Summary
Magic: The Gatheringis arguably more popular now than it ever has been, and there are a lot of reasons behind that. One of those is the popularity of Universes Beyond, which sees Magic: The Gathering cross over with popular IP such asThe Lord of the Rings,Marvel, and more to try and tempt people outside of Magic into the ecosystem.
It’s been largely successful, with sets such as Tales of Middle-Earth andits unique One Ring card drumming up major positive PRand performing extremely well.With Final Fantasy,SpongeBob SquarePants, anda rumored Avatar: The Last Airbender Universes Beyond crossoverson the way, it’s clear that Wizards of the Coast is happy to keep expanding.
However, there has been criticism from within the MTG community about the recent absurdity of Universe Beyond sets, claiming they’re ruining the integrity of the game itself,while also upset that Wizards recently made them legal to play in standard, with even more folks upset at the sets diltuing Magic’s in-game lore. If you listened to these people, you’d assume that the majority of MTG fans hated Universes Beyond, but it turns out that’s just not the case.
Magic: The Gathering head designer Mark Rosewater recentlyresponded to criticism over Universe Beyond on his Tumblr account earlier today, specifically addressing the claims that MTG fans don’t actually want Universes Beyond. To debunk this claim, Rosewater says that Universes Beyond sells well across the board, and that the majority of buyers are actually existing Magic fans.
“The best-selling booster release, Commander decks, Secret Lairs, - all Universes Beyond (and the vast majority of buyers - existing Magic players),” says Rosewater. “The sets that score the highest in market research - Universes Beyond. The upcoming sets that have the highest social media engagement - Universes Beyond.”
Rosewater goes on to claim that Universes Beyond is “killing it in every metric we use to measure overall player happiness”, which is why Wizards of the Coast is doing so much. If players didn’t want Universes Beyond, they very likely wouldn’t make and sell them as much as they do now. That’s simply business.
