i doubt paper makes more money than digital, at least right now
the developement of cards costs pretty much the same
the difference is the maintanance and development of the digital plattform versus the all the production and distribution network you need for the paper game.
you also have to share the income with distributors and stores while on digital u could own the platform and take all earnings for urself.
the advantage of digital would also be, that it is far more easier to reach new customers, especially with a kind of free to play way.
so the digital potential is far far higher than the paper game. ofc magic would lose all his character and flavor, it would still be the evolution of things. many things disappear or reshape and you either ajust or dont. the question is, will hasbro stay with this game to its roots or does it only care about costs and income and goes the next step? if i were a cold hearted manager, i would say probably say bye bye to paper. (ofc after evaluation, for example people in paper are more likely to be loyal to the game for many many years, while in digital people might lose interest after a few years, i would wait with an evaluation about this before i decide)
It's not mobile, so full digital is out, regardless of the level of "corporate greed" involved.
And unless they're going to massively change the current model of Arena, there's not a whole lot of incentive to actually spend money on it. You get a ton of free packs and cards just for the lowest level of play. Is it making money? Sure, but if they just outright killed paper and went full digital, I doubt enough people would make the jump to offset the profit lost from paper magic.
The bigger problem is WotC's idea that all sets have to have one cohesive plotline following the Gatewatch.
Would anyone be interested in seeing Tamiyo just revisiting Kamigawa for a set? Or an interlude on Lorwyn or Alara? Sort of a "Where are they now?" type of tour of the planes. The Gatewatch isn't needed for all that and considering their current track record, it might be time for a break. Since Zendikar, every plane they've visited as a group except Dominaria and maybe Kaladesh is worse off than they were before. Not entirely their fault, but mostly.
And why does it even need to be linear? Why can't we have one block about Serra's Realm? Bad example, given the mono-white influence there, but that's not the point. It's destroyed *now* but it existed - let's see what it looked like! There's plenty of other possibilities that don't involve following the fumbling exploits of the Multiverse's least effective super-team. Too bad it's practically telegraphed that they're going to stumble into a nearly consequence-free win because WotC would never trash Ravnica or do any of the GW any permanent harm, not to mention reintroduce an evil Pre-Mending-level Planeswalker.
The whole thing with this Teyo, for instance, is good. If it's not Vryn, they have a new plane they could make a set about that would have NOTHING to do with the Gatewatch, or Bolas, or any of that.
They basically state in the article that they banned this because it makes MtG look bad as an E-Sport.
I don't believe in the whole death-of-paper-magic theory, but I dislike that they're making decisions about card design and game bannings based on the impact on digital formats and now apparently streaming. Part of the allure of the game, at least for me, is that these type of interactions CAN happen - it's why I love playing EDH. I don't know if I'm an outlier in that respect, but it sure seems like it.
Prerelease dates apparently confirmed via their twitter account as April 27-28. Same weekend as Magicfest London, which is also apparently going to be a prerelease.
maybe they will do planeswalker split cards! limit it to like 2 abilities and that could plausibly fit on a card alright.
I mean, that's what DFCs do nowadays. An alternate/additional cost that lets players cast the back side of a DFC or have the permanent enter the battlefield transformed is something that we surprisingly haven't seen yet.
Why not just have double-faced cards that are just two separate cards? Not linked, don't transform. Just two separate cards in one. That would allow them to print more Planeswalkers without increasing the amount of cards in a set, or technically even the number of rares/mythics. Just include a checklist card in every pack.
they only just released the current set. what exactly is the issue?
It strikes me that it shouldn't be too difficult for Wizards to say, well in advance, the prerelease and release dates for the Standard-legal sets (not necessarily special releases like Ultimate Masters) without spoiling anything about them.
Wasn't that how it worked not even long ago?
May be I'm remembering wrong, but didn't they generally announced the release dated for their standard products like 2 year quarters in advance? Or at least in their half-year announcements they generally gave the release dates of their announced products.
I'm wondering if now they are keeping the dates secret because they have to program the cards into arena first, then decide a specific date rather than decide a date and rush to have the code ready some weeks in advance from the deadline.
That's exactly how it used to work. And now here we are in February, with a set presumably releasing in April, that we have no release info on at all. Nobthehobbit is spot on, that's exactly what's happening with my store right now.
There's not going to be two (or more) print runs with different cards in each. I'd say it's because they wouldn't do that, but it's more because it would be a marketing nightmare for WotC and a sales nightmare for the stores. How much do you order so your players can get sufficient copies of the new commons/uncommons they want? And if they do it at rare/mythic level, it's even worse. Making a Vol II would only benefit singles sellers, not stores. Whatever their innovation is, it's not this.
Gavin has also talked about WAR doing something completely new and exciting.
My bet is that it will have Planeswalkers at uncommon or guaranteed one per pack.
I think MaRo indirectly nixed this idea when talking about the number of Planeswalkers per set in a recent article. Something about not wanting to unbalance Standard with Planeswalkers. They would have to have a lot of Planeswalkers in the set to make one per pack viable without ridiculous amounts of duplicates in a display.
I thought WAR would be PW-heavy too, but now I'm not so sure. I think it might have more than normal, because I can't see them not including the Gatewatch and Bolas in the set.
