Pixelborn Shutdown - What Now? 

I’d be worried about an official client coming with a ton of micro transactions that essentially make playing online the same cost as collecting the cards themselves. I really doubt Disney of all companies would allow you to just create a deck from any cards, and there doesn’t seem a clear way to ‘link’ your real cards onto the game. I would expect this would price most people out of playing it online.

I used Pixelborn to test my physical card decks out before LGS Lorcana Events. I hope that Disney/ Ravensburger develops a licensed/ official application similar to Pixelborn or MTG Arena

I personally think that there is no "if" but it's a "when" about when disney is going to release their own version of Lorcana online. And that version might take a while to create. They have now released the Illumineer's Quest, one option for people to play at home by themselves. I think they might release a few more of those, to have the time to build a good online mode. That being said, could you guys maybe do a Let's play for the Illumineers Quest. I would really enjoy that, as I just ordered mine. Can't wait

I’m a 20yr TCG player. DBZ, YGO, MTG, and many others. Lack of digital option kills interest for me. I get to LGS maybe 2-3 weeks a month, once per week. Digital client for DBS FW is what keeps me going. I found pixelborn 5 days ago and was HYPED to play this game and now likely wont buy in at all. Many of my friends are the same. If we can’t play digital, even if high buy in for digital packs, we likely won’t play at all. I hope they let this go so long to build their own and it’s coming soon. Great video, thanks.

At league, I combat our stores stagnation by bringing a new deck every week. I don't always win, but I do find a good chunk of our players get inspired to try new decks too.

Thank you for this video! Im bummed out. I never played any TCG in my life. I started playing lorcana during chapter 1 at a lgs every week. I would usually go 1-2 and would get smoked by former Pokemon, Yugioh and MTG players. Started playing PB a month before local stitch championship. I also went out and bought the cards I needed once I decided on which deck I would use. I learned more about the game in 4 weeks on PB than going to local in person games. PB helped me so much. I went to my local store championship and got to 5th place (one away from a stitch card) out of 28 people. I felt so much joy during the tournament. I got a draw against the #1 ranked person. I would of never did this well without PB. Im not sure I am going to continue playing without PB. Im going to find another TCG that has an online component and an in person element.

I just downloaded pixelborn less than a week ago. Lorcana’s official release in my region is in one day. I am a competitive tcg player with one piece being my main. One piece also has an online fanmade client which has helped the game tremendously. I own almost a physical playset of every card but I am still going to be testing ideas on the online sim. I have kids so I aren’t able to go to lgs as often as I like, so it is a great way to keep up with the game. I intended to do this with lorcana too. Currently there are no announcement competitions in my region. I don’t see a point now buying the lorcana cards to build decks as it was never going to be my main. Essentially, where lorcana would have got some money out of me, they are now likely not to. This will be a huge hit to the game if Disney don’t fill the void 😔

Its Disney. I guarantee Disney wants to make some digital client like MTGA to make more money off Lorcana. Not a surprise but sucks thst we cant deck test so easily.

I wished they would have waited to shutdown the game until Disney did launched their official version of the game online. I do have a feeling they will do so and likely put it on consoles only before offering one to pc and mobile. Disney will likely see how it does that way before offering those versions (likely with a ton of micro transactions). I really hope either way they will do something good for Pavel though, from all the hard work he put into building this and long hours to keep it running and updating to fix issues and bugs with the game. So many have said Disney needs to hire him to work on their own online version of the game. It would be nice if they do, but I got a feeling they probably won't. Disney is so far stricter now than in the Walt Disney days. But yeah you raised a lot of good points about everything. I do hope they will get an alternative online way to play before releasing the 5th chapter. I saw rumors of Ravensberger working on possibly been working on their version of it since this January (but unsure if its in deed true or not). Hopefully it is. But I will end with this too. I do think not by having this will hurt the game in general more, making it paper only way to play, I feel it will make it more difficult to find product in stores and may cause even more limitations when trying to preorder new sets from hobby stores, due to paper being the only way to play until there is a new online client to offer.

Honestly pretty sus for disney, who botched the launch, to allow pixelborn to be the ONLY way to play lorcana for many people in the first few months, then once ravensburger got lorcana in people's hands meaning it no longer needs pixelborn, disney pulls this stunt. They are doing a horrible job of managing this game.

