Back From the Dead: World War II: TCG Returns With Optional Web3
A Kickstarter card game from 2014 vanished in 2022 when its server provider shut down. Two of its creators are bringing it back on phones this month, with tradeable cards as an opt-in extra.
In 2014, a small studio raised $18,001 from 199 backers on Kickstarter to make a strategy card game about the Second World War. Eight years later the game disappeared, not because players left, but because the company running its servers closed. Now two of its creators are bringing it back.
World War II: TCG is being revived by Games for a Living (GFAL), a Barcelona-based company. Mobile testing starts on 26 November 2026, followed by an open beta on 28 November for iOS and Android; a closed beta is reserved for GFAL's community. Progress will be reset after the beta, before a full mobile release, and GFAL also plans a PC version on Steam and the Epic Games Store.
Why the game vanished
The original was released by FrozenShard Games in 2014 on mobile and later came to Steam. It relied on GameSparks, a backend service that handled the game's online systems. When GameSparks shut down, FrozenShard had no simple way to keep the game running, and in September 2022 it pulled World War II: TCG from the App Store, Google Play and Steam.
The revival has a personal link: two FrozenShard co-founders, Christian Gascons and Marc Tormo, are now executives at GFAL, as chief operating officer and chief creative officer.
How it plays
You build a deck of historical units, tanks, infantry, aircraft, ships and submarines, and you can mix forces from different armies in the same deck. Each turn gives you three action points to spend. Promoting a unit improves its stats and can add abilities, and if a promoted unit is destroyed, it returns to your deck with its upgrades intact, which rewards careful investment in key cards.
The original offered historical missions, ranked multiplayer, crafting and cooperative raids. Mixing armies is the hook that sets it apart from most war-themed card games: you can field units from rival nations side by side and build a deck around what the cards do rather than which flag they fly. Action points keep turns short and decisions sharp, since every move you make is a move you cannot spend elsewhere.
Web3, but only if you want it
After the beta, players will be able to own and trade eligible digital collectible cards through the GFAL Marketplace. GFAL stresses that web3 is optional: you will be able to play without a crypto wallet. No launch date or trading rules for the marketplace have been announced.
It is part of a wider push. In October, GFAL announced the revival alongside a football management game called Legends and Diamond Jewels Solitaire, all three slated for testing in the fourth quarter of 2026.
WGC's take
Game preservation fans should cheer any return of a lost game, and this one comes back with its original creators involved. The web3 layer is the open question. Making card ownership optional is the right call; the test will be whether the free game stays fair for players who never touch the marketplace. If you played the original, the 28 November beta is your chance to see how faithful the revival is, just remember that beta progress will be wiped. And if you never played it, a free war card game built by people who have already run one for eight years is a better starting point than most.