Disney Lorcana, the new trading card game from Ravensburger featuring characters from Disne𒁃y animated films, launches today in local game stores across the US, Canada, an⛎d Europe. Lorcana cards will eventually be available in big box retail stores like Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and Barnes & Noble too, but for the first six sets, Ravensburger has committed to giving local game stores a two week exclusive window to sell product.
Ryan Miller, brand manager and co-designer of Lorcana, says the decision to give game stores early access to Lorcana is designed to foster a relationship between the company and stores, while incentivizing customers to get involved in their local TCG💯 communities. “We want the hobby stores to know we see them as our partners,” Miller says. “And we want new TCG players, maඣny of whom may have never been to a store like that, to come in and discover how amazing they are.”
Following the positive reception to the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:reveal at last year’s D23 Expo and the , Lorcana cards have already proven to be incredibly popular with collectors and early adopters. What remains to be seen is how popular it will be with TCG players. Whether Lorcana can be successful long-term will largely depend on how active players are in local TCG communities, how much support local stores are willing (and able) to provide for the game, and in turn, how much support Ravensburger proไvides to stores to ensure that they have everything they need to give their players the best experience possible.
Over the last several months, I spoke with LGS owners and managers from five different stores across the US and Canada, as well as multiple Ravensburger representatives, in order to better understand what it takes to launch a new TCG like Lorcana, what stores have needed to do to prepare, and what their concerns are for both for the launch and the future of🍌 the game.
One of the most enthusiastic store owners I spoke with was Jonathan Medina, owner of Alchemist’s Refuge in Cincinnati, Ohio. Medina got his start in the TCG market livestreaming box breaks of Magic: The Gathering, a program he calls Pack Club that he continues today from his new brick and m🌊ortar store. He’s also the founder of the Lorcana HQ Discord server, the first community-run server for the game that has grown to over 7,000 members and become one of the main community spaces for the game.
For him, Lorcana was a big part of the decision to open his store in the 𓃲first place, because he needed a physical location in order to work with distributors. Medina plans to make Lorcꩵana a central focus of his in-store experience.
“I’m going to be very intent🧸ional about showcasing Lorcana and making sure people know we have cool Lorcana stuff here and that we’re about the game,” Medina tells me. The culture around a new TCG can make or break it for a particular store, so Medina says it’s important to make Lorcana a special experience for his customers. Celebrating pack openings, having ♕knowledgeable staff that can field questions, and playing and collecting the game together. “All those kinds of things will bring people in to share in the game.”
One unanimous factor across all the stores I spoke with was that each of them has at least one employee who is already personally invested in the game and eager to see it succeed. For The Game Chamber in London, Ontario, that person is Jonti Sparrow, store manager and host of a Lorcana YouTube channel called The Inkwell. Sparrow started making Lorcana content soon after the game was announced, and was a driving factor for🀅 getting his store invested in supporting the game. “Seeing that initial announcement, as a huge Disney and theme park fan, was enough to jump at my boss and be like ‘Look look look! This is definitely one to keep an eye on’.”
Having someone invested in the game who could stay on top of Ravensburger’s scattered announcements as it unveiled new info for its Organized Play program, allowed The Game Chamber to position itself well for th𓃲e launch and receive an allocation of product that they can sell starting today. Stores who didn’t apply or get accepted into the Organized Play program (or less gameplay-oriented Hobby Supply Program), which provides game stores with resources, promo cards, and other prizes for players who participate in events, did not.
Perhaps more importantly, stores tell me that having employees who are invested in the game breeds more excitement, and creates a positive environment that players will want to be a part of. “I’m going to get into Lorcana and that’s gonna draw some of the people working there to al🐽so get in,” Medina explains. “When I get excited I let people know about it. When I get into something I get in hard, and people are drawn to that energy.”
Travis Young, owner of the Kingslayer Games chain of stores in Southern California, agrees that the culture around new TCGs starts with the staff. “We very mu꧂ch double down on the games that our staff is most invested in by location,” Young explains. “If they love the game they know how to speak to it, they know how to sell it. They get giddy with excitement talking about the way the game is played. At each store I’ve got a Disney superfan in every store that can🔯’t wait to collect. That pretty much means the game will be in good hands.”
While the Disney IP was what initially sparked interest for many of the store owners I talked to, it was just as important to them that the game was high quality. After attending GAMA Expo earlier this year, a trade show where Lorcana’s gameplay was first 𓄧demonstrated to retailers, Young says he felt like the game was in good hands. “It seems like they’re checking all the boxes,” he says. “The foil treatment looks really clean, the art style looks great, seems like they’re doing a lot of the things that line up well for a successful game.” One owner I spoke to called Lorcana’s gameplay “generic, but in a good way," suggesting it would be a “great way to get people that are inexperienced with TCGs into the hobby.”
Finding those coveted new players who have never played a TCG before is a big part of Ravensburger’s strategy. Filip Francke, Ravensburger’s global head of games, tells me Ravensburger has “a lot of ideas on how to embrace this new group of customers that we can’t wait to share,” and that the company “anticipate[s] that 🏅Disney Lorcana TCG will bring a new group of gamers into hobby retail stores.”
