WotC Exploring Future Japanese Crossovers After Final Fantasy Success

Last updated on October 3, 2025

Buster Sword | Illustration by Karuta Shiki

Universes Beyond is a hotly contest subject right now, with no signs of slowing down any time soon regardless of which way the argument swings. Even with the divide between pro-UB and anti-UB players, plus those who just don't care, there's no denying how much of a smash hit Final Fantasy ended up being this year.

A recent job posting from WotC suggests we might see more crossover sets like Final Fantasy in the future, specifically from Japanese source material.

Looking for a Job?

Check out this LinkedIn job opening posted by Rebecca A., a Global Franchise Strategy Leader for Hasbro:

“We're not stopping there.” That's all you need to know about how Hasbro's looking at the success of Final Fantasy. The post is searching for a Japanese/English bilingual candidate to become a new program manager whose role will be “bringing our collaborations with Japanese IPs to life.” The post mentions Joseph Shinji Leis, who was the lead program manager for Final Fantasy. He penned an in-depth look at the localization challenges of developing a set in both English and Japanese, and appears to be looking for a partner of sorts for future Japanese-IP collaborations.

According to the job listing: “In this key role, you will work externally with licensors based [in] Japan and internally, cross-functionally with global teams.” The rest of the job description mostly refers to translational skills, but it's clear Hasbro's cooking up something with future collabs based on Japanese IPs.

If you think you meet the criteria and you're itching to move out to Renton, Washington, you can find the Hasbro job listing here. The pay range is listed between $102,000-163,800, which is just enough for a month of rent and a cup of coffee in Washington state.

Future Japanese IPs

Stiltzkin, Moogle Merchant | Illustration by Hendry Iwanaga

Let the speculation begin! A couple things to note, though. First, there's nothing specifically suggesting this job will directly translate to more Japanese-inspired Standard sets. The end product could come in the form of Secret Lairs, supplementary products, bonus sheets, or non-Magic card products in general.

Second, anything the comes about from this new role likely won't come to fruition for at least a few years. Wizards of the Coast has stated before that the development cycle of a Universes Beyond set is typically 3-4 years, which means if they were to begin a new collaboration today, it likely wouldn't be in the hands of players until 2028-2029 at the earliest.

Now the question is what other Japanese IPs would be big enough to cross over with Magic?

Your mind might gravitate towards Nintendo properties, but don't get too optimistic. As cool as a Smash Brothers UB set sounds, it'd take a real silver-tongued player to get Nintendo to do anything with their properties other than stick them into more Nintendo games. Nintendo, headquartered in Kyoto, Japan, does not license their properties out freely, and they have a bit of a reputation for wanting to keep everything in-house.

Anime comes to mind immediately. Magic: The Gathering has experimented with anime cards extensively at this point, and there's definitely a big weeby market for it. It's not hard to imagine Demon Slayer make its way onto Magic cards. One Piece comes to mind, and has over 16 billion chapters of manga to pull from, but it also launched its own TCG in 2022.

Dragonball would be colossal, and could be perfect for getting a bunch of now 40-year olds back into Magic. There's even some slight precedent for this with the Shen, Wish Granter playtest card that showed up at the 2025 MagicCon Vegas Unknown event.

And of course, there's an endless list of other Japanese video game developers that could lend their IPs to Magic cards. There's Konami, who owns Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania, and even Contra.

Atlus is another big-name Japanese developer, with the Persona series and Shin Megami Tensei games (check out Nocturne, it's awesome). The list goes on from there: Capcom, Sega, Sony (we just got the big PlayStation Secret Lair announcement), and even Square Enix, who has more to offer beyond just Final Fantasy. Fingers crossed for something by FromSoftware, the developers behind Bloodborne, Elden Ring, and all those other Soulslikes that have been beating your ass for the last 15 years.

There's so much potential in the Japanese market, and Final Fantasy proved that there's an audience for it. Hasbro just needs to find the right fit for the program manager role first, hopefully someone who understands how amazing Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocture is.