Magic: The Gathering has come under a lot of fire from longtime fans in recent years following the explosion of licensed sets everything from Transformers Down The Lord of the Rings. Contrary to these critics, the card game’s lead designer says that “quick money” is not the main principle behind such decisions, and that player research tells a different story than enraged online fans.
“We are always looking forward” – Mark Rosewater, which I am working on MTG at Wizards of the Coast for almost 30 years, he said IGN in an interview. “Our goal is not to make money as quickly as possible and get it done right away.” He continued: “Magic he is 31 years old, we intend to stay here as long as we can. That’s why we’re constantly thinking ahead when it comes to what we do.”
A particular sore point for some fans of the game were his Universes Beyond sets which are branded crossovers in which everything appeared Warhammer 40,000 AND Dungeons and dragons Down Monty Python AND Hatsune Miku. As well as distracting from the core iconography and world building MTGThe constant rhythm of new titles coming out and sought-after rarities to pursue on the used market has left some gamers feeling burnt out.
In 2022a Bank of America analyst made this clear in a report to investors. “The main problem is Hasbro overproduction Magic cards that support Hasbro’s recent performance but destroy the brand’s long-term value.” he wrote then. An influx of speculators during the pandemic years and a volatile second-hand market built on maximizing profits by reselling the most valuable cards between reprints also lowered morale around the game for some.
Rosewater said IGN these bad vibes are not necessarily due to the data Wizards receives from market research and aggregate customer response. “People just want to attribute – I don’t know, that’s the nature of the Internet, that they’re ‘up to no good’ or ‘they’re not thinking about our problems,'” he said. , citing The Lord of the Rings last year was considered the most “successful” in history. “We care very much about what the players think. We do surveys and so on, we do market research. We don’t just want to do something, we want to do something that we honestly believe that players will have fun with and that influences our decisions.
The interview was published this week, but was conducted before the latest controversy broke out MTG: : banning several powerful cards in the popular Commander format. Following an online harassment campaign against certain members of the volunteer rules committee, which issued bans, Wizards of the Coast announced that the group would be disbanded and decisions would be remade internally to protect people from harassment. It’s still unclear how this will all play out in the end.
In the meantime, however, two Universes Beyond sets, which may be among the most popular, will be released next year: cards based on both The ultimate fantasy games and so on Admire comic book heroes.
