14 DAY TRIAL // Sony Online Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast LLC have announced an agreement to collaborate on developing a videogame called Magic: The Gathering – Tactics, which is set to be released on the PC and on the PlayStation 3 at some point in 2010.
The aim of the project is to bring the same mechanics and felling that players get when using decks of cards in the real world to the virtual space, allowing players to engage one another in Magic games even if they are continents apart.
John Smedley, who is the president of Sony Online Entertainment, said that “By collaborating with Wizards of the Coast, we’re able to combine the strengths of both companies to develop an innovative, online, 3D game based on an extremely popular IP. We’re going to be taking the Magic: The Gathering Multiverse places players have never seen.”
Development duties on Magic: The Gathering – Tactics are handled by a studio in Denver owned by Sony and the PC version of the title is set to arrive first in early 2010, while the PlayStation 3 version will come some time later. Sony is not saying whether cross platform play will be available, but given the fact that Tactics is turn based and twitch shooting is not an issue, the two versions of the game should be able to connect with each other.
The new Magic title will allow gamers to engage in single player scenarios, commanding 3D representations of units from the card game and wielding spells. There will also be Player versus Player matches, both ad hoc and ranked. Sony is also promising regular expansions that will add units and spells, tournaments that will engage the whole community and a complex rankings system complete with achievements. Wizards of the Coast is also saying that the partnership, if successful, might be extended to create more original stories set in the Magic: The Gathering universe.