14 DAY TRIAL // Wizards of the Coast has recently filed a lawsuit against Cryptozoic Entertainment and Hex Entertainment, alleging various similarities between HEX: Shards of Fate and Magic: The Gathering.
Cryptozoic focused on developing something that takes a step beyond what people usually expect in trading card games, and their very successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter speaks volumes to Hex: Shards of Fate's potnetial.
"Although we take all pending litigation seriously, we do not find any merit to the allegations in the complaint. We do not expect this frivolous legal action to impact our efforts to deliver a compelling and entertaining game experience to our customers," The Hex Team officially states.
While both of them are trading card games, and as such share many similarities, there are also many ways in which the two games differ, the main of which being that Hex is a digital-only MMO-TCG that attempts to offer an experience that transcends cardboard, being innovative and pushing the boundaries of trading card games in ways that physical games wouldn't be able to.
"We respect intellectual property rights, but the right to make a TCG is not exclusive to WOTC. Many TCGs can, and do, coexist consistent with any IP rights WOTC might have. While IP rights are important, so is fair competition. WOTC cannot snuff out fair competition with frivolous infringement assertions," The Hex Team continues.
The latest Kickstarter update has brought a message from Cory Jones, Cryptozoic's president, to the entire Hex community.
He reveals that he, along with the Hex team, has been focused on realizing their dream to produce an innovative trading card game that combines the traditional strategic aspects of TCGs with the community and sense of progression encountered in massively multiplayer online games.
"Sadly, the potential of that innovation has driven WOTC to file a meritless lawsuit in an attempt to kill a competitor before it delivers on that promise. HEX has a chance to give gamers a better and completely different experience from a digital-only TCG than a paper TCG can."
"Sometimes being small and independent makes you seem like an easy target to the bullies, and that’s not an easy place to be, but rest assured we are ready to defend the dream," Jones assures the community.
He goes on to say the they are determined not to allow the "frivolous legal action" to damage in any way their ability to deliver the intended game experience to their backers, and they will continue building on their dream, as he feels "100% confident in a positive outcome for HEX."