Digital Commander would make Hasbro a ton of money and be objectively terrible
When fun gets in the way of financials
Last week, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks told Bloomberg that the toy company is “testing” yet another digital game for Magic: The Gathering. This as-yet-unnamed title will apparently differ from MTG Arena—the current premiere digital way to sling cardboard—by focusing on Commander, a mega-popular multiplayer format that uses 100-card decks helmed by a legendary creature.
Cocks was light on details beyond mentioning that the video game might exist separately from Arena, which currently only allows two players to engage in a Commander-esque game mode called Brawl. The app would also crank up the focus on collectibility, taking cues from the new Pokémon TCG Pocket and—directly referenced in Bloomberg’s article—Marvel Snap.
“We want to reach fans where they want to play, and increasingly that is through digital expressions of their favorite brands,” Cocks said. It’s a ghoulish manner by which to discuss playing a card game, but it also aligns with Hasbro’s corporate strategy: digital first, and always with an eye towards increased financialization. To wit, Cocks was quoted as saying that Arena fails to “harness” both collectibility and the overwhelming dominance of the Commander format.
