Magic: The Gathering jumps on the MMORPG wagon

Wizards of the Coast have announced that Magic: The Gathering will become a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. One of the first and most popular collectible trading card games will join the ranks of the MMORPGs. Perfect World and Cryptic Studios, creators of titles like Neverwinter, Star Trek Online or Champions Online, are the developers chosen to take the incredibly well-liked franchise to the virtual world once more. Magic: The Gathering has over 20 million players and there have been several video games based on the Planeswalkers and their worlds over the 24 years that the CTGC have been around, but never before it took the shape of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

“It’s Magic: The Gathering like you’ve never experienced before,” explains Bryan Huang, chief executive officer of Perfect World Entertainment, in a press release. “We are ecstatic about the direction of the game Cryptic has been shaping. It’s always been a dream of ours to bring Magic’s Planeswalkers to a modern RPG.” The same press release confirms that Magic: The Gathering will be developed for both consoles and PC in the form of an AAA title. The launch game for the title or any additional details are yet to be unveiled but we expect more updates on a close date.

“Everything from the graphics to the gameplay is being targeted for a truly unique AAA game. We’re thrilled to provide Magic fans with an opportunity to explore the game’s worlds and characters through an entirely new lens. Get ready to embark on a brand new journey,” said the CEO of Cryptic Studios, Stephen D’Angelo. "My intent is to go forward with a Magic game that is not about the card game. It's about jumping into the world and the fiction of Magic: The Gathering. Look at Neverwinter. D&D is a pen-and-paper game where people make up characters on paper and tell stories. We took Neverwinter and we didn't copy the rules from the pen-and-paper game, how a strength stat works and so on. We instead created an excellent video game that captured the feeling of that world, of Forgotten Realms."

This will definitely create huge expectations between the plethora of fans that the franchise have accumulated over the years, and it is too early to guess if the resulting product will meet those expectations or not. Until more information of the game has been revealed, we can only hope for a good title to be created. MMORPG market is a bit saturated right now, and part of the success of the game will also depend on the type of business model that the game will follow, (free to play, subscription-based, buy to play, etc), but the game already starts with a huge fanbase. Only tme will tell what happens, but as an old Magic: The Gathering player I couldn't be happier about the announcement.

If you are looking for other Magic: The Gathering Games, you can check out the best prices to buy Magic 2015 - Duels of the Planeswalkers and Magic 2014 - Duels of the Planeswalkers on our comparator.