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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.
So I heard you like games, so I made a game within a game
I'm serious. Wtf.
I wonder how Cryptozoic feels about Blizzard firing off a "digital trading card game" when they already have a "non-digital TCG" license? There's nothing quite so sucktacular as directly competing with your licensor.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
I'm waiting for the Warcraft-branded groceries myself. The soda is not a great diet on its own, I need food! From Pandaria!
But will it have a RMAH where I can sell cards? Yes? I won't play it... No? I still won't play it.
Sorry ACTV, I will not play or purchase anything from you again after what you did to the Diablo franchise.
I would really like to see an article someplace regarding the trend of releasing CCGs for these game properties. Sony for example had an entire studio devoted to CCGs about its games (Sony Denver closed in 2011 when Sony hit the skids, unfortunately -- so much for game development in Colorado), and when I was involved with Lego Universe they had a CCG in the works before the game even came out.
It is interesting how the large game makers think that a team of 15 is a number small enough to be noteworthy when games like Minecraft, Amnesia and FTL are made by a single digit number of people.
Different perspective I guess.
Now I can go on with my day and be totally effective.
Solving Unix problems since 1989...
Does this mean Blizzard has "jumped the shark"? I think it does...
Weird that they released a card game after Barcraft from the Starcraft 2 arcade has been one of the most popular games the last while. Barcraft was also one of the games they were showing on the large screen during the SC2 HOTS release party. Guess this was a hint?
Cause I still got a shitload of those cards to unload, man.
Your political party doesn't care about your rights and only represents corporate interests.
...They're catching up to Everquest?
That's cool, I guess.
It's an experiment in low cost social gaming. When you have games like FTL which succeed wildly with a tiny dev team and budget, and then a AAA game with a AAA license and a $200M budget by one of the top studios in the business 9SW:TOR) fails miserably, they're seeing the change and experimenting with developing other business lines. This isn't Blizzard's forte, but they're definitely seeing if they can develop it.
Yes, I know, thanks Captain Obvious.
Of taking forever to develop a game and then ruining it with always-on DRM?
Yes, that is a dramatic departure from the usual.
I guess you can't blame a company for learning from their mistakes and trying something new. Personally I think the game is a cop-out though.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Step one: Make digital card game.
Step two: Print cards and sell them.
Step three: Profit more from WOW.
You know what would make this idiotic card game for man-children even better? Eliminating the physical cards!
... pass.
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.
If we colonize Mars, it won't be the World Wide Web anymore. UWW?
I'll never play this, but I'm sure some people will enjoy it very much. I continue to wait for Titan.
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
Could actually be interesting. No Blizzard release should be take lightly. Maybe this will contribute to the Blizzard lore in a meaningful way, which would always be welcome.
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?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Other than the few nubs that still play this game who cares.
It's not a trading card game (TCG), it's a collectors card game (CCG). You're not allowed to trade your cards with other players.