Look out Asia, Disney Lorcana is coming to you soon!
First spotted by Lorcana Player, Disney Lorcana appear to be working on expanding into more regions, this time targeting Mainland China!
Ever since the success launch of Disney Lorcana with The First Chapter in August 2023, Ravensburger has been constantly working on hiring, posting multiple job postings to expand their team.
2 postings have been listed recently on Indeed, namely:
Disney Lorcana was recently released in Italian for set 3, Into the Inklands, and is also set to release in Australia and New Zealand later this year, fulfilling the Lorcana team’s promise since early 2023 to expand globally.
As with every TCG, Localization is always an important part of the development process when looking into expanding into regions that have non-English speaking players. Among the job duties and responsibilities, the Localization Manager is required to also hire and manage localization contractors, including translation agencies. Furthermore, stated under preferred skills, they are hoping to find someone with written fluency in one or more Asian language.
Mainland China focus
With the role of TCG Game Developer – Mandarin (SC), it looks like the Lorcana team is definitely focusing on mainland China. SC here refers to Simplified Chinese, which is officially used in mainland China. Other regions such as Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use TC, also known as Traditional Chinese. Due to the large population, Mainland China is a popular region for TCGs to expand to. For example, the Pokemon TCG officially launched the simplified Chinese version in late 2022.
Under job duties, the TCG Game Developer – Mandarin (SC) will be required to proof Chinese based products and coordinate with the Localization Manager to ensure proper localization, while suggesting alternate ideas for the Chinese Market.
All of this points to Disney Lorcana working hard in the background to expand into more regions, with a focus especially on mainland China. Hopefully this means that Disney Lorcana will get to be officially released in Asia some time soon!
What about Japan?
Aside from China, it seems that Ravensburger is definitely also looking into Japan, a country which has a huge amount of TCG players and TCGs are a big part of the culture.
Under knowledge and skills for the TCG Game Developer – Mandarin (SC) role, it is listed that Excellent writing skills in Japanese will be required to support communication. Japanese is not mentioned anywhere else in the job posting.
This is likely a typo from a template, but it could mean that Ravensburger may be looking for someone with Japanese language skills to do a similar role. Ravensburger does have a Japan office but currently Disney Lorcana is not mentioned as one of the products on their site.
Currently preparations for the Lorcana competitive circuit are underway, with Disney Lorcana Challenges starting in May. The top 4 players will receive invites to the North America and Europe Championship events, which culminates in the World Championship slated for early 2025.
With these plans for expansion into more regions under way, hopefully Disney Lorcana fans around the world will be able to gain access to the circuit soon and allow more players around the world a chance to take part soon!
Philippines!