Magicka: Wizard Wars 'not a MOBA,' revenue model still up in the air

For Paradox North's Executive Vice President, John Hargelid, Magicka: Wizard Wars has been labeled improperly as a MOBA. It features themes seen in the genre, but for Hargelid the differentiator is the simple gameplay that provides a vehicle for high-level tactics.

"This is why we think we're not a MOBA," Hargelid said. "Magicka: Wizard Wars is much more skill-based, much more hardcore to be honest. At the same time, anyone who hasn't played this type of game before can simply be satisfied by gameplay. It's quite simple to get into it and it's not this 40-minute game mode you have to learn what the progression looks like and halfway through, you'll know if you lost or won."

Magicka: Wizard Wars is in a pre-alpha state now, with weekly iterations being tested in developer Paradox North's Stockholm offices. Each round takes roughly five minutes, Hargelid says. The set-up is simple: three objectives are littered across the map and once a team captures an objective, it's delegated as a spawn point for that team.

If the other team can't spawn, they lose. That's not necessarily how the final game will play, nor any indication of what other types of modes may be in Magicka: Wizard Wars, but Hargelid says the team is happy with the current balance the objective gametype offers.

Paradox North also talked about how players would be grouped together, to which Hargelid says the Magicka: Wizard Wars developer will purposely team up skilled players with new and relatively low-ranked players. This idea is to force those high-level casters to "take their responsibility as a more senior person and help these guys, because otherwise you won't win."

Of course, I also asked about how Magicka: Wizard Wars would be distributed to players, whether as a traditional game or in free-to-play form. "We haven't decided yet," Hargelid replied. "It is a fun-to-play game, I can tell you that much," he said.