Collectible card game Altered: New business model for trading card games
Altered could change the Trading Card Game business forever – with a digital marketplace, unique cards and a ‘Print on Demand’ service.
First Libellud, then Equinox
The company behind Altered is called Equinox. Régis Bonnessée founded it in 2020. The money for this came from a deal with Asmodee. In summer 2020, shortly before the launch of Equinox, Bonnessée sold Libellud to Asmodee. The publisher was and is known for games like Dixit, Mysterium and Dice Forge. Bonnessée had founded Libellud in 2008. Since the sale to Asmodee, he has been working with the Equinox team on Altered. From 30 January 2024, the collectible card game is to be presented to the public on Kickstarter. Altered will be distributed worldwide in five languages by Asmodee.
Elves in Magic, Mickey Mouse in Lorcana, Pikachu in Pokémon: as different as the worlds of the major Trading Card Games (TCG) are, the business model behind them is similar. Cards are randomly distributed in small packs, known as boosters. If players want to own a specific card, they have to spend a lot of money. Either they keep investing in boosters until they find the card they’re looking for, or they buy the card directly, for example via an online marketplace. The rarer the card, the more expensive it is. The collectible card game Altered could change this.
Digital token more valuable than physical cards
In addition to colourful illustrations, Altered cards feature black-and-white QR codes. Each code is unique. With it, players can register cards in the Altered app and link them to their online account. This creates digital duplicates of the physical cards. The principle is not new: if you buy Magic decks, you can also link them to an online account. With Magic , this works with complete decks, while with Altered it works with individual cards.
With Altered , each card is a kind of proxy for a digital token. The token represents the actual value of the card. “As long as you own the token, you can have the card printed for yourself as often as you like for a small fee, even in different languages. Delivery is worldwide. Printing takes place in the factory that also produces all other Altered products,” it says on the Altered homepage.
Equinox controls card trading
Players can sell their tokens via the app. After selling, they may keep the printed cards and continue playing with them at the kitchen table. The new owners of the tokens can use Print on Demand to have additional copies of the cards printed. However, at tournaments, all participants must also own the physical cards digitally.
The advantage for casual players: they save money. The advantage for Equinox: additional revenue. With the app, the central digital marketplace, Equinox controls the trading. This means the publisher earns not only from boosters but also from all other sales. For every transaction, Equinox charges a fee. This is said to be three to four per cent of the sale price.
The Magic card “Fraternal Exaltation” is listed on Cardmarket for almost €60,000. With the current business model, publishers do not earn a single cent from the transaction. If, on the other hand, it were an Altered card traded via the app, Equinox would receive €2,400 with a four per cent fee. Cardmarket would get nothing. In addition, Equinox earns every time cards are reprinted.
Algorithm creates unique cards
Whether Altered will ever achieve prices like Magic remains to be seen. To boost business, Altered offers not only common and rare cards but also unique ones. This is reminiscent of Keyforge. There, unique decks existed. “Your [algorithm-generated] card will never exist anywhere else [in the world] in the exact same combination of values and rules,” says Equinox. The algorithm is supposed to not generate any overpowered cards. Whether this will work remains to be seen. The same applies to the reliability of the algorithm. As a reminder: in 2021, a problem with the Keyforge algorithm meant that no new decks could be generated anymore.
Other rarities include exclusive cards, such as promos. While normal cards can be printed any number of times, there are restrictions for exclusive cards. “They can only be printed once a year. After that, a timer starts in the app. It shows when the right to reprint will be available again,” writes Equinox. Of course, there are also foil cards, i.e. glittery ones. With other TCGs, these are found in boosters. With Altered , there are Foiler cards – common, rare or unique. With each Foiler, you can upgrade any card of the corresponding tier from your own collection. Once a card has been upgraded, you can have it printed in foil for a fee.
Advantages and disadvantages for trade
You can make money with collectible cards. This applies not only to the sale of boosters and displays but also to trading with TCGs. Dealers and sites like Cardmarket or TCG Player have specialised in this. If Equinox is successful with Altered , other publishers may follow suit and also set up their own digital marketplaces. This would be bad news for dealers.
Equinox is trying to reassure dealers: “As a dealer, you have access to an account with privileges that apply only to you. In particular, you will be given priority in transactions via the marketplace.” Equinox also makes suggestions for new sources of income: companies could specialise in trading digital tokens. Or they could mass-print cards they own digitally and sell them to casual players. “Customers can take the cards home directly from the shop and do not have to wait a few days for delivery as with Print on Demand,” writes Equinox. In addition, dealers could offer cards at a lower price, as they would benefit from the discounts for bulk printing. And there is also the option of gifting digital tokens. This would enable the sharing, selling and trading of cards outside the marketplace.
Retailers need to consider whether and how they can or want to make money with Altered. Equinox must show that it is actually capable of changing the TCG business forever. A prerequisite for this is to successfully place Altered on the market. That’s more complicated than it sounds. After all, elves, Mickey Mouse and Pikachu are already out there.
Update 4 March 2024: The Kickstarter campaign has been successfully completed. 14,997 backers have invested more than 6.2 million euros in the game. According to the publisher, this makes it the most funded Trading Card Game on Kickstarter of all time. The release of Altered is planned for 26 August 2024.
Update 31 March 2026: The collectible card game Altered is being discontinued. Publisher founder Régis Bonnessée announced this on Gamefound. After the successful first crowdfunding campaign, the campaign for the set Seeds of Unity raised 902,868 euros. The third campaign for the set Roots of Corruption did reach 1.1 million euros, but fell short of the internally calculated two million euros. Equinox cancelled the campaign and discontinued the game. The publisher now wants to focus on other projects.