For an indication of the potential dangers when working with external partners, look no further than one of the other 800-pound gorillas of board games, Games Workshop. announced the launch of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – The Board Game in May 2023. Six months later, Space Sailor 2 Publisher Focus Entertainment announced that the video game it was based on would be delayed by almost a full year. When the digital incarnation of Captain Titus received rave reviews last month, Space Marine – The Board Game It had already been marked as authorization.
It turns out that something very similar happened with MagicThe most recent collaboration with Larian Studio.
“When we don't do it well, like when we launch Battle for Baldur's Gate one year before Baldur's Gate 3 comes out of beta, you know, there's a little bit of misalignment,” Forsythe said. Working with Marvel has been different than working with Larian, however, there are still many things that have not been said between the two companies.
Of course, even when communication between partners is not perfect, good things can still happen. That was true of MagicThe other recent success of: their Fallout-themed Commander decks, which were recently called the most successful Commander products ever released. It turns out that the timing of its release was just a happy accident.
“When we do it right,” Forsythe said, “like when we released our Fallout decks when the Fallout TV show came out, which was absolutely serendipitous and not really planned, just incredibly serendipitous, it worked out very well for both parties. […] Both sides want everything to look intentional and point in the same direction. But we both have our secrets to keep and we can't risk the whole boat on a certain partnership. So I think you'll see that it works pretty well.”
Expect more details on additional Universes Beyond sets, including a highly anticipated collaboration with Square Enix's Final Fantasy franchise, in the future.