Blizzard announces free-to-play card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Blizzard is expanding its Warcraft series with a new game. Now, before you get your hopes up, no, it’s not Warcraft 4. Instead, it’s a free-to-play card game for the PC, Mac and iPad, named Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.

In Hearthstone, players build card decks centred around one of nine Warcraft character classes and duel each other for fun, glory and the chance to win new cards. Blizzard will begin beta testing for the game very soon—no, seriously.

“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 card game will be free-to-play

Players will play against each other over Battle.net. You will be able to challenge anyone in your Battle.net friends list assuming they have the game. According to the press release, the game is balanced towards being both accessible for newcomers and compelling to card game veterans.

Players will have the ability to create decks based on either magic or actual fighting, depending on their tastes, and both will be equally viable.

Play Mode features traditional head-to-head battles, with players facing off for a chance to increase their medal ranking and earn card packs along the way. And for a different type of challenge, players can enter The Forge, where they start each match by building a deck from a new set of cards and then use that deck to duel other Forge participants. 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.

For those who don’t know, Blizzard already has a card game for its Warcraft series, named the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. The similarities or differences between Heartstone and the WoW TCG is yet to be known, but it is very likely that they will be similar. The WoW TCG uses a simplified and streamlined version of the Magic: The Gathering ruleset.

Let’s hope Blizzard doesn’t fall into the same trap as other free-to-play titles and start charging people money for actual in-game power.

The game is currently on display at the ongoing Penny Arcade Expo.