Wizards of the Coast (WotC) abruptly ended the Early Access Program it used to help promote new sets on MTG Arena by allowing content creators the chance to play with the set the day before it released to the public.
The Early Access program was part of the MTG Arena Creator Program, where it gave selected streamers and content creators fully stocked Arena accounts to show off the new set a day before the official launch of the set. The creators could build new decks to build hype for the set and be the first players to draft and played Sealed with the new cards.
Questions about whether the Strixhaven: School of Mages Early Access event was happening popped up on Twitter Monday as content creators had yet to receive any of the information they usually received confirming the event and their inclusion in it. As more and more streamers brought more attention to the situation, WotC finally sent an email to some content creators around 11:30pm ET stating that not only was the event not happening for this set, but the entire program was discontinued.
To compensate for the removal of the program, WotC will provide the creators 40 redeemable codes for Strixhaven booster packs on Arena. This information came two days before what would have been the date for the Early Access event, leaving many angered about the lack of communication as they planned their content around the event.
The full contents of the email reads:
Thank you for being an integral part of our Magic community and for your previous participation in MTG Arena Creator Program and Early Access events. As we continue to build our community program to support creators across multiple platforms, Wizards has made the difficult decision to discontinue the Early Access program going forward.
The creator program Discord will still remain active and serve as a hub for all future creator opportunities going forward. We understand this news is disappointing. To help you celebrate the launch of Strixhaven: School of Magic on MTG Arena, we’re distributing 40 codes that each redeem for one Strixhaven booster pack that you can use to drive engagement on your channels and share with your community at launch. The codes will become redeemable on 04/15, at 9:00 am PST.
Additionally, when we launched the Discord we had messaged you would receive 5 additional codes, also added those below, for a total of 45 booster packs for you to use however you’d like.
Thank you for your support and we look forward to working with you on events in the future!
Regards,
Wizards Community Team
Not only was the Early Access program ended with little notice, any information regarding it was edited out of the MTG Early Access Discord server FAQ along with turning off reactions.
WotC hasn’t posted any statements about the ending of the Early Access program other than the above email mentioned above.