MTG Arena Release confirmed!
MTG Arena is announced to release this winter on PC with a MAC release following close after! The game will be available as a standalone client and in the Epic Games Store.
At Gamescon, Wizards announced that they will bring MTG Arena to more players around the world by partnering with Epic and introduce the game to the Epic Game Store. They also promised the game on MAC shortly after the PC release, which is promise the Wizards President gave early in the Beta.
One thing to take note of is the wording used, while they do say in the article that they are bringing the game to Epic Games Store and MAC it does not really say that it is a release of the full game client. They only say they are "Bringing it to more players and places this winter", does this means it will actually be out of beta?
We did discuss this earlier in our article: Rumored MTG Arena Release date 2019? Is the game ready?
And concluded that MTG Arena still has ways to go when it comes to releasing the full game client to the masses, not only do they have to do a polish on the game engine but key features you would expect from a newer game title is also lacking.
Read the full statement in the article from Wizards here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/bringing-mtg-arena-more-players-and-places-winter-2019-08-19
What!? Epic Game Store!!?
Do not worry, the game will also be available as a standalone client on the MTG Arena website for both PC and MAC and it will stay that way according to Wizards in this Reddit Thread.
As someone who really despises game launcher clients in general, this is great news! You do not have to do anything in regards to the Epic Game Store to play, not even make a user.
The Epic Game Store has gotten a lot of heat lately and a lot of MTG Players including myself are not caught up in the loop of what is going on with all the hate around the store. So I did do a bit of research as to what the deal is around this as most will think it is regarded in having to install yet another game client, but it is a bit more than that. But some of these points do not affect MTG Arena at all.
Sources: Forge Labs Youtube and Reddit threads:
The Epic Game Store is baiting companies with more revenue cut
Getting a better revenue cut is great for game companies, the problem comes when games scheduled and prepaid for on platforms like Steam, swap over to Epic instead. Leaving a bad taste in the mouth of the people supporting said games.
Exclusivity deals
Now, this is my main annoyance when it comes to Game Launchers, having to boot up another piece of software inside of my OS to play a game. MTG Arena goes around this and I think that is a really good choice, and wish that more games did this.
Cloud save games only supported on some games
Fortunately, this is irrelevant to MTG Arena as everything is saved in the cloud.
No regional prize support
This is quite bad for many people, the thing with MTGA is that you buy within the client, but as of right now there is no regional pricing there either. This might change soon though, as WotC has partnered with an external payment provider.
Being behind in functionality compared to platforms like Steam
- No controller support
- Basic friend functionality
- No open Review system
To summarize, there are some shady moves going on but one cannot put all the blame on Epic, there is a reason as to why game companies are moving over. And if you do not like the Epic Game Store you can go about your business as usual with MTGA Arenas Standalone client.
MTG Companion App - Open beta launch
Wizards also launched a Beta if their Companion App for Mobiles. Right now it is only a tourney feature supporting 2-16 players. It does seem a bit lacking but more features are coming. The interesting part is that you can log into the client with your MTGA account, so we look forward to what exciting things we will see in this app in the future.
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