Overwatch’s Mei got her own animated short today, so it’s doubtful that many people will pay any attention to the companion video Blizzard released for Hearthstone. Given a choice between a sexy anime Overwatch nerd and a plucky Disney-esque Hearthstone song, we all know which mini movie will get more views. Still, it’s a valiant attempt to lodge an ear-worm into everyone’s brain.
“Hearth and Home” being an ode to Stonebrew Tavern is catchy, but it’s no “When I Find Love” from Saints Row: Gat out of Hell. It’s certainly not as good as “Oh No You Didn’t” from the marketing for Mercenaries 2, which despite being almost ten years old, still manages to pop into my head to this day.
Blizzard deliberately makes new players use terrible Hearthstone cards. Ben Brode, senior game designer on Hearthstone, discusses some of the strategy behind basic card design in the above video. In the presentation, Brode argues that the really awful cards given to new players in the basic set serve to educate. In response to the common accusation that Blizzard handicaps the basic deck to motivate people to pay for the expansion sets, Brode argues that the real imbalance comes from the gap in skill. The expansion decks have weak cards as well, but a more knowledgeable player will know to either avoid using them, or they can turn a card’s weakness into a strength by using it with another card’s special power. The newer player will struggle with the underpowered cards until they learn more about the game through play. Beyond that, Brode argues that the basic deck has very powerful, competitive cards as well.
We give new players Truesilver Champion, Fireball, Frostbolt, Flamestrike, Consecrate. That’s definitely intentional. We want new players to have some great cards. We want high level decks to include basic cards also. Just because there are bad cards in the basic set, it doesn’t mean we’re trying to make sure we give players really bad cards to start out with. That’s not our intention, but we do also want them to feel a feeling of progression and to learn what cards to put in the deck. Some good choices, some bad choices.
Hearthstone, or Baby’s First CCG, is free-to-play and available to download here.
According to findings released by SuperData Research, Blizzard’s Hearthstone is bringing in $20 million a month. That’s a lot of virtual cards. The estimate is based on surveying gamers and tracking over 250 million digital collectible card game transactions between October 2011 to June 2015. Analysts at SuperData concluded that 37 million gamers worldwide play digital CCGs with Hearthstone leading the field at 17 million active players thanks to its strong ties to other Blizzard games.
“Being able to build on a vast, pre-existing narrative economy allows both existing and new players to quickly find a touchpoint with the game, thereby establishing a different relationship compared to the majority of free-to-play titles currently available on iOS and PC.”
SuperData noted that while Hearthstone makes about $2 million per month more than Valve’s Dota 2, it is absolutely crushed by League of Legends’ $123 million a month revenue. Hearthstone’s The Grand Tournament expansion will be the latest card pack in the series.
Blizzard announced Hearthstone’s second DLC adventure, coming next month. Blackrock Mountain takes players’ decks into Blackrock Spire to flop cards against fire-based enemies. Playing through the full adventure will net players 31 new cards and a new virtual game board to add to their collection. Like Curse of Naxxramas, the DLC will be released as five installments over five weeks. Each installment will cost $6.99 separately, or the full bundle can be purchased for a discount.
Blizzard’s free-to-play collectible card game is getting a single-player adventure mode. The Curse of Naxxramas: A Hearthstone Adventure was unveiled at PAX East. Based on the Naxxramas location in World of Warcraft, players will card-flop their way through five wings of the dungeon, defeat bosses, and collect unique cards. The 30 new cards can be used in the multiplayer portion of Hearthstone once you’ve added them to your decks. Curse of Naxxramas will be played on a new game board and will be released in weekly installments.
Curse of Naxxramas will open its gates over the course of 5 weeks, opening wing by wing. The first wing of Curse of Naxxramas, The Arachnid Quarter, will be available free for all Hearthstone players. If you wish to venture further into Naxxramas to collect all of the new cards for your collection, each wing besides the Arachnid Quarter can be purchased with in-game gold or real money, whichever you prefer.
Final pricing and a release date have not been set yet for the later “wings” of the expansion, but Blizzard did confirm that it will launch on PC, Mac, and iPad simultaneously. Hearthstone is available for free through Battle.net.
