Magic: Legends, the free-to-play ARPG set in the Magic: The Gathering universe, is shutting down for good on October 31, 2021. If this seems really fast to you, you’re right – the game technically never even left the beta phase for an official launch, nor did it ever get its scheduled console launches on Xbox or Playstation. On the plus side, if you did play it at all on the Epic Games Store or Arc launcher, you’re getting a full refund for any purchases made.
We can theorize endlessly about the many factors that undoubtedly shaped this decision for a shutdown before launch, but certainly, there was a lot of promise and potential in the core philosophy of taking Magic: The Gathering into an ARPG format. I was fascinated by many components of the game, including its use of an AI director to craft intensifying action, during our cover story trip. You can check out our cover story and features here.
However, at the end of the day, we can speculate that lack of player retention, monetization models, lack of endgame content, gear system choices, and low activity diversity all contributed in some way, but we’ll never really know. Since the game never actually made it to a launch, there’s room for additional speculation too, but I’d rather keep things in the realm of reality and say it was a really cool idea with a passionate team behind it that didn’t “ignite the spark” due to a variety of factors once it was unleashed into reality. I do wish we would have seen a launch and what could have been with some course correction, but turning a ship around once it’s left port is an incredibly challenging (and often impossible) task in games.
Feel free to take a look at several hours of gameplay when the beta was in its infancy right here on our YouTube channel. You can also read the entire statement and shutdown FAQ over on the official site.
Did you play any Magic: Legends? Were you planning to check it out on console? Let us know in the comments!