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Magic: The Gathering, with its power to summon high school social ostracism, is now available for a mere $5 (400) on XBLA to gold members. Football quarterbacks and members of the Young Republicans can now participate or learn the monumentally successful card game in relative anonymity and at a great price — especially if you factor in the cost of the real card game. Veterans may find the well-crafted XBLA version to be for “beginners,” due to its lack of fully customizable decks, but there is an incredible amount of value stacked in there for $5.

Another great and relatively overlooked feature is the game’s two-player co-op, which allows you to cut a spouse or friend into the deal. Once all the social stigma is stripped away, it’s pretty easy to see why the game has had the staying power of a Drudge Skeleton.

Shortcut: Add Magic: The Gathering to your download queue

Xbox Live deal of the week taps Magic: The Gathering for $5 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seems the Dungeons & Dragons franchise has brought more legal troubles upon Atari than it’s probably worth. In August, Turbine Entertainment, developer of the MMO based on the tabletop game, sued the publisher for failing to “devote the necessary resources” to promoting and distributing the online RPG. Now, Hasbro, owner of subsidiary company Wizards of the Coast, which is the current owner of the D&D franchise, is suing Atari for allegedly breaching a licensing agreement the two parties struck up concerning Atari’s use of the popular role-playing brand.

Hasbro’s main complaint in the suit is that Atari might have taken part in an “unauthorized sublicensing relationship” with Namco Bandai during the latter’s purchase of Atari’s European distribution company this past March. According to the suit, Namco Bandai is a direct competitor to Hasbro and Wizards, and allowing them any access to the D&D license is a violation of the contract agreed to by Atari. Hasbro seeks compensatory damages, and also to terminate the allegedly violated licensing agreement, denying Atari further access to the brand.

In a press release statement, Wizards of the Coast president Greg Leeds said, “while unfortunate that we had to take this action, it is crucial for us to protect the Dungeons & Dragons brand.” Leeds later added, “we have been working for several months now to reach resolution with Atari, and they have left us with no other choice than to pursue legal action.”

Atari isn’t taking these complaints lying down — the publisher just distributed its own statement through PRNewswire, claiming, “Hasbro has resorted to these meritless allegations, in an apparent attempt to unfairly take back rights granted to Atari.” The statement goes on to say, “we regret that our long-time partner has decided to pursue this action. Atari will respond appropriately through its legal counsel in court.”

Hasbro suing Atari over alleged breach in D&D licensing agreement originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wizards of the Coast has announced that PC and PS3 gamers have more to look forward to than just Magic: The Gathering Tactics. In spring 2010, Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers will hit PCs, followed by a PS3 version in the fall. Previously available only on Xbox Live Arcade, Duels of the Planeswalkers features traditional Magic gameplay with plenty of unlockable cards as well as online versus and co-op play. The PS3 and PC versions will include similar gameplay, though the press release notes that the PC version will include “an extra bonus.” It’s up in the air as to what this bonus might be, though more complex deck building would certainly be welcome.

Meanwhile, the XBLA version of Planeswalkers will also receive two more expansion packs in spring and summer 2010. These expansions — like the first, released earlier this year — will include new cards, characters and some “surprises” as well.

Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers on PS3, PC in 2010, XBLA getting more content originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By the time your average Dungeons and Dragons player has failed his third death save and gone off to that great dungeon in the sky, he or she’s spent nearly $800,000 on miniatures and various-sided dice. (Trust us, it adds up.) Keeping that number in mind, we’d like to turn your attention to an alternative to tangible tabletop gaming: Surfacescapes, an in-development application for the Microsoft Surface, which attempts to recreate the D&D experience on an outrageously large touch screen. As the Surface currently costs $12,500, the lifetime savings would be abundant.

Sure, there’s a few kinks to work out — the dice roll a little slow for our tastes, though this would make saving throws infinitely more dramatic. There’s also the small matter of how introducing this technology into the game might diminish the whole “role-playing” element. If used just for combat encounters, it could be a powerful streamlining tool. For everything else, it would need to be fitted with an Imagination Manifestation Drive[TM], and those don’t exist yet.

Check out a demo of Surfacescape’s proof of concept in the video after the jump.

[Via Engadget]

Continue reading D&D rolls with the changes, ported to Microsoft Surface

D&D rolls with the changes, ported to Microsoft Surface originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SEATTLE — With Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers, Wizards of the Coast was able to create a low-impact entry point into their wildly popular collectable card game.

Last month, I called the Xbox Live download the ideal summer game. But at Penny Arcade Expo, Chris Perkins, Dungeons & Dragons creative manager (and the dungeon master on those wildly entertaining D&D Podcasts starring Gabe and Tycho) calls the game something else: “A lesson learned.”

Perkins views the console incarnation of his company’s flagship card game as “something we’ve done very right.” His hope is to bring that kind of success to the venerable tabletop RPG brand that he’s working to evolve. He sees the accessibility of Planeswalkers and asks himself, “can we replicate it” for Dungeons & Dragons? He hopes his company’s unique partnership with Atari can help something he imagines come to pass.

Traditionally, videogames that look to channel old-school role playing games tried their best to bury the nuts and bolts mechanics that govern combat, favoring action and fancy graphics over die rolls. A game that helps players digest the game’s combat rules could make an interesting entry point into further nerdery. Or at the very least make Xbox Live trash talk a little more interesting.

Are you sure about wanting to attacking the darkness, HALODEWD420?

Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast

See Also:

• R.I.P. Dungeons & Dragons Co-Creator Dave Arneson, 1947-2009 …
• Paperless D&D with Dungeon Mastering Tools
• Take D&D 4th Edition for a Free Test Drive
• John McCain Campaign Takes a +3 Vorpal Blade to Dungeons & Dragons …
• 2010 Core Set Returns Magic: The Gathering to its Fantasy Roots …
• Magic: The Gathering Goes Console with Duels of the Planeswalkers …

So you think you’re a pretty good Magic: The Gathering player, but are you good enough to take on the creator of the game in Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers?

The newly released Xbox Live Arcade title is getting not one but two special play sessions this month, starting with a Game with Fame session on June 20th, which allows players to go up against some of Magic’s top pro players, along with the game’s creator himself, Richard Garfield. Garfield will be joined by Magic Pro Tour Hall of Famers Mike Turian and John Finkel, along with pro tour players Gerry Thompson, Gerry Parke, and Brian Kibler. Daunting opponents indeed, but considering the game’s deck structure you might just having a fighting chance.

If you’re looking for a little less of a challenge, employees from Wizards of the Coast, VMC, Stainless Games, and Microsoft will be taking on all comers during the Game with Developers session a week later on the 27th.

Details for both sessions should be appearing soon at the official Game with Fame and Game with Developers websites. Being terrified of live competition myself, I will be busy playing single player, where it’s safe.