Sony Online Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast have teamed up for Magic: The Gathering - Tactics, an online, 3D turn-based strategy game coming to the PC and PlayStation 3 next year.
SOE's fascination with card games finally comes full circle. After years of creating collectible card games based on their popular MMO properties like EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies, now the company's Denver studio is creating a strategy game based on the inspirations for those games - Magic: The Gathering.
Magic: The Gathering - Tactics draws on the Planeswalkers lore of Magic, putting players in control of 3D figures and spells from the popular CCG. The game will include both single player scenarios and online PVP multiplayer. As with any Magic-related product, fans can expect regular content expansions and strong tournament support, along with achievements and rankings.
"By collaborating with Wizards of the Coast, we're able to combine the strengths of both companies to develop an innovative, online, 3D game based on an extremely popular IP," said John Smedley, president, Sony Online Entertainment. "We're going to be taking the Magic: The Gathering Multiverse places players have never seen."
I still prefer the Xbox Live Arcade Magic game myself, as it's the straight-up card game and not a strategy derivative, but it's nice to see the PlayStation 3 getting a little Magic loving either way.
Look for Magic: The Gathering - Tactics to hit the PC in early 2010, with a PlayStation 3 release coming soon after.