Disney strikes again, shuts down Lorcana Pixelborn webcam-organized play project

Bulgarian game dev Pavel Kolev, better known as Pavel, the creator of Disney Lorcana Pixelborn, was shot down by Disney a second time in less than a month—and the community isn’t happy about it. 

Pavel’s creation of Pixelborn before the release of Disney Lorcana‘s The First Chapter was a life raft for many players who couldn’t get their hands on physical cards due to printing and shipping issues. Heading into the fifth Lorcana set, Disney decided Pixelborn shouldn’t exist and asked Pavel to shut it down. The Bulgarian game dev complied without a fight and spawned another idea called Pixelborn Connect, a webcam platform featuring ranked play among players who already own Disney Lorcana cards. Disney quickly reached out to Pavel and “advised him not to proceed with the project or make it public,” according to the game dev. 

Pixelborn Connect was designed to have features like matchmaking, rank, and stats, according to Pavel. To use the digital system, players only needed cards, a device to run the program, and a camera. 

“At this point, it is safer to assume that I should not attempt to do anything related to Lorcana,” said Pavel.

A majority of the community isn’t happy with Disney’s decision. Multiple content creators like ybreezy spoke up, calling the decision “Another punch to the community.” Thea Booysen called the decision “heartbreaking,” while suggesting the only possible conclusion to this odd move by Disney is that “they want to make their own client.”

Community frustrations were high when Disney asked Pavel to close Pixelborn down the first time, but with a degree of understanding that the CCG program used copyrighted content. However, playing games through a webcam requires players to purchase the cards beforehand, unless using proxies. The new and improved Pixelborn shouldn’t have violated copyright issues, leaving many in the Lorcana community to wonder why Disney keeps shutting down Pavel and his ideas. 

Dot Esports has reached out to both Disney and Ravensburger, but has not received any comment at time of writing.