After news broke that Blizzard has been surveying customers reactions to a potential Battle Pass in Hearthstone, Game Director Ben Lee stepped in to discuss some of the more pertinent details about how the process is developing internally with the team.
Lee begins with a hefty bit of self-patting on the back, describing how Hearthstone is now more affordable than ever thanks to a combination of increased duplicate protection, free decks for new and returning players, more ranked rewards, and free single-player Adventure content. Without delving into that statement, readers can click here for TheGamer’s counterpoint, “Hearthstone Is Now The Most Expensive It’s Ever Been”.
Getting to the actual battle pass, Lee begins by clarifying that Blizzard intends to maintain the value that players can earn within the game regardless of what new kind of system comes into play, but then goes on to state, “We are undertaking a major rework of our rewards and progression systems…One of our goals for this new system is to allow you to play Hearthstone your way, you won’t be tied to playing only Standard or Wild in order to obtain the majority of the games’ economic rewards anymore.”
This should refer mainly to Battlegrounds, which has become a popular mode of play that should certainly provide players with a way of advancing through things like daily quests to earn in-game gold. Lee goes on to stress that any changes would be to the repackaging of how players receive their rewards, and how they perceive progress, and is not going to decrease awards in any way.
Lee gives the example that in a given expansion, he typically earns around 5,000 gold despite being busy with a family, work, and other games outside of Hearthstone. With any future reward rework, he would expect players to achieve the same amount of rewards now within the same amount of time.
Interestingly, and likely on purpose, the topic of purchase price for a premium track of something like a battle pass was not mentioned. Free-to-play players need not worry, since they can still rely on their in-game currency with a new system, but those players who spend money on expansion pre-orders three times a year and then more on Adventures may soon see yet another request to spend in game.
We can only speculate for now, but it looks like we will not have to wait long to find out more, as Lee states that details of a rewards rework will be made soon during the mid-year check-in at the start of the next expansion reveal.
Source: Ben Lee, Hearthstone Game Director
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