Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast's consistently popular collectible card game, showed up to The Game Awards 2019. Earlier in the evening, Wizards of the Coast showed off Magic: The Gathering - Theros: Beyond Death, the next card set, but that was not it for Magic at The Game Awards. Soon after, a cinematic trailer was shown for a brand new MMO ARPG from the creators of Neverwinter. It is called Magic: Legends, and it is planned for release in 2020.
Little is known about Magic: Legends for the time being. The trailer for the game was purely cinematic, though it did tease a variety of Magic Planes settings and Magic Planeswalkers. Enemies including goblins, giant spiders, and werewolves were shown, which is a fitting roster of villains for an ARPG. Magic: Legends is being developed by free-to-play MMO ARPG Neverwinter creator Arc Games, and may be comparable to Neverwinter in terms of gameplay.
If Arc Games ends up basing Magic: Legends on Neverwinter, players can make some assumptions about the kind of game it will be. For example, Neverwinter is a free-to-play game first an foremost, like most Perfect World-published games. It has layers of microtransactions, premium currencies, and subscriptions on top of it. So while it's easy to play and enjoy Neverwinter for free, players can spend as much money they choose to acquire items of convenience or cosmetics. Some players equate Neverwinter's pay-for-faster-progression systems as pay-to-win, but given the healthy player base many seem comfortable with the state of the game.
More time is necessary to find out what Arc Games plans for Magic: Legends, but odds are players will be able to try it out for themselves to find out if they like it before having to pay an upfront cost.
While not much was shared about Magic: Legends, aside from its Magic inspiration and general release window, Arc Games is already taking sign-ups for an upcoming beta as well as the game's soon-to-come newsletter. Players who register will be informed about upcoming Magic: Legends beta dates and other announcements as they're made. Expect more news about Magic: Legends in the months to come.
Magic: Legends is in development for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.