Long overdue.
Fans of Magic: The Gathering will soon have a new way to play, according to Wizards of the Coast, as MTG Arena is slated to arrive on mobile beginning later this month.
Arena is the digital version of the ever popular card game complete with virtual backgrounds, pets to adorn your screen, a digital marketplace, and, above all, the ability to play Magic with friends from around the world or total strangers.
The mobile version of the game–which has cross-play with the Mac and PC versions–will roll out in phases, with specified Android devices able to play from January 28 in what Wizards are calling an “early access” window.
Only Androids meeting notable but not insurmountable requirements will be able to handle the game, according to Wizards, with minimum requirements including 4GB of RAM, Marshmallow (Android version 6.0), and a limited number of chipsets running reasonably new devices like the Galaxy Note 10+, the Huawei P30 Pro, or the Sony Xperia XZ2, many of which are two years old or newer. The latest Android release is 11.
A mobile version of MTG Arena has been cooking for some time with Hasbro executives delaying it late last year to “fine-tune” the release. Magic’s popularity has continued to increase over the years but through the pandemic as its physical releases sold out quickly and digital sales through Arena grew. Hasbro executives commented in last year’s earnings call that players spent roughly nine hours per week on the platform, a number they hope to improve upon with the mobile version.
No timeline on a wider mobile rollout including iOS release has been detailed yet.
