It’s the End of Online Lorcana as We Know It
Growing up and playing trading card games, the worst thing about it had to be the fact that it was hard to find anyone to play with you. After constantly deck building and upgrading my different decks, my little brother got tired of having to be my test subject, playing game after game just so I could know if a new deck strategy worked or not. Eventually, low budget fan-made programs showed up on the internet. You could use these to mock battle against one another, but they weren’t really good. The one I’m thinking of (Duel Network for anyone familiar) was little more than an empty shell. The rules, the mechanics all had to be performed manually by you.
Young trading card game players today probably have no idea what I’m talking about. In truth, the big trading card games I know of have seamless ways for you to play card games against anyone in the world. The fact that we have this capability is a marvel of the twenty-first century. But what do you do about new card games that don’t have a reliable method to play online?
In the world of Lorcana, the hyper-popular Disney-themed card game that is already selling out thousand-person tournaments, that void was filled by an enterprising card game enthusiast and software developer named Pavel Kolev.
A Lorcana player himself and also a huge member of the online Lorcana community, Pavel launched an application some time ago that since then has been the de facto means through which Lorcana fans are able to battle with one another at any given time, anywhere in the world.
I won’t go into too much detail about the app called Pixelborn for those of you unfamiliar as I’ve written about it at length before. But the fact is Pixelborn has been the best way to practice your decks, test out new strategies, and even get your competitive edge sharpened via its complex online ranking system.
Indeed, entire, massive tournaments with huge cash prizes have sprung up around the game, making its own ecosystem of content creators, streamers and just plain-old competitive gamers looking to one-up each other on the leaderboards.
Recently, however, that’s all changed. On May 29, 2024, Pavel announced that Pixelborn would be coming to an end after Disney representatives requested he cease an desist (effectively).
Even though Pavel did nothing wrong (the game doesn’t have any actual Disney imagery in it), he did the right thing and honored their requests.
Today, #Pavel was trending on X, and the Lorcana community at large is in something akin to grief. Where do we all play now? How do we test our strategies? What’s next?
Is Disney making their own online Lorcana TCG client?
Speculation is very high right now about what the future of online Lorcana play will be. Just like with the other major trading card games, in-card in-person play will remain the most prestigious and competitive outlet for Lorcana regardless. However, there is reason to think that Ravensburger (the creators of Lorcana) will be coming out with their own way to play the game online.
Although this has not in any way been confirmed, perhaps the most interesting story I’ve come across that makes me think an online client is coming for Disney Lorcana comes from a post from notable Lorcana player, Savjz.
According to Savjz, he personally spoke with Lorcana Brand Manager, Ryan Miller about the potential of a Lorcana Client.
“I know you are the busiest man in the building, so I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but last thing I wanted to say is that PLEASE, we need an official online client, it would be heaven-sent…His answer was: ‘It’s like Bruno. I can’t talk about it’”
Savjz is a very reputable source on all things Lorcana so I tend to believe what he is saying is true. Other buzz online seems to reflect the same thing. Could a new application be coming to the world of Lorcana, built and maintained by Ravensburger?
To me, it seems quite likely. After all, Ravensburger has been following suit almost in lockstep with other major trading card games, minus a few peculiar alterations to what previously were universally accepted norms of trading card games, including a hard-to-understand two-game format. What I mean to say is, it’s quite likely that Ravensburger already understands the importance of giving players a way to battle with one another online, and understandably they want the whole piece of that action.
For an official Lorcana TCG app to happen, Pixelborn can’t exist
As much as I will feel the loss of Pixelborn, and no matter how great an achievement the whole thing was by Pavel, the reality is such a massively impactful and influential app like Pixelborn can’t survive if an official one is to be born. In a way, it is inevitable. But do we even need an online gaming app for Lorcana? Or will Ravensburger just push in-card play?
Market considerations for digital games vs. in card play
One of the great paradoxes in the modern, digital world is the trade-off between businesses doing what’s best for their bottom line, and ceding territory to enable a digital experience for their customers. Enabling and sanctioning a digital application for the collecting, trading and playing of cards seems to directly undermine a business that otherwise benefits from the sale of physical cards.
However, also at the heart of this strange paradox is that having online ways to play the game doesn’t actually detract from physical sales. Indeed, Pokemon continues to print more and more cards every year (around 11 billion last year) despite the fact that you can now play Pokemon with anyone in the world with or without actually buying a Pokemon pack via their official app, Pokemon TCG Live.
You are certainly incentivized to buy products, which you can then redeem online for points. And Pokemon is pretty generous with the stuff you get from the products you buy via their app.
They leaned into the digital revolution. Ravensburger will undoubtedly do the same thing.
The pros and cons of an online gaming app for Lorcana
I don’t really see a world in which Ravensburger does not develop an app for players to duel with one another. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it is a good thing. Lastly, it makes sense to dive into what the pros and cons of an official Lorcana app might be.
For starters, not having an app at all could bolster in card play attendance. However, that idea may not actually be true. To date, in card attendance has been just fine with an online client readily available. Meanwhile, other major card games like Pokemon are quite successful and they also have online apps.
One potential downside that could be very real with an official app is cost. Right now, you can play any deck any time any where via Pixelborn. You aren’t limited by an artificial commerce system designed to benefit the physical game’s creator. How expensive this could get, and how limited your deck building options might be with the new Disney Lorcana app (should it occur) is hard to know ahead of time. But there undoubtedly will be some limitation.
A potential benefit, in the interim, however, is that decks could get more creative. Indeed, as one of the members of the official JosephWriterAnderson Discord Server said in our lively discussion on the matter, cookie-cutter decks based on whatever is trending on Pixelborn have largely dominated in-card tournaments. Could this element go away in a world free of online Lorcana play?
I think there is some definite possibility of this. While players will still be able to look up what is doing good at tournaments, there will be some more creative reasoning here for them to decipher what the best deck is – not just whatever Pixelborn stats say are statistically the best decks of all any given week.
Indeed, not getting weekly updates about the stats of what decks do well against which other decks could be a huge boon for the game, leading to more creative deck building decisions and a more varied meta.
Regardless of what the timeline is for a new Lorcana app, my money is that it is coming. And sooner rather than later. Regardless, the fact that Lorcana is selling out tournaments all around North America and Europe already is a huge feat that shows how big this game is and how much it matters to its audience. It’s not going anywhere. We Lorcana players, however, are just a little more lonely while we wait for what’s next.
