Blizzard's New Gig is a 'Freemium' Card Trading Game
Cardcraft?
Now who can say they saw this coming? Blizzard revealed to PAX East on Thursday not the highly-anticipated Titan MMO or something similar, but a new cross-platform free-to-play strategy card game for Windows, Mac and iPad. It's called Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and it's slated to enter beta mode "real soon".
"We've always loved collectible card games at Blizzard, so it's been exciting to bring everything we love about the genre to life in Hearthstone," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We're putting a lot of focus into creating a fun new game that's easy to pick up and play, but also has a lot of depth. We can't wait to share it with everyone."
The game allows players to build card decks centered on one of nine Warcraft character classes. These decks are then used to battle other players for a chance to win new cards. Gamers can first build up their card playing skills playing in solo mode against the AI, and then take their newfound skills to Battle.net to fight others looking to take your cards.
According to Blizzard, the card game will feature two competitive game modes: "Play" and "The Forge". The former plays host to traditional head-to-head battles, with players facing off for a chance to increase their medal ranking and earn card packs along the way. "The Forge" is a completely different type of challenge.
"They start each match by building a deck from a new set of cards, and then use that deck to duel other Forge participants," Blizzard said. "Aside from winning new cards, players will be able to round out their collections by purchasing new card packs or disenchanting some of their existing cards to craft the ones they're missing."
Blizzard calls Hearthstone "deceptively simple in design" but "epically engaging", featuring hundreds of cards packed with a wide range of colorful spells, weapons and characters.
"Whether players prefer to wield magic or arms in battle, strike from the shadows or head on—or have never given any of that much thought—they'll be able to jump right in, create a deck, and get in on the card-slinging action," Blizzard added.
For more information about the studio's new trading card game, head here. Interested gamers can also sign up for the beta after creating or logging into their Battle.net account.
...Well it's the same with all games isn't it? Pay money for some pixels on a screen that move around and shoot other pixels.
It kinda sad to admit you play WoW ... but the above statement is just plain pathetic.
Even back in the 90s people who played these card games were the lowest of the geeks (yes even lower than LARPers) but 20+ years on? I think the people who work at Blizzard REALLY REALLY need to get a girlfriend-boyfriend/wife-husband/significant other/partner/pet/social skills/a friend/to get out of the house and talk to somebody who doesn't work at blizzard/ ... well you know where I'm going with this.
Oh well, at least they won't be the biggest loosers on the planet ... that spot's reserved for whomever buys the premium stuff for this game.
Clearly this was the only way to lure in the fans who didn't want to be burned by another $50+ mistake.
Who really cares if it is pay-to-win? It's free. If it is terrible, we know Blizzard gave up. No tears. If it is surprisingly good, well, they just might save enough of a fan base that their next big thing won't flop.