GameGeex - Blizzard lays its cards on the table with Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

[back] Blizzard lays its cards on the table with Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft [permalink]

by Amanda "Mandifesto" Orneck
Posted on March 22, 2013 @ 7:00 PST

A smaller, more agile team was put together to make smaller, more passionate games. The result? A CCG.

I've never really yearned to be in Boston, that is until today, when Blizzard up and announced a brand new sleeper title during this week's PAX East convention. Dubbed Hearthstone:Heroes of Warcraft, this game is a CCG built within the Warcraft universe. Amongst its interesting list of features is the fact that this is Blizzard's first free-to-play title.

This announcement completely blindsided me, even though we were told to expect big things at PAX East this year. I guess I just didn't believe hard enough (maybe I need to replenish my magical believing dust supply), but I was delighted to watch the presentation of a new Blizzard game given by Rob Pardo. It wasn't the Blizzard announcement I've been waiting for, and so much like the entire concept of Hearthstone, this is a small little surprise for the Blizzard fans out there.

Below I've included all the artwork, screenshots, and videos they posted to date. Interestingly, we have a background video that tells us how they decided on the new development team, their "agile" design style, and what we can expect from Hearthstone. From a game design perspective the entire concept is fascinating. The game is playable on the PAX East floor, so if you're there, do drop us a comment below and tell us how it is?