Prerelease weekend for Magic: The Gathering | Marvel's Spider-Man could have gone better according to those local game stores nationwide.
Since the beginning of the decade, Magic has had some very strong numbers for set prerelease events.
In the last twelve months alone, Bloomburrow, Tarkir: Dragonstorm, Final Fantasy, and Edge of Eternities all reportedly showed big numbers, though some were more modest overall; such was the case with Duskmourn. They haven't been all winners, however, as Murders at Karlov Manor proved to be low and Aetherdrift's prerelease went so poorly that stores canceled subsequent orders.
And while a set's prerelease is never a full indicator of popularity, like opening weekends for movies, they almost always give a baseline on how well an expansion will do.
During the weekend of September 19, Wizards of the Coast gave their latest expansion, the Universes Beyond set Marvel's Spider-Man, it's prerelease. The numbers? Initial reports is that they have been bad.
How bad? Well...let's start with a poll.
The Community Engagement Manager for the Wizards Play Network, Nelson Brown, posted a poll for local game stores within the Wizards Play Network to rate their Spider-Man prerelease experience. And...well...
That's nearly 60% negative and only 25% giving anything positive about it.
Then there were store owners talking about figures. Magic Untapped contacted several store owners across the United States about their Spider-Man prerelease events. Going from the East Coast to the West Coast, this is what they said:
"A lot lower than usual. We had some Spider-Man fans here wearing the shirts, but the usual buzz was gone. Quiet. It was a quiet prerelease. That's the word. People weren't talking about the cards either. They were talking bout Avatar coming up or the new Lorwyn. Oh, and many said they wanted Edge of Eternities to be extended instead. They all seemed to want a "normal" one. And another thing. Usually we skewer younger. We have a system here where good grades gets them discounts on packs. But this prerelease was a lot of the older crowd. No one seemed to want this one except Spider-Man fans." - Phil, Co-Owner of an LGS in Brunswick, Ohio (Phil asked for his last name and store name not be revealed)
"We had to cancel it. No one wanted to play it. Final Fantasy prerelease was huge. We had to bring out more tables for that. Spider-Man was three [people] and we sent them to another store that still had theirs going on. My boss was pissed."- Oscar, an LGS employee in Austin, Texas (Oscar asked for his last name and store name not be revealed)
"Also low about 20% our usual numbers but I’m not surprised… closeness of sets… Marvel burnout… higher cost In a time of uncertainty… and players liking the arena art more than the arena art and mad they can’t have those cards boycotting the set as a whole in the area I predicted it might be bad but didn’t expect this." - Michael Glick, of Game Night Games in Salt Lake City, Utah
"This was our absolute worst prerelease in our nearly 9 years of business. Overall, WotC missed the marked on this one. And not just by a little. It's a set that didn't need to be made." - Nick Barnes, Co-Owner of Rune & Board in Hillsboro, Oregon
"Worst Friday Prerelease I've ever seen in the 15 years (three years owner 12 years player/employee) I've been at this shop. Six Players, zero at home kits. Normally 15-30 people depending on set and hype. Like a lot of the others who have said here; price and Universes Beyond were the main factors of keeping people away. I had a group of six come in and play modern casually instead of participating in prerelease, their main complaint was no interest in Spider-Man theme and they'd rather save their money for Avatar."- Steven Huffstutler, Owner of Palouse Games in Pullman, Washington
All this was further expanded online. While some New York area locations were reporting in decent figures, with lines even forming outside of some stores, everywhere else was reporting a horrible opening weekend. A significant number of prerelease events were either cancelled or merged together, while others were reporting in their lowest prerelease attendances ever. The latter got to be so many than a huge Reddit thread was created by store owners just to talk about it. And there wasn't exactly a lot of talk about decent figures either.
While WotC hasn't commented or given out figures yet outside of polls, the disastrous opening weekend could possibly be attributed to multiple factors including cost, Marvel/superhero fatigue, a growing dislike of Universes Beyond, players more interested in future or past sets, inability to reach younger players, and the closeness of sets being released.
It's too early to say how Spider-Man will do overall. Magic has had sleeper and surprise hits in the past after all. But this was not the prerelease WotC was even remotely hoping for. Prerelease kits have been dropping in price like a rock, and players seem to want a return to a more normal Magic experience.
It's going to be an interesting fall. The collectible card game's next set, which releases Nov. 21, is another Universes Beyond set based on the Nickelodeon cartoon, Avatar: The Last Airbender.
