The concern many MtG players have is that throwing a bunch of other IP crossovers into the card game has a variety of potentially negative effects:
- established players who enjoyed the theme of Magic in the first place might be turned off
- it creates an increasing number of products and therefore product fatigue, which is something I’ve heard lots of players mention and was even brought up by Hasbro themselves in a financial call
- it adds to the increasingly confusing legality of cards/formats. Some crossovers have alternate in-universe versions. Many don’t. Some are commander legal. Some are commander and modern legal. Some have their own draft environments. Knowing what cards you can play in a given format is getting obnoxious to track.
- They clearly seem to be introducing new players to Magic, but they are also clearly driving old Magic players away. The question is how persistent are the new players? Do they stick around, or does their interest wane when their favorite crossover franchise isn’t getting new cards anymore?
I personally think it’s too soon to tell, but a lot of the moves strike me as very reminiscent of the types of moves that eventually are identified as enshitificafion as management tries to extract as much short term juice as possible in a way that damages long term health. I’d love to be wrong.
- established players who enjoyed the theme of Magic in the first place might be turned off
- it creates an increasing number of products and therefore product fatigue, which is something I’ve heard lots of players mention and was even brought up by Hasbro themselves in a financial call
- it adds to the increasingly confusing legality of cards/formats. Some crossovers have alternate in-universe versions. Many don’t. Some are commander legal. Some are commander and modern legal. Some have their own draft environments. Knowing what cards you can play in a given format is getting obnoxious to track.
- They clearly seem to be introducing new players to Magic, but they are also clearly driving old Magic players away. The question is how persistent are the new players? Do they stick around, or does their interest wane when their favorite crossover franchise isn’t getting new cards anymore?
I personally think it’s too soon to tell, but a lot of the moves strike me as very reminiscent of the types of moves that eventually are identified as enshitificafion as management tries to extract as much short term juice as possible in a way that damages long term health. I’d love to be wrong.