Disney Lorcana fans arrived in droves at GenCon, but distribution remains worryingly low

Ravensburger and Disney are dropping Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter early through local game stores as a soft launch for the new TCG, but players and collectors are having a tough time finding stores that have enough product and prerelease events. 

Fans of the new Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter trading card game showed out at GenCon from Aug. 3 to 6, waiting for hours to purchase a limited number of products like starter decks and booster boxes. For players and collectors who couldn’t attend GenCon, a soft launch of The First Chapter on Aug. 18 through local game stores is the next best thing. But many local game stores, especially in the Orlando/Central Florida area where I live, aren’t running Disney Lorcana prerelease events and have limited products for sale.

What is Disney Lorcana prerelease?

When Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter was initially announced, Ravensburger was pushing support for local game stores through a soft launch of the set. Events involving the three starter decks were supposed to start globally on Aug. 18, followed up by a big retail launch on Sept. 1.

Ravensburger even included rules for Limited gameplay through Draft and a version of MTG Sealed. Players at GenCon were able to include contents from a booster pack in their preconstructed starter decks and sealed was played during the final top-eight event. 

Related: All Disney Lorcana The First Chapter cards worth money: Projected prices before launch

Ravensburger drops the ball for Lorcana’s prerelease

Despite showing out at GenCon, Ravensburger and Disney haven’t worked all the kinks out for a soft launch that meets players’ expectations. The Ravensburger site has a store locator so players can find a local game store to play at, but it isn’t operational at time of writing on Aug. 16, days before prerelease events are scheduled to start. 

In addition to the lack of a functioning store locator, both Disney parks in the U.S. have yet to release any information regarding events or products available for sale. And it was confirmed to Dot Esports through Ravensburger that Disney World didn’t have any events scheduled for the Aug. 18 release of The First Chapter. But Disney in Paris did release two event dates through Twitter.

In the Central Florida area where I live, many local game stores don’t even have Disney Lorcana products. And if they do, there is a very limited amount of products available for the Aug. 18 soft launch. Even a major TCG retailer in Orlando doesn’t have Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter prerelease events on their calendar. 

It’s possible that Disney and Ravensburger low-balled projected sales for the Aug. 18 soft launch as the organizations wanted to take an organic approach to sales initially. The strategy has seemingly backfired, though, as most local game stores won’t get the support due to limited products while retailers will have an abundance of it on Sept. 1. 

There’s also the issue of sealed products getting sold on the secondary market leading up to Sept. 1. At time of writing, prices for Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter sealed products are way above MSRP on sites like TCGPlayer. 

Ravensburger stepped up at GenCon when fans crushed the lines for Disney Lorcana on the first day. And many fans are hoping the organization will once again make things right when it comes to the Aug. 18 The First Chapter soft launch.