Magic To Master Resurfaces As A Web 3 MMORPG Launching Into Early Access This Month
The last we heard from Magic to Master was that its developer Laniatus was preparing to take Gameforge to court over the latter’s copyright complaint which resulted in the cancellation of the oriental MMORPG’s Kickstarter campaign.
The DMCA complaint claims that Laniatus, who employed several former Gameforge developers, used stolen assets from Gameforge Metin 2. It’s unclear whether both parties were able to resolve the issue, but Gameforge claims that Laniatus never filed a lawsuit.
That was back in July 2023. Laniatus is now back to announce that Magic to Master is now a full-fledged blockchain game with both a Web 2 and Web 3 version and is being trumpeted as the first MMORPG to offer Web 2 to Web 3 crossover. The announcement comes hot on the heels of its publishing and distribution deal with MetaEngine at the top of the month.
MetaEngine was founded by former Idea Fabrik chairman Alex Shalash and is a game engine and software stack specifically designed for use by MMO, Web 3, and metaverse developers. Laniatus has also partnered with Web 3 and blockchain platform Gaimin.
The partnership announcement places Magic to Master’s early access launch sometime this month. Laniatus, however, notes that the game’s launch is “contingent upon MetaEngine and its affiliated subsidiaries” who apparently has a different roadmap for the game as revealed by one of the MMORPG’s lead developers.
The studio has also yet to offer more information about how the Web 3 integration will work and what will happen to the Steam version now that Magic to Master is a bonafide blockchain game, although it’s probably safe to say that it will be pulled from the platform sooner rather than later on account of Valve’s strict no-blockchain policy.
It’s worth noting that Magic to Master has raised a few red flags since it first popped up on Kickstarter, including fake testimonials on the crowdfunding page that Laniatus blamed on a freelancer who added them as placeholders but reportedly forgot to remove them. The Kickstarter page also touted an NFT pet system which the studio insisted was an acronym for “Necessary Features Tree.”
In any case, the studio promises a final launch date announcement by the end of the week.
