Wizards of the Coast is very secretive about their plans regarding NFT’s and Blockchain. But something is brewing, that is for sure. In April 2021 Hasbro released their quarterly earnings, and in it was a glimpse of a future I am imagining; this future, some might call it dystopian, others will think it akin to a singularity…the truth is probably a hybrid amalgamation of the two.
In Hasbro’s quarterly earnings, this one little sentence stood out to me like a sore thumb:
Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner says his company is working on NFT technology, and that it could be applied to collectibles in the company’s portfolio — including Magic: The Gathering.
Since then, there’s not been much said about it. But I personally suspect they are not just going to blindly jump in the pyramid scheme called NFT’s. No, I think they are actually working on developing their own Blockchain technology for it. Their own DAO if you will.
I have been trying to wrap my head around why Hasbro would tack on a digital games department to a subsidiary like WotC, who specializes in cardboard collectibles. And it finally clicked after digesting the tweet below. they are developing their own distributed NFT-like tech. And they will use it to generate actual digital card scarcity. WotC will sell you a digital card, which could even be an actual physical card with some embedded tech to make it scannable, this card will be linked to an NFT-like tech on Hasbro’s own self-controlled blockchain which lets you use that card in any of their digital offerings; be it Arena, MTGO or whatever new digital client they will be releasing in the future. The card itself might be limited to 1000 digital copies max, maybe even less, to make it really scarce!
The tweet:
Wizards of the Coast sent a very polite email saying they consider our use of NFTs, as described in the mtgDAO whitepaper, to be unlawful IP infringement.
They hint at their own NFT plans and ask that we don’t launch mtgDAO.
Here’s why WotC is ngmi. pic.twitter.com/ne0MtjWV1J
— mtgDAO: scarce magic format (@mtgDAO) February 11, 2022
WotC sent a C&D letter to an actual organization who was already building this technology for Magic: The Gathering. Of course WotC has to protect their rights and trademarks, so it makes sense for them to send a C&D letter. However I think there’s more behind this than just protecting their intellectual properties, I think they are actually trying to secure a possible future market expansion.
The timeline I am imagining might go something like this:
At first there will be tie-ins with Secret Lairs, which I honestly expect to happen in 2022 already. There will be SL’s connected to NFT’s, who know they might even do one imaging those dreaded apes. At first they will use the well-known NFT to leverage the current hype, but eventually I expect the Wizards marketing department to steer away from that term due to negativity from the community.
At a certain point in time WotC will be announcing their own Decentralized Autonomous Organization (the aforementioned DAO). They will heavily lean into marketing it as “buy a card on any ecosystem and use it everywhere“. The actual card will live as an NFT-like proof-of-ownership on their own corporate blockchain. You get to buy/sell/trade these digital properties just like a regular Magic card. Magic cards themselves might have some tech embedded to make them scannable and link them to the blockchain. This could be anything from an chip inside the card to a qr-like technology, such as the scannable Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Champions cards for example.
New marketplaces will arise to facilitate the buying and trading of these digital cards. Maybe the existing ones such as Cardmarket and Cardtrader will adapt and add it to their website. But an ecosystem of digital assets is certain to arise. And other CCG’s will follow.
In the mean time we will see folks higher up the WotC and Hasbro tree making sly Twitter posts. The kind of posts that are open to any kind of interpretation without making any actual statements. Such as this one by Aaron Forsythe
— Aaron Forsythe (@mtgaaron) February 13, 2022
People like the Prof, a respectful YouTuber, known for openly criticizing WotC on their business decisions decided to applaud this tweet by Aaron. Why? Does the Prof have insider information, does he know anything? Or maybe he is, just like so many people, reading things into this that are not explicitly stated.
I for one think Aaron, with this tweet, just means he is not allowed to say anything by Hasbro and they are in fact working on it..