The UMA short-announcement window only worked because it was UMA. If they're going to short-announce more products going forward, I guarantee stores will not like it. Using the response to UMA as a gauge for how this will work is a mistake, if that's what they're actually doing.
It's bad enough War Of The Spark hasn't even had a street date announced yet.
I don't think LGS are necessarily "left in the dark" as it is.
They are.
My local owners hints at what he knows but says he isn't allowed to discuss anything until someone else brings it up.
I believe the entire supply chain has to be aware of products far in advance. I can't imagine any of that changing unless it's to shoehorn more product into the pipeline. In other words, even though WotC made UMA announcement later, it didn't change the timing of the supply chain.
They used to be. It was common that WotC would announce products, or at least street dates, several months in advance. This is apparently no longer the case, as the window has been getting shorter and shorter. And I don't believe your store owner knows anything significant in terms of a release date, because my store owner would know it then as well. And right now, we're kind of in a weird situation with scheduling other non-MTG events in that same time frame, because we don't know.
Shoehorning more product into the schedule like UMA is one thing, not even giving release info on normally scheduled products is another.
The UMA short-announcement window only worked because it was UMA. If they're going to short-announce more products going forward, I guarantee stores will not like it. Using the response to UMA as a gauge for how this will work is a mistake, if that's what they're actually doing.
It's bad enough War Of The Spark hasn't even had a street date announced yet.
I know from a retailer perspective, my boss is not happy about the lack of a release date. Makes it hard to plan other big events when they might be cancelled because WotC decides to finally say "Prereleases are weekend X". Longer it takes, the more annoying it is, and this is something we used to know a year or more ahead of time.
Don't really care about specific set details, because there's plenty of time for that. But at least give a release date.
I think there's going to be a mechanic similar to Conspiracy's Monarch. Maybe something involving capturing a Spark, and getting benefits for controlling it.
I expect Liliana will show up as part of the Gatewatch per Bolas' instructions. It depends on how much control the contract gives him over her - it didn't give the demons she killed much, after all.
It's not mobile, so full digital is out, regardless of the level of "corporate greed" involved.
And unless they're going to massively change the current model of Arena, there's not a whole lot of incentive to actually spend money on it. You get a ton of free packs and cards just for the lowest level of play. Is it making money? Sure, but if they just outright killed paper and went full digital, I doubt enough people would make the jump to offset the profit lost from paper magic.
Would anyone be interested in seeing Tamiyo just revisiting Kamigawa for a set? Or an interlude on Lorwyn or Alara? Sort of a "Where are they now?" type of tour of the planes. The Gatewatch isn't needed for all that and considering their current track record, it might be time for a break. Since Zendikar, every plane they've visited as a group except Dominaria and maybe Kaladesh is worse off than they were before. Not entirely their fault, but mostly.
And why does it even need to be linear? Why can't we have one block about Serra's Realm? Bad example, given the mono-white influence there, but that's not the point. It's destroyed *now* but it existed - let's see what it looked like! There's plenty of other possibilities that don't involve following the fumbling exploits of the Multiverse's least effective super-team. Too bad it's practically telegraphed that they're going to stumble into a nearly consequence-free win because WotC would never trash Ravnica or do any of the GW any permanent harm, not to mention reintroduce an evil Pre-Mending-level Planeswalker.
The whole thing with this Teyo, for instance, is good. If it's not Vryn, they have a new plane they could make a set about that would have NOTHING to do with the Gatewatch, or Bolas, or any of that.
I don't believe in the whole death-of-paper-magic theory, but I dislike that they're making decisions about card design and game bannings based on the impact on digital formats and now apparently streaming. Part of the allure of the game, at least for me, is that these type of interactions CAN happen - it's why I love playing EDH. I don't know if I'm an outlier in that respect, but it sure seems like it.
Why not just have double-faced cards that are just two separate cards? Not linked, don't transform. Just two separate cards in one. That would allow them to print more Planeswalkers without increasing the amount of cards in a set, or technically even the number of rares/mythics. Just include a checklist card in every pack.
That's exactly how it used to work. And now here we are in February, with a set presumably releasing in April, that we have no release info on at all. Nobthehobbit is spot on, that's exactly what's happening with my store right now.
I think MaRo indirectly nixed this idea when talking about the number of Planeswalkers per set in a recent article. Something about not wanting to unbalance Standard with Planeswalkers. They would have to have a lot of Planeswalkers in the set to make one per pack viable without ridiculous amounts of duplicates in a display.
I thought WAR would be PW-heavy too, but now I'm not so sure. I think it might have more than normal, because I can't see them not including the Gatewatch and Bolas in the set.
They are.
They used to be. It was common that WotC would announce products, or at least street dates, several months in advance. This is apparently no longer the case, as the window has been getting shorter and shorter. And I don't believe your store owner knows anything significant in terms of a release date, because my store owner would know it then as well. And right now, we're kind of in a weird situation with scheduling other non-MTG events in that same time frame, because we don't know.
Shoehorning more product into the schedule like UMA is one thing, not even giving release info on normally scheduled products is another.
It's bad enough War Of The Spark hasn't even had a street date announced yet.
Don't really care about specific set details, because there's plenty of time for that. But at least give a release date.
I expect Liliana will show up as part of the Gatewatch per Bolas' instructions. It depends on how much control the contract gives him over her - it didn't give the demons she killed much, after all.