In the latest Magic: The Gathering survey there was a lot of talk about other games, digital games to be specific. There are several options for WotC to ask you about these, and the truth will probably be a combination of my reasonings; nevertheless I’ll be talking about them below. Let’s start of with the two questions pertaining game IP’s receiving a Universes Beyond treatment in the near future!
Final Fantasy and Assassin’s Creed have both been confirmed to receive Universes Beyond products. Both franchises are quite huge and, in my humble opinion, will fit in nicely with the Magic: The Gathering aesthetics.
But, why are they asking about these IP’s in the survey? Are they gauging interest, or is there more to it. I’ll star of with the first option
WotC is gauging interest for more Universes Beyond products
Like stated before. It could just be that WotC is gauging interest in other possible IP’s to add to their Universes Beyond portfolio of products. They could already have initiated negotiations with the relevant parties for products, or they are scouting to see which ones to do first. After all Magic already has an established history with making UB products of digital games such as Street Fighter, Fortnight and League of Legends (through the Arcane secret lair). It’s no secret digital games are popular, so why stop at these and not make a Universes Beyond set based on Fallout?
WotC is just checking out the competition
While gauging interest in possible future product is certainly a possibility, it could just as well be that Wizards is just checking out the competition. Either they are looking to keep tabs on them, checking on how they can keep the upper hand on their competitors such as Hearthstone, Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel or Pokémon. Or they are trying to figure out which are the most popular alternatives so they can base future mechanics, card design or game modes on the popular designs from those games. If that’s so, we might expect to see more specific questionings about what people like about these games in future surveys.
I would really enjoy a Marvel Snap variant on Arena or as a seperate game though ❤ Which leads us to another possible reason for these questions:
They are building different games based on Magic IP
Asking about games like Civilization, Diablo IV and Overwatch, three totally different game genres, might be Wizards looking to expand into different types of games based on Magic IP. I personally would love to see a civilization type game based on Ravnica; they could even make it cross-planar now that the Omenpaths exist after the Phyrexian invasion. How about an isometric RPG game such as Diablo IV, you could be playing a new planeswalker and all that (hmmm…where have I heard this before?)
I would certainly not be surprised if Magic would try to expand beyond just card-slinging games.
How about an Overwatch-like game on the plane of Kamigawa?
Conclusion
I think all of the above mentioned reasons are somewhat true. WotC keeping tabs on competitors, checking out which IP’s to UB, and trying to figure out what types of games to tap into next are not exclusive to each other and I have high hopes for what the future will bring to Magic: The Gathering based on these theories.
I’ll end this article with the “other games”-questions I have not yet mentioned before and let you theorize yourself about what WotC’s plans for these are..
One final thought, how about a Legend of Zelda like game based on Shandalar?
