Magic: The Gathering designer opens up about crossover criticism

Magic: The Gathering's head designer, Mark Rosewater, has responded to criticism from fans who think he's gone back on his word that MTG would be "one cohesive game" and refrain from introducing crossover promotions to the fan-favourite collectable card game.

The comments come after Wizards of the Coast recently revealed what new crossover expansions Magic: The Gathering fans can expect to see next year, including new sets based upon Final Fantasy, Fallout, and the Assassin's Creed series.

Back in 2018, Rosewater was asked if WotC would ever "consider licensing a different IP and creating different cards for it". In response, he said that the team thought it was "important that Magic is one cohesive game and not a hodge podge of different things".

"In other words, we want Magic to be our thing and not someone else's", he said, adding that "we want our settings to be our own" and "prefer building on our worlds rather than other people's worlds".

As spotted by TheGamer, Rosewater says that whilst the team's position on this had now changed, he "100 per cent believed the things I said when I said it".

"My goal on this blog is to share with you my best sense of where Magic design is at that moment", Rosewater said. "Often Magic moves in directions I can’t predict. If you asked me ten years ago, as many people actually did, I wouldn’t have predicted Universes Beyond.

"But now that I’m knee-deep in it, and I’ve seen a lot of data based on the ones we’ve released, I’m a convert. I believe it is something that will bring lots of happiness to Magic players."

He finished by saying he "was in a playtest for a Marvel set the other day", and it was "one of the most fun playtests [he'd] had in years".

The crossovers have been released as part of the trading card game's Universes Beyond series and are set to kick off in early 2024 with the Fallout expansion, whilst Everyone's favourite time traveller, Doctor Who, has already arrived in Magic: The Gathering.