Konami teased us with Yu-Gi-Oh! in VR on the Quest 3, but is it really happening this time?

Real talk: Yu-Gi-Oh! in VR still not being a thing in 2024 is borderline criminal. Sure, nowadays many of the younger fans of this cult-classic card game don’t know that this is how it’s meant to be played, but how many of us have grown up watching Yugi and Kaiba duke it out on what is essentially an AR arena?

Most of the best VR headsets on the market are quite capable of pulling something like this of and in the last decade or so, we’ve had numerous fan attempts to create projects that showcase said tech-related readiness, so why don’t we have a proper Yu-Gi-Oh! VR game yet?

Well, easy: Konami hasn’t made one. Same as it won’t make a new Castlevania game, but hey: at least we’re getting a new Contra in 2024. But could this truly be a year of revival, given that Konami basically had someone, literally wearing a Quest 3 headset, come out on stage to demo an actual VR Duel Monsters experience?



I know I’m not the only one hyped up about this, so let’s explain. If you want to see the footage for yourself: the video is up above, and you’ll be able to spectate the VR duel from 23:28 to about 39:00 on the timeline.

Konami called this the “Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links Presents Solid Vision Experiment” with that last word being pretty important here. Oh, and just in case you haven’t heard about Duel Links in the past: this is Konami’s fast-paced — and wildly successful — version of the card game, available on mobile and PC right now.

So, then, back to “experiment”: basically, we don’t know if this will become a real game or not. Duel Links producer Akitsu Terashima has confirmed (translated source) that this showcase was specifically developed for the The Legend of Duelist Quarter Century event. That being said, Konami is keen on presenting it again during the next Tokyo Game Show.

So — tin foil hats on! — could this be Konami testing wider public reactions in order to gauge if fans are ready for a full-fledged, proper Yu-Gi-Oh! VR title for the Quest 3? We don’t know, but personally: I hope so, because the kid inside of me is very excited for the prospect.



I mean, just imagine: Konami already has an app, which can scan your real-life card collection and manage it for you. This means that my Konami account already knows I main Monarchs and Red-Eyes. If I could just tap a button and then move on to battling someone with my cards in VR, then that would truly be hyper-futuristic.

And then things could get even better if we throw mixed-reality into the, well, mix. Imagine you and another fellow duelist, waging card-combat in your very own backyard, each of you equipped with a headset, granting vision to glorious 3D renderings of iconic monsters like Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Dark Magician.

That would truly be awesome and if we’re lucky, 2024 might bring us closer to it being a reality and not just another echo from the shadow realm.