“I think that 90 percent of Ravensubrger’s target audience, 90 percent of the people that are going to be enjoying this game, I don’t th🍎ink they’ve even heard of it yet,” Sparrow says.
Disney fans who aren’t already TCG players, like TheGamer&rsqu🦋o;s editor-in-chief Stacey Henley, represent a large portion of the new players Ravensburger expects to attract to Lorcana, and the LGSs I spoke to expect the same.🔜 “We’re actively looking for that community,” Sparrow says. “That casual league play, families, people that don’t play TCG games that much. It’s tricky because, at the end of the🌱 day, you sell the product to whoever comes in and asks for it, but we’re trying to think of ways to market it more to that clientele than just the TCG player looking for the next game they can be good at.”
Sparrow and other store leaders I spoke🐼 to say one of the challenges they’re facing is figuring out how to make space where kids and families can come in and feel comfortable playing alongside the typical TCG clientele. The key to supporting Lorcana correctly will be to build a new community around it, which in some ways is a problem unique to this game.
“We as a store are very welcoming, our staff are really awesome at welcoming new people in,” Sparrow explains. “But at some point there's a good chance that 40-year-old Mandy who has a couple of kids and loves Disney movies gets sat across from a sweaty card game player. How do you deal with that? How do you mesh those worlds together? It’s something we’re definitely thinking about. I don’t want to sound like I’m not grateful for my regular clientele for other card games, but I genuinely feel like Lorcana needs a different audience to do well.”
Young agrees. “This will definitely bring people in that haven’t played TCGs before.”. But Kingslayer supports Pokemon, Magic, Flesh & Blood, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and The One Piece Card Game, and hosts events for them throughout the entire week, and now needs to fit events for an entirely new and inexpღerienced audience into its schedule. “We’re at a point where bringing anything else on might mean we double up on events in a single night or we’d bump something, that’s something we have to consider.” Other store owners mentioned increasing their hours or hiring more staff, depending on how much demand there is for Lorcana.
Every LGS I spoke to relayed their excitement for Lorcana, a desire to develop a local community around the game, and, like Miller, a belief that Lorcana will be able to bring brand new players into the TCG scene. There are challenges to overcome at the store le꧃vel, but so much of the success of the game depends on Ravensburger. Unfortun🎐ately, the relationship between Ravensburger and LGSs store so far hasn’t been ideal.
😼Above all, stores say the biggest challenge to supporting and growing a local community comes down to the amount of product they have to sell, and unfortunately, strict allocations and limited product availability is a major concern for virtually every store. Ravensburger wasn’t able to anticipate exactly how popular Lorcana would be, and as result, has not been able to get stores as much product as they need for their customers.
“Demand for Disney Lorcana TCG is currently higher than expectations,” Francke says. “As many in the industry know, forecasting demand for a new TCG has been historically challenging.” TCGs have an incredibly high fa𒊎ilure rate, and only a small handful have managed to find long-term success. Even games that leverage major IPs like Star Wars: Destiny, Beyblade, and World of Warcraft all failed to take hold in the market. Despite it’s apparent popularity, Lorcana’s success was not guaranteed, and at s🐼ome point in development Ravensburger had to make a decision about how much it could realistically commit to the first set.
Francke says the company is thrilled that there’s so much interest in the game, and that Ravensburger has been working with its suppliers to increase production to better m🏅eet demand. “Only very recently have retailers learned the full extent of their product allocation, so we encourage consumers to keep checking in with your local hobby stores.”
A few stores I spoke to were willing to share the specifics about their individual allocations. According to Young, Ravensbu♔ger gave every store in the OP and HSP schemes a designation from one to three, which determined how many organized play kits that 🥂store received, as well as the amount of product they have available to sell at launch.
A Tier 1 store received one OP kit (which includes 24 of each promo card, six of each promo pin, and various other incentives) ﷽as well as 24 booster boxes (among other products like starter decks, binders, and playmats). Tier 2 stores received two kits and 48 boxes, while Tier 3 stores received 3 kits and 72 boxes. The tier system is an unofficial naming convention used here only to describe the method of product distribution among stores. One of Young’s stores was allocated at Tier 3, while the other was allocated at Tier 1.
According to Young, the vast majority of stores received only 24 booster boxes to sell and/or use for organized play events on launch day. “By and large, 80-90 percent of stores are going to be in that category,” he says. “I guess I should feel grateful that we had a store that got more, but it&rsqꦗuo;s going to be really hard.” Medina’s store, Alchemist’s Refuge, received ꦜjust 24 boxes. “Almost everyone that I’ve heard just got 24 boxes and one kit unless they had multiple locations,” he says.
This puts local stores in a difficult position as they try to support their customers and foster a community for Lorca💎na. Young says that, even knowing Lorcana’s first set was going to be heavily allocated, he would have been “over the moon” with 200-300 boxes. For context, his stores typically received between 1,200-1,500 booster boxes of Pokemon cards each expansion, which supports multiple Pokemon events at both of his current locations. “To do 72, it’s like ‘🐻okay, this is tough’.”
