Talking Brands: Disney is embracing trading card games with Lorcana and Star Wars: Unlimited… What other brands might thrive in this area?

It’s going to be a big 12 months for Disney in the trading card game sector.

Ravensburger is soon launching Disney Lorcana, a TCG set in a fantastical world that sees players band together Disney characters to battle mysterious threats.

Elsewhere, in an aisle not too far, far away, Fantasy Flight Games is bringing another corner of the Disney galaxy into TCGs with Star Wars: Unlimited. The game is described as ‘easy to learn and strategically deep’ and will feature heroes, villains, ships, and settings from across the all Star Wars franchise.

The similar language used to describe the launches highlights their importance as new long-term gaming brands for both Ravensburger and Fantasy Flight Games.

“Disney Lorcana is the result of the powerful alchemy of Disney magic, Ravensburger game excellence, and several years of dedicated work and investment,” said Filip Francke, Ravensburger North America CEO and Global Head of Games. He adds: “This potent combination has poised Disney Lorcana to be a game-changer in the billion-dollar-plus trading card game market.”

The sentiment is echoed by Chris Gerber, Head of Studio at Fantasy Flight Games. He says: “Star Wars: Unlimited is the culmination of FFG’s rich history mixed with the celebrated Star Wars brand. As a studio, we are putting unprecedented resources across every department into this game.”

“Game-changer”. “Unprecedented resources”. Both press releases also stress the years of development that have gone into both games, and the fact that both will boast brand new exclusive artwork. Ravensburger plans to launch four Disney Lorcana sets a year, while FFG will put out three Star Wars: Unlimited sets a year.

Lorcana launches later this year, while Star Wars: Unlimited debuts in 2024. It’ll be exciting to see how they get on and the impact they have on the TCG space. It also begs the question as to which other brands may be ripe for the TCG treatment… We asked James Wallis, Jude Coram and Ben Townsend for their thoughts.

James Wallis, Games Consultant, Author and Designer
Most of the obvious media franchises have already been done in TCG form in the three decades following the launch of Magic the Gathering, including World of Warcraft, My Little Pony, Austin Powers, The Simpsons, SpongeBob and two separate Doctor Who games.

One big toy brand that’s never had a TCG is Barbie. Combined with gameplay based on cooperation, working together to overcome problems and threats instead of player-versus-player combats, it’s on brand and could open up a new market for TCG-style games. Call me, Mattel!

Jude Coram, Graphic Designer, Illustrator and Web Designer, Jude Coram Designs
As a youngster I loved nothing more than going to the shops to buy a pack of trading cards with my pocket money… And then going into school the next day trying to offload my rubbish cards on my unsuspecting school mates! For me, the enjoyment is in collecting; the feeling of owning a full set of cards is unrivalled as a child.

It makes a lot of sense that Disney are getting involved in the trading card space again. They have access to the majority of pop culture characters that kids and adults alike love, which offers them a wealth of content that makes an expansive trading card game possible. I’ve seen plenty of Top Trump decks of famous films, TV shows, and books and wondered how they were able to fill 30 cards – often these include obscure characters just to make up the roster. We need to be looking at brands that have a full back catalogue of content to draw from.

One that springs to mind that would make a superb collectable trading card game would be the Beano and Dandy comics. Between them they have over 400 different characters and strips that appeared in their comics over the years, with amazing variety and style between them.

Another roster of brands I could see doing well with trading cards would be HIT Entertainment’s portfolio, now under Mattel’s ownership. One thing fans love is when their favourite characters crossover. I can imagine kids of today would love to see the likes of Fireman Sam, Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank in a card game together!

Finally, I know video games make great collectables and I can’t think of a game with more universal appeal than Minecraft. Imagine each card being a different item in the game with in-game rarity denoting the card’s rarity in physical card packs. This would sweep the nation’s playgrounds!

Ben Townsend, Licensing Approvals Co-ordinator, Aardman
At the heart of everything we do at Aardman, there is one key theme: humour. From the everyday lives of Wallace & Gromit, to the mischievous antics of Shaun the Sheep… It’s this humour which I think would cause our brands to thrive in the Trading Card Game space.

The subtle gags or quirky ‘Britishness’ would allow the player to discover a new or missed joke every time they jump into a game, whilst also allowing them to engage with characters they have grown up with or recently discovered. Who doesn’t want to beat Feathers McGraw in a card game?

But alongside our humour, it’s important to that everyone can enjoy our content. From shows like Shaun the Sheep or Morph where there’s no speaking – making it accessible across the globe – the TCG space needs to follow this inclusivity. People who may be new to the genre should be able to jump on a game and feel engaged and comfortable; something that Aardman have been helping people do for nearly 50 years now.

In the last year alone, our brands have been making the jump into the virtual gaming scene. With a brand-new Wallace & Gromit VR adventure for Meta in development, Shaun the Sheep getting involved in AR trails across the globe and much more going on behind the scenes, now seems the perfect time for our characters to join the ever growing TCG space.

This brings us on to the final reason why the Aardman brands might thrive in this area; our audience is bigger than ever. With Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget hatching later this year, a new Wallace & Gromit film in development and the exciting future all our brands have planned, now would make the perfect time to use our brands to build a whole new audience in an exciting and expanding industry.

And outside of Aardman, I think that there might be potential for Rugrats because of the pop culture following it’s gained over the years and the recent revival show.