‘Magic: The Gathering’ X ‘Final Fantasy’ Set Breaks Street Date Due To WOTC Error, Distributor Warns Of “Penalties” Unless Products Returned “Undamaged”
In once again scrambling to cover their own screw-up, after an error on the behalf of Wizards of the Coast resulted in their Final Fantasy-themed Magic: The Gathering set breaking its street date far earlier than scheduled, the distributor responsible for delivering said materials has warned retailers that they could face massive “penalties” unless they return the accidentally-released products in an explicitly “undamaged” state.
The 26th IP added to the massively popular card game as part of its Universes Beyond crossover initiative and the third to receives a proper set release after Assassin’s Creed and The Lord of the Rings, the upcoming Final Fantasy set will see the introduction of wholly new cards and re-themed reprints based on the heroes, villains, and events of “every mainline game” in Square Enix’s iconic RPG franchise.
Hoping to both capitalize on Final Fantasy‘s popularity and ensure fans will have as many avenues as possible to obtain its already-wildly-in-demand cards, the set’s product line-up will include regular and Collector Booster packs/boxes, regular and ‘Gift Edition’ bundles featuring exclusive card arts as well as a Moogle-covered D20, four pre-constructed Commander Decks (as intended for out-of-the-box use in the fan-created Commander format) based on Final Fantasy VI, VII, X, and XIV, and a two-player Standard format Starter Kit centered on the personal battle between VII protagonist Cloud and his dark reflection, Sephiroth.
Officially, the Final Fantasy set is currently planned for release on June 13th.
Unfortunately for the WOTC, despite this street date still being over two months away, a yet-to-be-publicly-detailed distribution error on the publisher’s end resulted in a run of the aforementioned Starter Kits being prematurely delivered to a handful of Brazilian game stores, shortly after which its localized contents were subsequently leaked online (which, for those curious, can be viewed via the /r/MTGRumors subreddit here).
In response to their unforced error, the unnamed Brazillian distributor who delivered the products on WOTC’s orders has since issued a warning to the relevant game stores asking them to promptly return the products, unopened and “undamaged”, lest they face significant “penalties” from the publisher.
“We have identified that Wizards of the Coast has been sending Final Fantasy kits in error,” read a copy of said warning, as reviewed by the TCG news outlet Card Realm. “Due to Commercial Policy, we require that whoever received the item return it to [distributor]. We will bear the costs of this return. If you received a Final Fantasy pre-release kit, please contact your consultant so we can make arrangements.”
“It is extremely important that this material is returned undamaged,” they added. “If this has occurred, please notify [distributor] urgently, to avoid any penalties from Wizards of The Coast.”
As noted, this is not the first such time that WOTC’s own mistakes resulted in the pre-mature release of an MTG set.
In 2023, due to what is currently believed to be the publisher mixing up their packaging labels prior to sending their product to distributors, YouTuber Dan “oldschoolmtg” Cannon was sent a booster box of the then-upcoming March of the Machine: The Aftermath set roughly three-weeks before its official street date.
“What I believe happened,” Cannon then speculated, “was that the names are too similar – March of the Machine and March of the Machine: The Aftermath – and somebody screwed up and sent out the wrong cases to the gentlemen I bought the boxes off of, because when he sold me the stuff he said he was selling me a March of the Machines collectors box, not Aftermath.”
But as many may remember, rather than simply letting the error slide or checking where their supply chain broke down, WOTC instead responded by hiring actual agents of the Pinkerton Detective Agency to physically retrieve the cards from Cannon.
To this end, whether or not WOTC will take similar steps with the Brazillian Final Fantasy leak remains to be seen.
Per above, the Final Fantasy set for Magic: The Gathering is currently slated to officially hit shelves on June 13th.
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