The Most SUCCESSFUL FAILURE TCG of All Time (Hex/WOTC Lawsuit)

In this video of Jake and Joel are Magic, we delve into the captivating true story of the colossal legal confrontation between industry giant, Wizards of the Coast, and the innovative game developer, Cryptozoic Entertainment. In this detailed analysis, we unfold the intricate tale behind the lawsuit over Hex: Shards of Fate, a digital trading card game that bore similarities to Magic: The Gathering.

In this video, we'll explore the origins of Cryptozoic Entertainment's Hex: Shards of Fate, its successful Kickstarter campaign, and its unique blend of traditional trading card and MMORPG gameplay. We'll examine how this innovative game attracted the attention of Wizards of the Coast, the creators of the legendary Magic: The Gathering.

We’ll discuss the explosive lawsuit that WotC filed against Cryptozoic in 2014, exploring the allegations of copyright, patent, and trade dress infringement. We take a deep dive into the similarities and differences between Hex: Shards of Fate and Magic: The Gathering, and the impact of these on the legal proceedings.

Experience the tension, the fierce battle, and the final resolution reached between these two gaming powerhouses. Understand how this legal struggle affected the landscape of digital trading card games and set a precedent for intellectual property disputes in the gaming industry.

Key features of the video include interviews with key players such as Cory Jones, CEO of Cryptozoic Entertainment, and Allan Bowman, General Counsel of Wizards of the Coast.

Make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell to stay updated on our latest videos. If you're a fan of Hex: Shards of Fate, Magic: The Gathering, trading card games, or are just interested in gaming industry controversies, this video is a must-watch!

#MTG
#MagictheGathering
#MTGFinance
__________________________________

Please note that links above may be affiliate links -- clicking them earns us a small commission if you make a purchase and helps support our YouTube channel. Thank you!

Jake and Joel are creators living in Los Angeles and Atlanta, respectively, with a passion for Magic: the Gathering. We post content daily, covering all things Magic the Gathering, Commander, and MTG Finance!

-Title Music
Sam Johnides aka The Johnicles

Special thanks to Jennifer & Annie

Wizards of the Coast, Magic: The Gathering, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. © 1993-2022 Wizards. All Rights Reserved.

*This video and all videos on this channel are in no way intended for children (kids) nor do they intend to target children as an audience in any way, shape, or form.*
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
jake and joel,jake and joel are magic,magic: the gathering,Hex: Shards of Fate,Magic: The Gathering,Wizards of the Coast,Cryptozoic Entertainment,Cory Jones,Chris Cocks,Allan Bowman,trading card games,gaming controversy,gaming lawsuit,intellectual property,copyright infringement,patent infringement,Kickstarter campaign,legal battle,game industry legal issues,digital card games,game development,MMORPG card games,gaming history,game patent issues

[MTGUnpacked]

It's a pity. Makes you wonder if they would've been more able to overcome the other challenges if they hadn't seemingly cloned certain aspects of MTG.

[HailOderus]

I played a lot of Hex, it had all the elements of magic but some cooler elements that paper could never do. The art was amazing and had really cool mechanics. I will miss that game alot

[rzq]

I think the idea that Hex was just copying magic to the point of it being copyright infringement is a bit ridiculous. Most popular card games share many mechanics with mtg. Hell Hearthstone (The biggest and most successful digital card game) is practically just magic with some small tweaks. Unless Wizards wants to try and claim ownership over all trading card games; this seems to me like just a large company taking the opportunity to bully a smaller competitor.

[kevin]

Honestly seems more like a lolsuit just to pupstomp. The two 7 mana cost cards are only similar in cost and generic card ability. Many ccgs use abilities like haste and lifelink. Only thing really unique to magic is how lands work and the cards don't really have the same casting cost. Just 7 is incredibly different from 3 r4 in terms of how the game opporates. I'm not trying to simp, it's just their's really nothing to go on here unless we can see the game play and see how casting works cause again, allot of things like lifelink is incredibly generic in terms of CCG.

[Boshea]

Recently learned about this game. Considering Corey Jones's other baby is Epic Spell Wars, nothing about that kickstarter video is shocking. Its honestly kind of tame. The rules for how to play gangster cards in the Gangbangers expansion also makes way more sense on the digs at WotC.

