot cards revealed, including El Pollo Grande
Boubouille over at MMO Champion has once again been ferreting around in the patch files and he's discovered the next set of loot from Upper Deck's next TCG expansion Fields of Honor which is due out on 30th June.There is a legend of El Pollo Grande, the scariest chicken in all of Azeroth, the black chicken of death. For years he has been the stuff of myth, summonable only by Niby the Almighty during a Felwood quest chain. Now, however, he has once again returned, this time as a mount. Yes, you heard me right, a giant chicken mount. This El Pollo Grande is not as dark or mean as his namesake, instead looking like a regular -- albeit giant -- chicken and will be an epic land mount. So if you've not yet reached level 60, then consider this your motivation.Also in the cards (see what I did there?) are an ogre pinata (which I'm surmising will be a BoP item with no charges, like the Goblin Weather Machine). Finally, for those of you who walked the Path of Illidan, there's the Path of Cenarius which leaves flowers in your wake. Nice.
EU Loot Card winners announced
Well goodness gracious me! We had nearly eighteen hundred comments for this morning's EU loot card giveaway! Not bad eh? Well we /rolled and came up with three lucky winners who will be receiving an email from me shortly!So, without further a do, /drumroll. The lucky winners are:Rugus, who gets the adorable Sandbox Tiger,Finezze (who from his post was dying to be the centre of attention) gets the Epic Purple Shirt and, finally,Elenac, who will be able to challenge her friends to duels with the Foam Sword Rack.Congratulations to all and thanks to everyone who entered.
UPDATE: Blood of Gladiators Loot Card EU giveaway
Hey, European players, psst! I know it's the crack of dawn and to make things even worse it's patch day! Pretty miserable, huh? Well, I have something that might cheer you up! Upper Deck International here in the UK have given WoW Insider a set of shiny, brand spanking new loot cards from the Blood of Gladiators expansion set, which is available right now, just in case you didn't know.And we're giving them away to you, loyal EU readers. All you need to do is leave a comment in this post before 5PM GMT (6PM CET) today, April 15, 2009. We will then randomly choose which of our three lucky readers will win one card each. Be sure to comment with an e-mail address you check often and have easy access to, because that's how we will be contacting our chosen winners with the codes. We have three codes to give away, one for each of the cards in the set. That's the Epic Purple Shirt, the Sandbox Tiger (awwww, bless) and the Foam Sword Rack.The only caveat is you MUST have a European WoW account or the cards won't work (sorry to our American brethren) so please make sure before you enter, okay? Also, you can only enter once. Good luck to all who participate!Thanks to Tom at Upper Deck International's UK office for the codes.UPDATE: The competition is now closed! We'll be announcing the winners at 7pm CET/1pm EST!
A closer look at the WoW miniatures
Are you looking around your WoWspace and thinking, "gee, I could really use more World of Warcraft action figures" then you may just be in luck. As we announced recently, coming this fall, from Upper Deck Entertainment, is the World of Warcraft Miniatures Game. You will be able to acquire miniatures that will serve as both game pieces and collectibles, as each one "will be mounted on a uniquely engineered removable base". Each miniature will reportedly be a highly detailed 3-D rendering of characters in the game, including not only each race and class, but bigwigs like Thrall and, evidently, Leeroy Jenkins, who has already appeared in the Trading Card Game. Your minis will face their opponents in head-on battles as well as raid and dungeon scenarios, which can include player co-operation, much like in-game. These little guys and gals even have their own site, over at WoWMinis.com. Let's take a sneak peak, shall we?
Nihilum raided Leipzig as Ogres
Last month in Leipzig, uber Euro guild Nihilum downed Archimonde in front of the crowd at the Games Convention. Ho hum, they've done this before -- the difference this time was that they raided as Ogres. Upper Deck Entertainment has a UDE Points Store where you can purchase the Ogre Disguise Trinket. Unlike the Murloc Suit obtained at BlizzCon which is a buff that disappears after entering combat, the Ogre Disguise Trinket (as you can tell by its name) takes up a trinket slot but remains on during battle. All 25 members of Nihilum's raid donned their Ogre Disguise Trinkets and killed Archimonde appearing in nothing but loincloths and armbands. It is unclear if they purchased these trinkets themselves (they are fans of the TCG and one of them has the Spectral Tiger Mount) or if UDE provided them.For the full story and more screenshots, go to the article at the UDE website. Or go take a look at how to get UDE points and what other items you can get with them.(Update: <fires unpaid proofreader> Errors fixed. Sorry for the mixup.)
World of Warcraft TCG: Armor Cards
This TCG preview tells all there is to know about "armor" cards by showing off the Deathdealer Breastplate card. This article doesn't seem give us as much new game information as yesterday's preview - armor works much as you might expect it to work if you play World of Warcraft. The more I read about it, the more it sounds quite like the Azeroth I know and love, only without the need for an internet connection - and I'm all for that. Again, WoW TCG news has a nice summation of the information given in the preview.
World of Warcraft TCG: Ability Cards
Upper Deck has released another preview of the soon-to-be-released (well, if you consider October to be soon) World of Warcraft trading card game, letting us in on gameplay functionality, one card type at a time. This preview, obviously, focuses on how the "ability" cards work in gameplay, walking us through the "gouge" card. And, again, if the preview is too much reading for you, WoW TCG News has a summary of what the article tells us.
