The last few months have carried some big wins for Yu-Gi-Oh! fans who continue to hope for a future where they can play their favorite card game using holograms like in the anime. However, one such advancement is now being halted as a popular streamer is unable to continue developing his Yu-Gi-Oh! augmented reality project.
French Twitch streamer Louis “SuperZouloux” Andries is one of the biggest Yu-Gi-Oh! creators in his country and online in general, bringing a unique brand of comedy, wholesomeness, and energy to the card game whenever he plays. This is best exemplified by his excitement at getting to show off a custom-built Yu-Gi-Oh! AR project that took seven months to complete back in October.
The AR tech involved a custom mat that connects to multiple applications on his computer and is able to recognize select cards when they are placed in the proper zones. The result? A fully 3D Blue-Eyes White Dragon (or a number of other Monsters) appearing over the card on stream as if it were a hologram.
Unfortunately, the hope for Zouloux and fellow collaborators on the project to eventually make the complicated piece of tech more accessible and usable in live-play situations has seemingly been dashed, as the French streamer is unable to continue his project as of now.
According to Zouloux, over the last several months he has spent time reaching out through official channels to try and obtain the go-ahead for development. However, whether it be through Konami or other channels, he has been unable to get that approval—stalling future plans indefinitely.
As of now, since the streamer does not have any rights to the Yu-Gi-Oh! IP, he wants to be cautious but also believes in the ability for something like this to breathe some life into the game in a new way.
“So many of you reaching out to me, sharing my clips, and engaging with me about my feature on a game that I hold so close to my heart made me so incredibly happy,” Zouloux said. “Seeing the excitement around my idea go beyond the french-speaking [sic] community was an experience I never thought I’d live, so I want to say thank you all for supporting me and this idea.”
All hope isn’t lost though, as Zouloux is going to take the rest of 2022 to relax and gather his thoughts before tackling what he wants to do next, with hopes that those plans will include getting this project back on track for future Yu-Gi-Oh! content so everyone can experience the game at “its highest potential.”
In addition to that, Pokémon content creator aDrive has reached out to Zouloux in hopes of potentially bringing this 3D AR tech to his new Elestrals card game that just closed a successful $1.4 million Kickstarter should things not work out on the Yu-Gi-Oh! side of things.
