Hearthstone might have already sunk its Bear Form claws into 20 million players, but Blizzard isn’t stopping there. Having launched successfully on iPad, the next version will be for Android tablets and, according to a post by the game’s community manager, it's due out before the end of the year. From there Team 5 is moving on to a potentially even more lucrative market: mobile phones. That’s going to take a little longer, though, as the post explains:
“…we need a little more time to get that version right. While we have a build up and running internally, it needs a bit more work, and we don’t feel like we’ll be ready to share it with you until early next year. It’s very important to us that the phone experience for Hearthstone is just as accessible as the tablet and PC versions. One of the biggest challenges with that is revamping the user interface so it feels intuitive and offers the same quality Hearthstone experience, but this time from the palm of your hand.”
Great. Because I wasn’t dedicating enough of my life to trying to come up with the perfect Handlock deck. Now I can do it on the train too. It’ll be interesting to see how Team 5’s user interface designers cram the game into smaller screens, and how connectivity holds up using a 3G signal rather than wi-fi. God forbid you go through a tunnel and come back to find you've missed lethal.
The post also includes a cute infographic that collects up stats from the game so far. Apparently Unleash the Hounds has been played 69 million times. Funny. It felt like more.
With Blizzcon looming at the start of November, we can also expect details on the next expansion set, which will include over 100 new cards. While you wait for official word on those, why not check out my predictions for what’s in store for Hearthstone here.
