https://company.wizards.com/article/press/making-moves

Dunno what it pertains to Duels but Wizards might actually be getting serious about Digital magic, probably nothing for duels but could be the first signs of whatever "Magic Next" is and in that case I wonder how long Duels will have left to live.

Hopefully this is a good sign.

WOTC has handled digital so bad in the past that it would take a very large success to give me confidence in its digital brand.

I ain't paying paper price for digital magic. Never, ever, ever.

People have thousands of dollars invested in MGO. They can't really just up and ditch it...

It would be extraordinarily tedious.. but you could do a card for card account swap. There's got to be some file attached to each user account showing which cards they own. You could extrapolate that data and incorporate it into the new program. Give MTGO users like 90 days notice of the swap, then 60 days after launch to register on the new program.. then, they're SOL.

Ah yes, this is truly the digital offering we always wanted: A D&D MMO with MtG characters.

They can't even sell smoke properly. If you're going to build hype without actually promising anything concrete, at least try to promise something that isn't one decade behind the times.

The end begins...

If WotC has now created their own division for digital with pedigrees like Valve and Bioware, that increases the likelihood of ditching 3rd parties like Stainless for their products, and I can't see them being able or willing to fix the buggy foundation they'd leave. The most likely immediate thing from the division in MtG:O, plain and simple, it's their biggest cash cow and biggest digital product. They aren't stupid, they know it needs revitalising, they know players are crying out for it, now we've got an indication that they're actually doing that or producing a whole new product. Not sure how they want to go about it from there, but I wouldn't put too much stock in an "MtG MMO" becoming a reality though.

I bet it will be just a new client for MTGO, now with blackjack and sluts.

Plenty of MMOs have done so, ultimately its the consumer's choice.

On a positive note, the word "Stainless" doesn't appear anywhere in that press release.

I honestly wonder why they are still printing card's on paper. But from my PoV
it's time to virtualize -remember everthing that can be virtualized, will be virtualized.

Because Paper Magic is still a huge success for Wizards; tournaments generate a good amount of money.

...and with virtual reality support, so that you can get up close and personal with the outdated GUI.

Maybe at some point there will be a bigger move away from digital. It's interesting to note the revival of vinyl. Who'd have imagined that happening. There is definitely something about having and holding an actual product over it being purely virtual. For some time now for each season in duels towards the end of it I buy paper versions of favourite decks. As it's paper and some of the cards of course are expensive, it means wizards or more likely the second hand market get my money. Apart from some spend in early days when trying to keep both steam and iOS collections going I spent out. However these days with iOS main platform there is no spending.

Magic is a fix in its various guises so it will get you somehow.

That for sure, but sooner or later they will reach the point where they will be pushed to virtualize, this could happen very fast.
Beeing prepared is key to the ongoing success.

I absolutely prefer to sit down with people and play paper magic, it is and will always be the better experience, but virtualization
can make things so much easier in terms of organisation and efficency.

I get that's where everything tends to go if it can but your last point is the one I was going to make. You can interact or socialize virtually but it's not the same as doing it in person. There's something about looking forward to going out and getting together with friends/foes to battle it out. On top of that, there's already too much virtual going on as it is and we probably need more 'things' that bring us together to interact. Obviously the $$ will dictate the growth/decline of paper but anything that gets folks off their pc's/consoles/tablets/phones etc is great in my books.




elk

Well, they just fired the guy responsible for Magic Online so hopefully there's going to be some major restructuring going on in the digital department.

*Drew sweats nervously*

Lol, I read that article and it sounded like a bunch of garbage plans to me. We can create a 3D game where you get to fight against or with planes walkers... are they kidding? Dude just make your stupid card games work, and not look like garbage.