Magic: Legends sought to bring the massive collectible trading card game new life through a brand new MMO experience. Unfortunately, Magic: Legends has announced that it will be shutting down, despite never leaving open beta.
Magic: Legends launched its open beta in March, and was met with some harsh criticism by many of the Magic fans who joined it. However, the game did respond to player concerns by updating Magic: Legends' systems such as its monetization. The updates were largely well-received by the game's community, with many of its players praising the willingness of the developers to listen to player feedback during the beta and work to improve the game.
The announcement of Magic: Legends shutting down came via the game's official Twitter account. The official shutdown of the game will come on October 31, so any players who still want to enjoy the game have until then to get in as much playtime as they can. There are a lot of classes to play in Magic: Legends, but players should have time before the shutdown to try them all out if they want to. Respectably, the official statement about the shutdown also says that any players who spent money on the game during its open beta will be receiving a full refund since they will not be able to access that content anymore.
The statement also says that all items that were previously available only through premium currencies will be made available with the game's free currency, Aether. The official statement also thanks the players that took the time to try the game, while admitting that the development team at Cryptic's vision for the game missed the mark. While Magic: Legends was originally planned to release on Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam in the future, those plans have also been canceled with the game's shutdown.
It is always disappointing to see a game shutdown, especially so early in its lifespan. Magic: Legends held a lot of promise for Magic fans who hoped that Magic would start following in the footsteps of Dungeons and Dragons in the video games industry. Hopefully, the developers at Cryptic are able to land on their feet after the game's shutdown and are able to keep moving forward with some of their other titles like Neverwinter and Star Trek Online. For Magic: The Gathering fans, hopefully, the shutdown of Magic: Legends is also not the end of Magic's efforts to move into the games industry.
Magic: Legends is available until October 31 on the Epic Games Store.