How do we feel about the what if they respected the IP from the beginning and Pixelborn was never a thing? Do we think Pixelborn is the only reason Lorcana is alive right now? (Keep in mind this isn’t the only new tcg in recent years.) Or that all the ‘cons’ are part of every single tcg like ever. Star Wars, one piece, DBZ don’t really have online client and it took magic like 100 years to get one. Yugioh master duel doesn’t have a same ban list so doesn’t directly compete with its table top counterpart. Personally I think people were spoiled by a ‘knock off’ client. (All respect to the work put in to make it possible, but maybe if approached correctly we would have never had it.) who knows. A lot of opinions in the air, but there are ‘proper’ ways of doing things especially when the Mouse is involved. IMO

It’s all about money. It was just used for people to practice with see the cards they needed and just go buy those cards on TCG. No one is buying set 2 or set 3 packs/boxes anymore. It will hopefully make the Challenges less boring cause it seems everyone is playing the same decks. TCGs are made to be played with someone face to face and not with a screen!!!!!

I feel this is going to hurt game. But people keep telling me Disney's not dumb and knows what thier doing. But like you said with no sign of their own online game. This seems like pulling a major linchpin that holds things together.

Since there isn’t any legal fights going on and that Pixelborn is so popular, I think it would be profitable for Disney & Ravensberger to either hire the Pixelborn person or buy the program out and continue with the program with a monthly membership.

I bet they release a game client that gives you starting decks and you have to play to earn currency to obtain other cards. Rarer cards will cost more and you will have the ability to buy cosmetics and currency to buy the specific cards you need.

I just hope they actually make a digital version, regardless, this was a bad move to do it so soon without any form of announcement concerning the latter.

Its tough to say what impact this will have on the game. For so long, with product unavailable or hard to get, pixelborn was the only way for a lot of people, myself included, to play this game. An online version makes not just playing, but also testing, so much easier, and so much more accessible for everyone. Without an online game, the only real way to test decks is to buy the cards, either through packs or individual cards, with no way of knowing how the deck will play. Then if it doesn’t, that money is effectively wasted. It also potentially takes out the jank aspect, which is some people’s favorite part, instead of being hyper competitive. It’s such a shame to see that something that was so lovingly crafted as pixelborn, and something that is such a boon for the community, is being shut down. Especially if its not being replaced by an “official” version. I would’ve hoped that given there was an existing server, that perhaps a formal partnership could’ve been formed. Magic, the tcg I came from originally, existed a long time before it’s online version . That does show that the game, or a game, can exist solely in paper. However, the online version of Lorcana I feel has been integral to the game since it’s inception, meaning it might have a bigger impact being gone. I do hope that it gets replaced, soon, but I hope it is not for monetary gain

I agree with what you said. And I too am sad. I think its dev did a really good job with the community & app. Though I’ve been hearing a lot of wishful thinking online, I won’t be surprised if it takes a while for an official digital app to appear, if at all. … From the message Pavel posted, it looked like it was the Disney co. that contacted him, not Ravensburger. So this could have gone around the company that makes the game. For all the Disney reps care, RB might not have a replacement in the works. Mind you, a replacement for something they didn’t create, or perhaps even planned to create. RB makes board games and puzzles, not video games, so it’s likely an app would have to be externally built which has all its own hoops that need to be jumped thru. Pixelborn existed by the will of one talented fan, zero red tape, and the support of popular demand. Though the numbers show that fans want a digital app, RB is by no means required to provide one. The only numbers they’re looking at are their physical sales, and though some folks think PB’s closure will impact that dramatically, I assume it’ll be more of a speed bump rather than a car crash, lol. I have a hunch that most folks using the app were prob not buying a ton of product off the shelf. I mean why would you if you can just play it all for free from the comfort of your computer desk. Maybe buy meta deck singles off of TCG player to play in a local tourney, or maybe a playmat if they’re feeling fancy. But I get it, folks are upset that their free thing is gone, and don’t get me wrong I am DEEPLY upset that my free thing is gone, lol. PB provided a great space to test decks, play casually or online with friends, watch streamers, all the digital goodies. The game’s footprint online will certainly be impacted, and to some degree its overall growth. I’m just not sure RB cares as much about its online presence as its physical one, so that’s more likely to be where their focus stays. And though people think its physical success is dependent on its digital popularity, to some degree sure, but not to the level they’re thinking. That’s my take at least. The loudest voices are likely the ones that are playing it online the most, and are the most impacted, and in the end weren’t handing their CC# to the company making the game so… RB unfortunately isn’t gonna care unless they see a significant dip in their sales or overall popularity of their game. I’m just not sure the PB community was the bulk of either of those. Let’s be honest, the process of getting its app on the computer and the cards hooked up prob turned 75% of people away from even trying it in the first place, let alone some of its more janky elements as a result of it being fan-made. If and when an official digital version does drop, folks just need to be prepared for it to all be monetized in some way, and not the free range of Pixelborn. Best case imo is that it’d be similar to marvel snap, where you just play to earn the majority of the cards, but that also might be wishful thinking. More likely we’d get a mtg arena clone where they want you to buy a digital collection that you’ll never actually own. Anyway, that’s all just my own speculation. In time we’ll see what impact this has to the game at large, if at all. Maybe it takes a complete downhill turn, and everyone tosses their cards into the dumpster. Unlikely, but these days who knows, lol.

