This weekend will be full of prerelease events for the upcoming Star Trek Universes Beyond Magic: The Gathering set, but local game stores seem less than optimistic about it.
In short, there is a lack of demand from players to participate in the set's prerelease events and a similar lack of enthusiasm for collectors and players alike in purchasing product.
Says Sean Johnson of Brute Force Games in San Diego, Calif.: "[It's] shaping up to be our lowest attendance of any prerelease in 10 years. Normally by this time we're sold out, we still have 50+ spots available across the weekend. Presales are even worse."
It's a similar story at D20 Gaming in Eau Claire, Wis. where store owner Phillip Grant says they're having their "lowest preorders count to date." He says they're expecting the worst turnout for prerelease weekend in his store's nine years of existence.
At Backstage Hobbies & Games in Manistee, Mich., sign-ups for this weekend's prerelease are even worse.
"Currently at zero signed up for prerelease," says store owner Ryan Horton. "The Final Frontier is apparently a TMNT-level disaster for us."
The lack of enthusiasm for the upcoming Star Trek set expands beyond North America as stores across the globe seem to be expecting abysmal attendance and sales for the set. At Jolly Joker Game Café in Turin, Italy, they're reporting expecting only about ten percent of the players that the had for the previous release, the in-universe Reality Fracture set.
"Seventeen signups vs 160 for Reality Fracture," says store owner Federico Faenza.
The cold response to the Star Trek prerelease seems to be bleeding over to sales as well as stores are already reporting having trouble with presales.
"[We] have presold four boxes and two commander decks," says Brian Montez of Game Knight Games in Pueblo, Col. "Lowest interest ever with my store."
The lack of enthusiasm for the Star Trek Magic set and its poor initial sales have some in the industry pointing the finger directly at Wizards of the Coast for their mismanagement of the game.
"I’ve had...many pissed off customers because they love Reality Fracture and the season was 4-5 weeks and [Star Trek] is going into January," comments Matt Weik, a worker at Paper and Pixels in Port Charlotte, Fla. "They truly feel like Wizards does not want them as players anymore -- especially my more serious players who also drive up interest with the rest of our players. [I] feel like this stuff is becoming some kind of sick joke in a way to kill off in person play among the other issues like not getting stuff on time but stocking big box, etc."
The Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek prerelease events run from Nov. 6 through 12. The set's official global release is on Nov. 13.
