Hearthstone

The Old Gods bloody love the circus, apparently. For the final Hearthstone expansion of 2020, Blizzard are taking us way back to 2016, the last Worst Year Ever (in real life), when C'Thun, Yogg-Saron, and the eldritch squad first came to Hearthstone. Today they announced Madness At The Darkmoon Faire, arriving in November. Thankfully, Hearthstone was one of those constants I always went back to…

Mike Morhaime, the co-founder and former CEO of Blizzard, has opened a new video games venture with two studios stacked full of fellow ex-Blizzard folks. Dreamhaven is the company name, under which sit two studios, Moonshot Games and Secret Door. Open their doors and you'll find folks including longtime StarCraft II game director Dustin Browder and original Hearthstone game director Eric Dodds. What are they…

Blizzard have confirmed that they’ll be hosting BlizzCon as an online event due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The annual celebration of their games and communities was cancelled this year, with a suggestion that they’ll be holding it virtually in 2021. During a recent earnings call, Blizzard’s president J. Allen Brack confirmed that it will be happening “early 2021”.

The next Hearthstone expansion will take players to the wizard school of Scholomance Academy, Blizzard announced last night. The 135-card expansion will introduce 40 cards that can be used by two classes, reflecting the school's multidisciplinary curriculum, including 10 representing the dual-class disciplines' Legendary professors. The new Spellburst keyword is coming too, and a new Studies card type. Also, the school has just a load…

Illidan Stormrage should have learned that drinking from the skull of Gul'dan riles up the whole world of Warcraft and makes them regret releasing him from wizard jail, but now he's done it again in Hearthstone. The Demon Hunter class arrived Tuesday in Blizzard's card game, the first new playable class since launch six years ago, and already they've needed to hastily nerf him. Yes,…

Blizzard have added Hearthstone's first new playable class since the game launched six years ago, the scowling Demon Hunter. That's a whole new set of cards with whole new tricks, not to mention a whole lot of growling. Illidan Stormrage is the first Demon Hunter hero, and today you can unlock the class and its starter deck by playing through a short free story campaign…

A new class for Hearthstone? They said it couldn't be done! But as the game's new Year Of The Phoenix begins in April, they, whoever they are, will be proved wrong with the debut of the new Demon Hunter class. It's fronted by good old Illidan "u are not prepared" Stormrage, and will be free for all players. He'll arrive just ahead of the next…

I'm a big fan of fantasy names that sound like someone choking. Ghisteslwchlohm. Zeddicus. Tolo Ogule Thermalamerkanerat. The first chapter of Hearthstone's new adventure, Galakrond's Awakening, is out today, with a story following on from the last couple of solo adventures. As usual, you fight a series of singleplayer matches against bosses with game-shaping powers. Less usual is how you get to play as either…

Have you played Overwatch? You haven't? Well, for the next week, you've no excuse not to at least give it a go. Blizzard's Saturday morning shooter is offering a free trial from today 'till next Wednesday, letting you try your hand at Overwatch without spending a penny. With Blizzard's extended Black Friday Sale kicking off today too, it'll be a hell of a lot cheaper…

Blizzard have launched Hearthstone's new Battlegrounds mode into open beta for everyone, following a week of early access for the moneybags. Though the name "Battlegrounds" suggests battle royale, this mode is following a newer craze, Auto Chess. Like the Dota 2 mode and those it inspired, players build and upgrade an army of units then send them into battles against a rotating lineup of other…

Slowly, but surely, Blizzard have opened up about penalising Hearthstone pro player Ng Wai "Blitzchung" Chung for a pro-Hong Kong protest during October's Grand Championship finals. But after a delivering yet another wholly underwhelming public statement, it's hard to say they've handled the situation well.As it happens, that opinion isn't limited to aggrieved fans. Last Friday, Blizzard vice president Jeff "from the Overwatch team" Kaplan…

Blizzard announced the next Hearthstone expansion, Descent Of Dragons, today at BlizzCon. It'll add new cards with new abilities - the usual expansion stuff. More curiously, Blizzard also announced Hearthstone: Battlegrounds, a new mode they say is inspired by the Auto Chess. Y'know, the burgeoning genre which began as the Dota 2 mod Dota Auto Chess and has already spawned Valve's Dota Underlords and the…

Blizzard could announce Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, a new WoW expansion, and Hearthstone Auto Chess live on stage at BlizzCon--and they did--but none of that would sit right if they didn't address the cloud over this year's fanfest. Their decision to harshly punish a Hearthstone pro player for declaring "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!" in a post-match interview has upset many over the…

A college Hearthstone team that raised a "Free Hong Kong, Boycott Blizz" sign on-stream during their Collegiate Championship game last week has finally been suspended by Blizzard. With their own finals taking place shortly after Hearthstone Grand Champion Chung "Blitzchung" Ng Wai's now-famous protest and subsequent punishment, the American University Collegiate team jumped in to support their fellow pro. It took only two days for…

Update: Blitzchung has responded with a statement of his own. Details below.Blizzard Entertainment have, after several days of silence, released a statement about this week’s chaos. It all began when they, by their admission, “reacted too quickly” to pro Hearthstone player Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai saying “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times!” during a post-match interview. It has escalated since then, with casters quitting,…

A veteran Hearthstone player and commentator is pulling away from Blizzard after they banned pro player Chung "Blitzchung" Ng Wai for voicing support of Hong Kong's pro-autonomy protests in a post-match interview. Brian Kibler has commentated several official Blizzard tournaments but now he's pulling out of casting this year's Hearthstone Grandmasters finals at BlizzCon. "I will not be a smiling face on camera that tacitly…

A number of Blizzard employees seem to be protesting the company's decision to ban a professional Hearthstone player for voicing his support of Hong Kong's ongoing pro-autonomy protests. Some have reportedly covered up two of the company's supposed core values that are cast in bronze in a sculpture outside their headquarters, "Think Globally" and "Every Voice Matters". It seems more later gathered in support at…

Oooh, it's the season of spooks and scares in Hearthstone once again. What's that behind the curtain? Some sort of ghost, perhaps a ghoul? No, dear reader, it's the Headless Horseman bearing the most terrifying spell of all - unbalanced playing cards! Hearthstone's diving into the Haunted Temple of Uldum, forcing an uneasy alliance between the goody-two-shoes of the League of Explorers and the comically…

Blizzard have temporarily banned Hearthstone pro Chung "Blitzchung" Ng Wai for saying "liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!" during a post-match interview, expressing his support of the Hong Kong protests. This happened last Sunday, during the Hearthstone Grandmasters tournament. In addition to removal from the rest of the tournament and a one year ban, Blizzard will not pay out the prize money Blitzchung is…

“When cards show up too frequently in decks and are considered auto-includes, deck-building becomes more limited…Dozens of cards in the seven to nine mana range never saw play because Ragnaros was always the easy choice in that range, and some decks only want to run one high cost card,” wrote Hearthstone’s developers back in 2017 as they shifted the poor Firelord out of Standard play…