Hearthstone Open Beta Delayed To 2014

[MarlaDesat]

Hearthstone Open Beta Delayed To 2014

Blizzard has sent closed beta invitations to everyone who opted in before December 16, but the open beta will not begin until sometime in 2014.

The open beta for free-to-play collectible card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft will not arrive until sometime in 2014, announced Blizzard yesterday. The delay was not entirely unexpected. At BlizzCon in November, chief creative officer Rob Pardo announced that the game should be in open beta by December, though he added, "But in Blizzard language, that might mean January." Blizzard also announced that as of December 19, beta invitations have been sent to everyone who opted in to the Hearthstone closed beta before December 16. Opt-ins for the closed beta test will end on January 7, 2014. You can opt-in here [http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/] with a Battle.net account.

In the announcement post on card changes [http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/12070972], the new Ranked Play system, and on-going work on server stability have contributed to pushing back the open beta. Chaves writes, "The development team has been working hard to get this out before the end of the year, but our highest priority is that Hearthstone has an awesome launch when all gates are lifted and everyone can download it and play at the same time."

If you opted-in to the beta but can't find your invitation even after checking spam folders, Chaves says not to worry. "We're putting together a list of all Battle.net accounts that opted in to the Hearthstone beta test and did not claim their beta key," writes Chaves. "These accounts will be flagged for beta access within the first few weeks of January." Everyone who opts-in to the beta test before January 7 will be invited to the closed beta before the open beta begins.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft launched closed beta testing in August. The Escapist iOS and Android devices [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/10682-Hearthstone-is-Not-Magic-But-I-Love-It-All-the-Same] will arrive sometime in the second half of 2014.

Source: Blizzard Entertainment [http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/12070972]


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[misg]

I was one of the very first who got a closed beta invite. Sold it for roughly 40? on eBay. That was a good day...

lol that is funny. I don't see the appeal of this game it's a dumbed down version of many other Superior card games. But that's me, I do find it interesting that the best feature people I've talked to about the game are usually about it's cool to play with cards from wow, like murlocks and hogger.

 

[Falterfire]

I don't see the appeal of this game it's a dumbed down version of many other Superior card games.

Mainly the appeal is in the digital portion - Magic is my preferred game, but Magic Online is a hideous misshapen beast of a thing. That said, I'm not really a huge fan of Hearthstone, but if Hearthstone succeeding means Wizards finally fixes Magic Online then I really hope Hearthstone succeeds.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

passing priority in an online game is just a crappy system which means Magic (at least vanilla) will never play well in a computer environment

Hex sadly uses the Magic system which is why I regret spending money on the kickstarter but at least it will have PVE elements

Duel of Champions and Hearthstone are both much better systems but the developers need to do a better job controlling "direct" damage that opponents don't get a chance to react to.

One of the most innovative online card systems I've seen is in Warmetal Tyrant http://www.kongregate.com/games/synapticon/tyrant

Its a f2p ccg with mmo elements. It has a HUGE pve campaign, interesting PVP and free drafts. The energy system isn't even that obnoxious.

The game has 10 card decks where you choose from a hand of 3. Your units queue up and attack on rails, any unblocked units damage the commander. No resource management, just your 10 cards vs the opponents ten cards. Matches last less than a minute so you can play a LOT.

Very much worth checking out.

 

[MrMixelPixel]

Well, as long as everyone who opted into closed beta gets in, I guess there isn't a reason to worry. All of my friends have finally gotten in, and we've been having a blast. It hasn't replaced magic in our eyes, but it has definitely become a great game for us in its own right.

 

[crepesack]

Hearthstone has some serious balance issues right now that I hope they work out soon. I've been playing the beta for a few days now and there's simply no reason not to play mage as it stands.

 

[Eric the Orange]

I've seen a few people play it. seems like a pretty fun casual time waster for long trips and what not.