Tenka Digi said:
Sales of the TCG Gameboy 2 game were so abysmal in Japan, Nintendo dropped the entire concept... Makes one wonder whether it'd be any better off as a DS title. Nevertheless, you're definitely not alone in wishing an updated TCG game was released.
But to be fair, the TCG games all came out on the GB when the TCG was pretty much still in it's infancy. Not to say that people didn't collect / play the TCG, but it has come along way since then.
I think Nintendo will (if they haven't already) definitely give this aspect of the Pokemon franchise another look, because obviously, it has been fairly successful with other TCGs, Yu-Gi-Oh being a prime example.
In fact I'd go as far to say that they could probably out do Konami with a TCG game, because the Yu-Gi-Oh games are pretty much all the same (at least the games on the DS), year in, year out.
But yeh, I'm quite positive that the whole "people playing the video game over the card game" argument has very little to do with the lack of TCG video games since the GBC. Like Lemres said, Yu-Gi-Oh is one of the more successful TCGs (like Pokemon, Magic, WOW, etc) and if anything the release of supporting video games has only aided the game.
There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it got more people playing back in 2005 (when I started playing, which I did so by buying a GBA game), and I'd imagine still holds the same effect today.
Secondly, it gives people a way of testing decks, before they invest the time and money to do so. This is not a negative factor, because it's very unlikely a person will stop playing the VG or the TCG if a specific build of a deck idea they had doesn't pan out.
Another aspect leading from that, is the fact it's almost impossible to keep a VG up to date with new releases (short of DLC, which in Yugioh, there is none). This is probably due to the limitations with space on cartridges/CDs.
Then there's the problem with decks drawing differently in real life compared to on the games. The reason for which is that it is incredibly difficult to program an algorithm that randomises cards in the same way a person can shuffle the deck (due to different shuffling methods, different weights of cards, etc). This effects both the ability to test properly and can also promote playing IRL instead.
Something else that Pokemon is missing out on is a DS TCG Nationals. Again, it is a way only a video game could promote the TCG.
I'd be all for Nintendo releasing another TCG video game, but I'd like it sooner rather than later, and as of yet there is nothing to suggest it will happen.
EDIT: I do have a question though, in Yu-Gi-Oh, which is manufactured and distributed by Konami, releases are geared in order to make as much profit on each set as possible. This includes the secondary market to an extent, because Konami purposefully make good cards (or even average cards that people will perceive to be good) really hard to get. This drives up the value of the card on the secondary market, and therefore makes people buy more and more of the set in order to try to pull it. My question is, does any of this hold true to the Pokemon TCG? I am assuming that Nintendo aren't quite as profit hungry to the extent that Konami are, but my perception of Japanese companies is that profit is a huge, if not the most important factor.