“It is with heavy hearts that we announce Magic: Legends will be shutting down,” begins the brief post on the Magic Legends blog. “All players who spent money in-game across Arc and the Epic Games Store during the Open Beta will be refunded their full purchase amounts. Servers will remain open for play until closing day, however we will be closing the Zen Shop effective immediately. Later this week, all items will instead be purchasable using Aether, our free in-game currency.” Magic: Legends was an action-RPG that combined the genre with deckbuilding elements from its Magic: the Gathering routes, but it has been heavily criticised during its beta for its design, stability and use of microtransactions. It was developed by Cryptic Studios, who are responsible for long-running MMOs such as Star Trek Online and Neverwinter, and defunct MMOs Champions Online and City Of Heroes. I never played Magic: Legends, but I’m always sad for the developers involved when a live service game is shut down so quickly. It was announced back in 2017 that Cryptic were making a Magic: the Gathering game, and four years is a long time to work on something that will only be playable for a total of six months. For now, you can continue to grab the Magic: Legends open beta from its official site
