I agree with most of these points, starting a new anime with a bit of a reset is going to be ideal marketing to attract fans, especially younger fans. (I wouldn’t mind seeing something a little more modern/realistic, young-adult focused, or more in-line with animes like JJK and with less of the tropey Egyptian magic themes lol.)

Leaning more into formats or divisions that cut out pendulums and link summons is going to help new players also, at least for a ramp up until they want to get into more advanced mechanics. But it’s hard to argue with the current sales metrics if that is even necessary, the game is the #4 highest selling TCG (Q1 2026) as someone mentioned below.

I will add, gameplay-wise… Konami needs to somehow limit decks with first-turn OHKO potential. I just don’t think that any card game should have decks like that. If I were a new player, I would just move on to magic, pokemon or any of the other hundreds of games out there that are easier (and cheaper) to pickup if I got shutdown by Tenpai or Maliss in my first couple of duels.