Disney is being Sued over Lorcana TCG!

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Disney’s newly anticipated card Game Lorcana may be postponed due to a lawsuit filed by the rival publisher Upper Deck under the claim of stolen intellectual property according to the news story released by Polygon. Disney’s Lorcana was set to be released August 18, 2023. They are still targeting that date, but the August release is in doubt since Upper Deck is pursuing an injunction.   

Disney’s Lorcana is a family friendly tradeable, collectible card game set in the new Lorcana universe. The story goes that you are summoned into this world at a placed called the Great Illuminary. You were summoned because of your fantastic imagination, and you are now tasked with using a tool called the inkcaster to bring the Disney characters to life from a mysterious open book. These versions of the Disney characters are called glimmers which only exist in Lorcana, and you have to add them to the Lore of Lorcana. In Rush of Ikorr, the player assumes the role of an ancient Greek or Mesoamerican god. The storylines may be different, but the complaint is about the similar or identical gameplay mechanics between the two card games.

The 19-page complaint was filed in a California court alleging that Publisher Ravensburger’s Disney Lorcana directly ripped off Upper Deck’s Rush of Ikorr. Ryan Miller was co-designer of Rush of Ikorr, before moving over to Disney’s Ravensburger and starting development of Lorcana. It’s alleged to have similar or exact gameplay mechanics.

Ravensburger has since issued a statement that they will fight these allegations, stating “the baseless claims filed this week are entirely without merit, and we look forward to proving this in due time.” Although Disney’s Ravensburger is denying the allegations, it is suspicious that Ryan Miller left Upperdeck during the development of Rush of Ikorr, only to start the Lorcana project.

We will be following the story and will provide updates on this story as it unfolds. For anyone interested, Polygon has a copy of the actual complaint submitted to the courts for download and review.