Magic: Legends has had a rough launch in its open beta last week. The ARPG set in the iconic Magic: The Gathering multiverse has seen its share of criticism over its monetization, loot drop rate and much more. Today the team at Cryptic released an update with some news on what tomorrow's update to the beta will look like.
Late last week, Executive Procuder Steven Ricossa touched on some of the criticisms around the open beta, namely the issues with how Magic: Legends is monetized, as well as the slow start to get into the ARPG's meat and potatoes. Players have pointed out how the monetization model really takes away from the core experience, as well as how slow the opening moments of the ARPG are. The response to the deck building mechanic has been relatively solid, with many players liking the shake up to the traditional ARPG format, however what they didn't like are items like the Dimir Assassin class being locked behind essentially a loot box.
In reaction to the feed back, Ricossa announced that changes would be coming to the experience, as well as iterating the team is open to feedback and possible changes to monetization. One change was made immediately, as the Dimir Assassin class was no longer locked behind the loot-box paywall, making the class as well as the Nightveil Walker spell unlockable on both the free and premium tracks of the ARPG's Battle Pass.
Tomorrow's patch sees the continuation of the efforts to address player feed back to Magic: Legends. Ricossa explains in the Part 2 of the State of the Game that in addition to the Dimir Assassin appearing on the Battle Pass, players should start to notice a doubling in drop rate for spells in the overworld, ordeals and missions.
"With tomorrow’s push we have a variety of great technical fixes and additional quality of life improvements for the game. In addition to these, the Dimir Assassin will now appear as the level 50 reward in both tracks of the Battlepass (alongside continued availability in the Booster Pack) and we’re officially doubling the spell drop rate from enemies throughout overworlds, ordeals, and missions. We’ll be delivering more fixes every week based on community feedback to continue to refine the game."
For those looking for an overhaul to the legnth of the tutorial, it won't be completed with tomorrow's build. However, Ricossa stated that it's something that are working on, including things like skipping the omboarding itself to bring players "to the core gameplay faster."
Ricossa closed out the State of the Game talkng about the build coming mid-April. While players should expect to see weekly updates addressing bug fixes and improvements, larger updates like the one coming in mid-April will address larger swathes of fixes and content. Ricossa mentions that he'll be detailing those later on as the update nears.
You can read the full State of the Game: Part 2 on the Magic: Legends website. If you've been interested in the beta itself, make sure you check out our thoughts on the Beta. We've overall enjoyed the gameplay, but everything seems to have a pall cast over it with the aggressive monetization and slow opening moments.