"Players with many gangsters in play may wish to help themselves track which have already attacked or not. We recommend rotating your card a legally safe, predetermined number of degrees to indicate it has already activated (please note that the most convenient angle to rotate your cards to has already been appropriated by an evil game conglomerate, and if we recommend you us this angle... God save us from their litigious wrath!!!)."

[annemorganna]

Honestly, if WotC instead tried to get them to work on their games, I can only imagine how lit Arena would be now. Also, you should do the whole history over ygo and mtg and how ygo had to change magic to spell

[feni]

The comparison of things like lifedrain has always been so ridiculous to me. I mean really? ONLY the absolute geniuses at MTG could come up with the EXTREMELY UNIQUE concept of a card being able to defend even if it attacked last turn?

Honestly so are the resource comparisons too. So wizards of the coast owns the rights to mean green = forests...? It's all just basic shit like that "comprehensive chart" of things they said were ripoffs. "Win = remove all life or run opponent out of cards" LOL....

Ooh do I regret watching this, it's making me extremely angry all over again about how I lost the only TCG I truly enjoyed to a mindless corporation. Not hate on you guys, you're just doing a good job covering it. I just... I miss Hex so much. MTG Arena is absolute garbage compared to it.

[crimson]

Weird that I've never heard of Hex.

[Cuborne]

Former HEXTCG Stream Team member here, let me know if you have any follow up questions from an semi-insider! I miss this game dearly. <3 - Sithos

[WaterlooFlu]

I remember when Gwent came out and you could play it online against other people instead of in The Witcher against AI. It was a pretty good game and there was a decent meta of like 2-3 top decks and a handful of other viable decks to get to the top. They started making changes to the cards for whatever reason and after a few months of that it wasn't even the same game anymore. They went way to hard to make the game "fair" and took away what people had spent real money and time on and scared off a huge portion of the player base.

[zerorequiem]

Hex was fun. I had like 20-30 hours into it according to steam. I remember the pve dungeons were great. Like you were playing DnD.or heroscape. But Wotc is high if they think they own 7 card starting hands, 20 starting life, etc.

[MoxBox]

Pretty sure the creator just came out with the online and paper tcg mythrel on kickstarter

[outlandishmtg]

So, funny but not so funny story that I rehash every chance I get. I wrote the article that was featured in the lawsuit. I did a side by side comparison of cards and wrote how they were similar. The article was meant to draw players in that loved Magic but instead it was used as evidence of copyright. The funnier part of this story is when the lawsuit became public. At the time we did a podcast called Threshold and me and a co-host were driving to the headquarters to do a one on one interview with the CEO of Hex Entertainment when the news broke. As we were driving along we read the filing and saw my article being cited. I felt absolutely crushed. A game I loved and cherished deeply, I was now going to be the destroyer of worlds. We met with Cory and everything was okay and I apologized repeatedly to him. We got to playtest a paper version of the PvE for the game and discuss with other developers their ideas. I love what they did with the game, albeit a slow process, and wish we could have all seen what it could have become.

[LegendLeaguer]

I got into playing Hex after watching Kripparian cover the game. I played a Vennen priest and loved filling my opponents' decks with spider eggs and milling them out

[codelicious]

That was one catchy frickin tune with the red pandas. Primo job as per usual fellas!

[Nurgleprobe]

I really miss this game, had so much fun in it and was one of my absolute favorite digital card games :(

[derekaylward]

Similar for sure but not a clone imo. There was enough different than mtg to have it stand on its own like making permanent changes to cards with gems and effects. There were plenty of interactions that could only be possible in a digital game.The game was one of the best videogames and TCG i have ever played and i miss it dearly😞

[jessejames]

Been loving the story time with Jake and Joel! This and the story like the cards being stolen were great. More and more I’m starting to see you guys as a staple of the magic community like Prof, keep up the great work.

[HexManifesto]

Sad to be out shined by puppies, but seriously was great to talk to you guys and share some insight.

[claygillman]

These videos I always watch from front to end, with no 5 second skips. 🙂
Love this content guys.