Yea, this is pretty big hit for me. I don't have a lot of time to play, especially in-store. So I have been playing pixelborn at night after the family goes to bed. I have finally found a deck that I enjoy playing(even though it doesn't win as much as I would have liked). I have most of the cards collected, but need few more to complete the deck for tournaments on weekends. Honestly I would be ok with a subscription based game that gives you access to all the cards, but I doubt we will see anything anytime soon and even then it will likely be a cash grab from Disney. Sad day.

Is there a spelltable equivalent for lorcana right now? Would be an ideal time to set one up

Frank Karsten won in Lille, Joshua won in Atlanta.

4:17 frank won Lille, it was Joshua Paultre who won Atlanta with the Amber Amythest deck

I wonder how much of it has to do with the game if Disney made it would definitely kill the card scene for them

Very concise, this is pretty much how i feel. AM sad

Ill play devil's advocate here and say why Pixelborn closure is better for the health of the game. Ravensburger will see an increase of sales. Lots of ppl who are playing PB like that the whole collection is free. And if they can practice with the cards, theyll buy singles... None of that money goes to RB when it needs to for the health of the game. I see starter decks at Target. If u want to learn buy one. And it was leaked RB is coming out with a how to play deck. If people are going to walk away from the game do to PB's end, In my honest opinion, I dont think they really like TCGs. They like free to play video games.

Agreed. Hard to find the time to go in and play in store 😔

Praise Against Thieves

Pixelborn was an option for me when The First Chapter wasn’t available in stores for months. Pixelborn was available for me when I realized that I was too anxious to go to a game store and play face to face against strangers. Pixelborn will be missed.

Nah, you're right. To me, the biggest thing is no replacement. With a (decent) replacement, most of the other downsides disappear. But without it, I probably won't be able to play the game anymore (time and money).

I had not heard of Pixelborn before the title of this video so I just assumed it was the official app for Lorcana. I was disappointed to read it was shutting down because it couldn't mean good news for the future of Lorcana. So while I'm disappointed for the uses of Pixelborn I'm happy it's not an official app so it isn't indicative of Lorcana's future because I enjoy playing it with my nieces.

I think Disney lorcana needs a online live tcg . would it have been so bad for Disney to hire the guy from pixelborn all the work time and effort has been put in to the game already just needs a little clean up with all the files you have to go through to set up is all make it a one button install instead of all the unzips and exports files . just a thought i mean the guy laid down all the ground work its all there.

My pixel was just born thoughh😢

napster killed music stores.

Well I see this s : the pros who tested more than me won't have as much an advantage to tournaments now! But yeah.... hoping to get a fun game licensed soon for Lorcana! Best online card TCG .... slays Heartstone. Lorcana was way more fun that Blizzard's baby with that fanmade PixelBorn

I started an online petition against Disney/ravensburger on this matter and sent it to the imagineering department to show them how many fans they are losing because of this dumb decision in their part they could have let pixel born continue with sponsorship

It’s a real shame as I loved pixelborn as a game engine far more than magic arena or ptcg live. It will be interesting to see what Ravensburger/Disney do to support existing players going forwards.

Well nobody was coming to Saturday afternoons at my LGS and now this. Welp, time to cash out. Fun while it lasted. 😢

Dang bad time for me to take interest in this game lol