Disney and Ravenburger’s new TCG, Lorcana has been making waves in the card game community. It’s a fun game, competitive and has that famous Disney flair. The game launched in a physical version only with a mobile companion app that was officially licensed, but there was really no way to play the game digitally or online in any capacity. Meanwhile, A solo dev, Pavel Kolev, created Pixelborn a TCG simulator that supported the game's mechanics of Loracana in an online digital space. Needless to say for a fan made project, Pixelborn ended up growing and getting better and better over the course of a year, I’ll mention again it was the only way to play Disney’s Lorcana in a non-physical environment. Using Pixelborn you could climb a ladder in ranked, experiment with new deck ideas and most importantly test your decks before spending hundreds of dollars in singles on TCGplayer.
It's a sad day because according to a post on Pixelborn's Discord server, Pavel has confirmed that the infamous Mouse has finally come to claim what’s his. Pixelborn will no longer be supporting Disney's Lorcana, starting sometime before on June 16th 2024.
This is a big deal to players, but more so content creators and streamers. My wife and I love watching Winter’s Lorcana on youtube every evening to see what kind of weird decks and match up he goes up against, but it’s also interesting to watch someone else play in a bright and clear digital space, rather than a camera facing down at the table. Pavel did have a Pateron where players could support the developers cost which Pavel makes clear was to cover the cost of the servers, he claims on the site that any “excess” will be donated to charity. In April 2024, he says over $8,000 dollars was donated to charity, and in March over $8,300 dollars was donated to 5 different charitable organizations. Pavel even provides detailed breakdowns on where the money goes, viewable to anyone, patron or not. You can view that information here.
Let’s face it, this is catastrophic to Lorcana content creators and streamers. I used it daily, and my wife used it. It was a great tool for both casual and competitive players and after June 16th 2024 there will be no way to practice or experiment outside of in person events or gatherings. The one silver lining in all of this though is that Disney may be making their own digtial client to support the card game. Back in April 2016 the World of Warcraft studio, Blizzard sent a cease and desist to Nostarlius (a Fan-hosted server) that was re-creating World of warcrafts “Classic” experience for the popular MMO RPG. Shortly after this Blizzard announced that they were making an “official” classic version. So, maybe this will be a similar case? We can only hope. I reached out to Pavel for a comment. In the meantime enjoy Disney’s Loracan on Pixelborn here for free, until Mr. Mouse comes knocking for retribution. For more Lorcana news, you’re already in the right place your on Shacknews.com
