Disney: New Lorcana Trading Card Game Faces Uphill Battle

When it comes to TCGs (trading card games) the market has been saturated for years. Still, despite more and more properties getting in on the mix, they very rarely have success. Most of it is due in large part to the big three, Magic The Gathering, Yu Gi Oh, and Pokemon. While those three have the market cornered, it seems every year a new one is popping up. They start with a bang and end with a fizzle. Disney is throwing their hat into the ring with their new TGC Lorcana. Will it suffer the same fate?

On one hand, Disney has the brand recognition to really promote something so ambitious. With properties from Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel there are a handful of different routes they can go. Whether they use this for the base game or add expansions later, they have a variety of characters from all different universes at their disposal. The only problem here is, they have to make sense of the intention of the game. If you have Captain America in a deck with Woody from Toy Story it doesn’t exactly give the same “battle of the realms” that a Magic The Gathering would.

More Gaming: Why Did Red Dead Online Fail So Much?

There’s the giant red flag when it comes to a Disney property TGC like Lorcana. Pokemon, Yu Gi Oh, and Magic have lore that are just creatures and characters that fit in a fantasy world that come together to form a story in the lore text on cards. Random Disney characters shuffled through a deck, with no interconnectivity as to why they fight side by side won’t exactly make the strongest case for lore. While it can still exist as a strategy or RPG via a deck of cards, it doesn’t exactly share the unique play of the other trading card games.

On top of that, they’ve got a lot of catching up to do. The big three have been around for decades and get new expansions each year or so. Can Disney’s Lorcana keep up with the evolution of TCGs before they run out of characters to use for expansions? Will these cards increase in value the same as the others? There are so many variables.

Even if they overcome those hurdles, it will still be up against the longevity of the other games. Either they have a new fan base to try to grow, or they’ll be trying to cut into a piece of the pie. Whether or not they succeed depends on a very thin line. With Lorcana, if it’s too geared toward kids it will limit growth down the road as children grow out of it. If they gear it more toward adults and it becomes too complex most won’t want to invest the time and money that they already have invested in MTG or Pokemon. They have a very small crack in the door of opportunity that they have to kick in and make a fuss. With too much stacked against them, one misstep and the game will be another TCG that won’t be around for long.