Magic: Legends Is Shutting Down

Magic: Legends, the game which just recently entered its open beta phase in March, is shutting down. The Magic: Legends team announced the end of the game on Tuesday with a post explaining that they felt they “missed the mark” with the vision for the game and that lessons learned will be implemented in future projects. The game will officially shut down on October 31st with an FAQ published alongside the announcement to answer any questions about refunds, in-game purchases, and other matters.

Steve Ricossa, the executive producer working on Magic: Legends, penned the announcement for the game’s shutdown and explained that everyone who spent money in the game during the open beta will get full refunds. The Zen Shop will be shut down with all items in the game made purchasable with the in-game Aether currency, and the servers will remain up and running until the end of October when the game shuts down for good.

“Our vision for Magic: Legends missed the mark, but we are proud of what we achieved,” Ricossa said. “Thanks to Wizards of the Coast, we got to bring the expansive Magic: The Gathering Multiverse to a wide audience and explore new angles within the established ARPG genre. We learned several valuable lessons along the way, and we will use them to improve Cryptic’s future development efforts.”

Magic: Legends was only available on the PC platform during the open beta through the Epic Games Store, and that’s where it’ll stay for the remainder of its life. The developers said in the FAQ that the game will not be released on consoles nor will it be released on Steam, so if you still plan to play it while you can, the Epic Games Store will be your only option. As for the future of Magic: Legends, the developer said in no unclear terms that, at this time, “there are no plans to reinstate Magic: Legends in the future.”

The Diablo-like ARPG allowed players to choose different classes of heroes such as Necromancers, Dimir Assassins, and Beastcallers which all utilized different abilities and fighting styles built on their Magic the Gathering origins. The first playable versions of the game received mixed or negative receptions, however, with players criticizing the grindy nature of the game among other issues.

The announcement only provides limited context into the reasoning behind shutting down the game before it even left its beta stage, though more info about the shutdown will undoubtedly come out in the future.