A few months ago, Wizards of the Coast announced that Stainless Games’ Magic: Duels was being discontinued. It was originally planned that the most recent set, Hour of Devastation, was to be ported to Duels, but it was cancelled in June. Amonkhet was the most recent set to be released for Duels, Duels has been available as a F2P game since July 2015. Wizards also announced a partnership with Cryptic Studios – the team behind Neverwinter – to create a Magic-themed MMO game. Whether or not this new game is Arena itself or is just part of the overall product line, is unknown.
That’s pretty much all we know about the game so far, actually. Platforms that will be supported have yet to be announced, so no idea if there is even a PC release headed our way. To many fans, it’s taking the place of Magic Duels, but whether it’s actually similar to any previous games is still up in the air. Who knows – it may not even follow typical Magic: The Gathering themes and mechanics set by other games like Duels of the Planeswalkers and Magic: Duels.
That digital game we are working on has a real name now: Magic: The Gathering Arena! pic.twitter.com/xTQWtjg6xc
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) August 3, 2017
In a followup tweet, it was confirmed that a stream on September 7 would reveal more about Magic: The Gathering Arena and how you can join the closed beta.
Tune into https://t.co/nUzYF5lf0v on September 7 at 1pm PT to learn all about #MTGArena and how you can join the closed beta.
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) August 3, 2017
In an announcement in June, it was revealed that more of this game would be shown at HASCON, September 8-10, including early demos, so it’s possible that closed beta may be coming soon after these showcases of gameplay.