Hobby 'TBD'

Magic: The Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers, the new board game tied to the CCG franchise, will be released in the mass channel on August 1, according to a Hasbro spokesperson. The game was originally announced at Essen (see "'Magic' Board Game"), with the title and box art revealed last month (see "WotC Shares 'Magic' Board Game Title, Art").



The game is being developed as a collaboration between Wizards of the Coast and the Hasbro team responsible for Risk Legacy and Heroscape.



There seems to be some confusion about the hobby channel release date. We pointed the Hasbro spokesperson to the WPN page, where the release date is listed as August 31, but the only word we could get was "TBD." UPDATE 3/27 -- Now there's another word, "Summer."



It’s surprising that a tactical miniatures game is seen as appropriate for mass distribution, but it’s not the first time a game featuring miniatures has been distributed into the mass channel by Hasbro. Heroscape, originally released in 2004, was a mass-oriented product that included miniatures (see "'Heroscape' Boosters Planned").