Blizzard Announces Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft Digital Card Game

UgLyPuNk writes "Blizzard has revealed its 'something new' at PAX East 2013: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft — a 'charming collectible strategy game set in the Warcraft universe.'" Blizzard says this game is a departure from their normal development process: it was made with a team of just 15, will release this year, and it's free-to-play. Hearthstone is built for Mac OS, Windows, and iPads. There's a deck builder, a match-finder, and AI for those who don't want to play against other people. While it's free to play, and players will earn new packs of cards by playing, there will also be an option to purchase new packs.

Re:Competes with WoW's own TCG

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the writing's been on the wall for quite awhile. WoW TCG used to be their sole focus and Bread and Butter. But the past year they've been diversifying, gathering non-Blizzard licenses, and trying to get another franchise off the ground in a very hard way. I wouldn't be surprised if the contract between Crypt and Blizzard comes to an end after the current one expires.

Furthermore, Blizzard has constantly been trying to step into the world of micro-transactions (Attempts at "map selling" in Starcraft at the beginning, the Auction House, etc) so this is just the next step. It's really funny that people complain about "freemium" and "microtransactions" as if they are totally new concepts, whereas anybody that has played TCG's have been subject to this model since the early 90's.

F2P

[tech.kyle]

I was worried until I saw that it would be free-to-play. Now I'm really worried. In my experiences, the F2P model never improved the experience of those who would have normally paid for it. I do understand that the F2P model is more profitable, but, in my opinion, it ruins the game. More of a risk.

Recently, I've tried Simraceway and I don't see how spending hundreds of dollars on cars is better than ~$20 for Gran Turismo. A more well known example, FarmVille eventually only benefited kids with their parents credit cards and no concept of the value of a dollar.

Fantastic!

[The Living Fractal]

I'll never play this, but I'm sure some people will enjoy it very much. I continue to wait for Titan.

So the usual F2P/P2W ploy?

[Opportunist]

Lemme guess: You get a pack of "starter pack" cards for free that makes you pretty much a target dummy for anyone who actually shelled out some dough and bought enough "booster packs" to actually create a deck that can win?

I.e. how it works in traditional TCGs, just that they did away with the costly process of printing cards?