Disney will launch a new card game to go up against Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon

Disney is the King of Theme Parks, Streaming Television, Major Motion Pictures, and Major Motion Pictures, but the House of Mouse has to tread carefully when it comes To Collectible Card Games. The Gathering is MagicAnd the Pokémon Trading Card Game The industry has been dominated by these companies for over a decade, with each one a multi-billion dollar franchise. Disney is now partnering with Ravensburger (a game publisher of 139 years). It is now called “The New Joint Initiative”. Disney LorcanaA family-friendly, collectible trading card game called. Expect the first set to arrive in 2023’s second quarter.

Ravensburger’s popular Disney Villainous strategy board game line is well-known to most board gamers. This series features almost 30 villains drawn from the Disney, Marvel and Star Wars universes. It was launched in 2018. You can find it here. Disney LorcanaRavensburger stated that they want to move things up.

“The basic idea is there’s this place called The Great Illuminary,” said brand manager Ryan Miller, a veteran of Wizards of the Coast who also helped design the gameplay of Disney Lorcana. “It is a treasury of all the Disney songs and stories ever made — all the characters — and it’s where they’re kind of recorded. The players take on this role of an Illumineer — this powerful sorcerer that has the ability to bring these characters to life off the page. [Players will be] bringing a band of their favorite Disney characters together to adventure in this world.”

The collectible game will include a “modern storybook” art style, said head of games Cassidy Werner. Shane Hartley, global games creative director, said that it “was inspired by the storybook openings of classic Disney films and features visible line work and vibrant color washes” and “mixes both traditional hand-drawn qualities seen in fairy-tale storybooks with new digital techniques.”

This game will feature all the features that collector cards fans have come to know and love about top-of-the line releases.

“You know those little paint chip things that people have sometimes when they’re painting their house?” Ravensburger’s Werner said. “[Our art director] has one of those from a manufacturer of different foil treatments for cards — holographic with an ink spill, or with a star. I was kicked out of his office by him the other day. I’m kidding, but I could just sit there for hours looking at the pretty things. I’d say as a person who collects Pokémon cards, especially shiny Eeveelutions, I am really excited. I can’t wait to add more cards to my collection. I think other Disney collectors will feel the same.”

Filip Francke, CEO Ravensburger, spoke on behalf of his company about the implications for the larger picture.

“This [game] is probably the largest potential that Ravensburger has ever gone after,” Francke said, “and hence also probably the largest investment that we have ever done into any type of project and initiative.”

“We know that as you enter the TCG market, that you’re inviting the players for a many-year journey,” Francke continued. “We don’t take that lightly. This is a multiyear effort. [of releases]. It’s something that Disney has never really allowed any partner to do. The trust we have created with Disney is a testament to that. […] I think allowed us to come to a point where we both strategically, commercially had the trust to say, ‘Yeah, let’s dare to do this together.’”

Ravensburger said that the goal of its trading card game is to make it as welcoming and accessible as possible. How will it compare with its most prestigious, but also notoriously competitive, competitors?

“Magic, I would say, has a very high competition level,” said Miller. “People love that about Magic. The team has retreated from the situation. I wouldn’t say that we’re cooperative in any sense — it’s definitely a strategy card game. But I would say that we’ve pulled back the confrontation level, because we feel that that will appeal to a lot more folks. If you want to think [of] chess as the highest confrontation level you can get, we’re a bunch of notches behind that because we want people to have fun […] with these characters that they love so much.”

The D23 Expo in Anaheim will give fans their first glimpse at the cards. September 9th will be the start of this fan-focused event.