Medina explains how the limited stock inhibits his ability to help the game grow. “When I show someone how to play Lorcana, they have a great time, but the next thing they do is try to preorder product. I have to tell them I don’t have any. The natural follow up is, ‘When will you have some?’ I don’t know. That’s when I watch the initial excitement just die. Once it&r🅺squo;s out, we need product, cause people are gonna be pounding on the door.”
From the customer perspective, plꦗayers aren’t just disappointed that the product is sparse, but they’re being put into a potentially adversarial relationship with their local stores. The whole point of giving LGSs a two-week lead on big box stores was, as Francke says, “to support and foster gameplay.” But with such limited product availability, market prices are skyrocketing, and stores that sell at or around market price put themselves in a position to disappoint their customers.
“It creates an opportunity ༺to put stores in a bad light,” Young says. “Customers are used to paying $100 or $200 a box for something, and market price is already $350 for a box online.” Until the supply increases and big🐻 box retailers have product for sale, Lorcana players can expect to pay a significant premium for cards.
Of course, LGSs don’t necessarily need to match market price and, as Young admits, those selling cards online are actually breaking their agreement with Ravensburger,༒𓃲 who has asked retailers not to sell on third party sites like TCGPlayer, Cardmarket, and Amazon until after September 1.
There’s nothing stopping stores from selling product at MSRP to provide the best possible experience for their customers, and indeed, LGS stores throughout the UK and Europe are typically selling Lorcana at MSRP or slightly above, with some stores even hosting free events for launch day. But business owners are not disincentivized from selling at market price, which can create animosity with customers who feel they are being price gouged. Giving stores early access to product was meant to help stores build communities around the game, but Young says “The way it's designed, the local game store is not going to be the place to facilitate buying product for this release," and many players already feel priced out of the game at their local stores, so are just going to wait to buy Lorcana at big box retailers anyway.
A lot of the pricing issues will naturally work themselves out once more product is available, but somethiꦉng the stores I talked to are hoping Ravensburger can make a concerted effort at improving is its communication with distributors, local stores, and players. Many felt that they had to wait an unreasonably long time to find out how to apply for the OP program, whether or not they had been approved, how much product they were allocated, and how they were expected to run their events. One store said they feel like they’ve been “searching around in the dark for months” unable to answer basic questions their customers wanted the answers for.
I originally spoke with Medina several weeks ago before his store received their allocation info, and he expressed that not having the information so close to release was a cause for stress. “If you could just tell me there’s a wave coming in August and it’s heavily allocated, but then there’s a wave coming later and it’s going to be this much, then I could have the knowledge,&rdqu൲o; he explains. “It’s so helpful to plan finances, releases, and events if you know you’re going to have produ♔ct. It’s just a big guessing game right now. They could really set themselves apart by being more communicative on that level.”
Sparrow echoes those sentiments. “A little bit more back and forth with Ravensburger would be nice. Or even if Ravensburger could have given more information to distributors so that they could pass it to us. I don’t expect Ryan Miller to be emailing me, but even if the distributors had a little more to say - all I’m getting from them is ‘oh yeah, I 🐼hope we find out soon’.”
Young divined the tier system of allocation from talking with distributors and other store owners, not from official Ravensburger communication. “If there was anything I wish was done better, ahead of allocations coming out - or even after, or at all - if Ravensburger had communicated that ‘hey, this was our strategy for doing allocations, this is why,’ that kind of com🧸munication would have been good. I was expecting a little bit more transparency in terms of communications of organized play in general,” he says.
When speaking with Miller and Francke, both acknowledged that there’s room for improvement around the company’s communication. “This is Ravensburger’s first TCG launch, and we know that there are areas we can improve on,” Miller says, as Ravensburger typically sells board games or party card games. “That’s what we want to do, especially with fans and local gaming stores. Having an ongoing discussion with both allows us to improve our support and processes to make for amazing in-store experiences.” Francke adds that Ravensburger sees LGSs as a priority, so hopefully things will be smoother for Chapter Two “Launching Disney Lorcana TCG with an OP program was important to us, it sends a message about our seriousness, our commitment to hobby retail and the planned longevity of the game. We want to continue to grow ou🍃r communication and transparency with our retail partners, as we continue to build out this program with each new set.
“We want to reiterat𝕴e - supporting LGS and OP is absolutely our top priority as it’s the foundation of our player community, and that’s reflected in every phase of our planning and decision making processes internally.”
Store owners, at least those already invested in Lorcana, are willing to be patient and understanding as Ravensburger finds its footing with its first trading card game. “If the game is fun and they’re transparent, we can be patient with๊ them working out some kinks,” Young says. “If the game is good they’ll figure out this stuff and it’ll be another thing we keep on the schedule. The long term goal is that I want to be here next year and still have Lorcana events on the schedule at all our stores with really high attendance. There’s so much more opportunity to grow over the course of the next couple years, this stuff will sort itself out.”
Medina, like most Lorcana fans, is happy to put up with a lot - especially when the issues are caused by such runaway𓃲 popularity. “I think they’re gonna make some missteps, people just have to have grace for that. Let’s root for them, Make it your team, root for them, and enjoy the ride.”