According to Hasbro CEO Chris Cox, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set for Magic: The Gathering earned the game and toy company some $200 million over six months — roughly double the revenue generated by its other historically high-performing sets of trading cards. That’s why he announced to investors in 2023 that he wants two similarly high-performing sets each year going forward. Today that production pipeline comes more firmly into focus, heralded by the announcement of a Spider-Man-themed set of cards in 2025. It seems that the Universes Beyond initiative, which licenses outside franchises for the world of Magic, is really paying off. But, according to Wizards of the Coast’s vice president of design Aaron Forsythe, timing and transparency will be key going forward.
For an indication of the potential pitfalls in working with outside partners, look no further than one of tabletop gaming’s other 800-pound gorillas, Games Workshop. It announced the launch of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – The Board Game in May 2023. Six months later, Space Marine 2 publisher Focus Entertainment announced that the video game it was based on would be delayed nearly a full year. When Captain Titus’ digital incarnation arrived to rave reviews last month, Space Marine – The Board Game had already been marked down as clearance.
As it turns out, something very similar happened with Magic’s most recent collaboration with Larian Studio.
“When we don’t get it right, like when we launch Battle for Baldur’s Gate a year before Baldur’s Gate 3 comes out of beta, ya know there’s a little bit of misalignment,” said Forsythe. Working with Marvel has been different than working with Larian, yet there’s still a lot that must go unsaid between the two companies.
“They’ve shared with us what they can,” Forsythe said. “They’ve given us some peaks behind the curtain to allow us to plan accordingly. We’re still going to be surprised by a lot of things that happen, but yeah, they want us to feel relevant and we certainly do as well.”
Of course, even when communication between partners isn’t perfect, good things can still happen. That was true of Magic’s other recent success: its Fallout-themed Commander decks, which were recently dubbed the most successful Commander products ever released. Turns out the timing of its release was just a happy accident.
“When we get it right,” Forsythe said, “like when we put out our Fallout decks when the Fallout TV show came out — which was absolutely fortuitous and not really planned, just amazingly fortuitous — it worked out great for both sides. […] Both sides want stuff to feel like it’s all intentional and pointing in the same direction. But we both have our secrets to keep and can’t risk the whole ship on any given partnership. So I think you’ll see it works out pretty well.”
Expect more details on additional Universes Beyond sets, including a highly anticipated collaboration with Square Enix’s Final Fantasy franchise, in the future.
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