Blizzard's 'Hearthstone' Expansion 'Curse of Naxxramas' Launching July 22 for Mac/iOS

[MacRumors]

Curse of Naxxramas, the first expansion for Blizzard's popular Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft free-to-play collectible card game, is set to launch on Tuesday, July 22. It will be released simultaneously on Macs, PCs, and iPads.

Much like Naxxramas in World of Warcraft, Curse of Naxxramas in Hearthstone is a floating necropolis organized into different wings -- Arachnid Quarter, Plague Quarter, Military Quarter, Construct Quarter, and Frostwyrm Lair -- and a new wing will open each week during the launch event. The launch event is set to last for approximately one month, and each wing contains a set of bosses that must be defeated.

Successfully eliminating bosses will add new cards to a user's collection and unlock a Heroic mode. Defeating all of the bosses in Naxxramas on Heroic mode will unlock a new card back.

According to Blizzard, the expansion can be purchased via in-game gold or through real money, with each wing costing $6.99 or 700 gold. During the launch event, the first wing, Arachnid Quarter, will be available for free, and users can purchase the remaining four wings for $19.99. After the launch event, purchasing the full expansion will cost $24.99. Various packages are also available for users who want to use a combination of in-game gold and money.

Players who begin their adventures in Naxxramas during the launch event will gain free access to the first wing: the Arachnid Quarter. The launch event will last roughly a month or so, meaning you'll have plenty of time to get your foot in the door--we'll have more details to share about that later on. The web-choked corridors of the Arachnid Quarter are home to the bosses Anub'Rekhan, Grand Widow Faerlina, and Maexxna. Defeating these bosses will add new cards to your collection and give you a taste of the dangers that await you deeper inside Naxxramas.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft for the iPad can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft for Mac can be downloaded from Blizzard's website for free.

Article Link: Blizzard's 'Hearthstone' Expansion 'Curse of Naxxramas' Launching July 22 for Mac/iOS

 

[Asuriyan]

Interesting spin on a fun game. I've managed to play without spending anything on it yet- let's hope I can continue to do so.

 

[KazKam]

Interesting spin on a fun game. I've managed to play without spending anything on it yet- let's hope I can continue to do so.

I've also been enjoying it without spending a dime. I fear so has almost everyone else... This leads me to believe this new model will probably end up making it very difficult to compete against anyone who has purchased the expansions and unlocked the new cards, by design.

I suppose I can't fault Blizzard. After all, if there's no profit, there's no point for them. And, I enjoy the game enough I'll probably pony-up for the expansion. So, I guess their free to play for a while strategy worked on me.

 

[jrswizzle]

I've thoroughly enjoyed this game and spent a few shekels in game to upgrade my decks and collection. To me, it's all about enjoyment and time spent in the game. If a game can keep my attention for countless hours, the makers deserve to be rewarded.

I've gotten myself in trouble with IAPs before, but honestly I don't mind the concept. Really its my own discipline that's at fault. This expansion idea sounds pretty awesome and I won't mind ponying up the money to play it.

 

[Plutonius]

I enjoyed the game when it first came out but got bored with it after awhile.

 

[Daniel L]

Interesting spin on a fun game. I've managed to play without spending anything on it yet- let's hope I can continue to do so.

I've also been enjoying it without spending a dime. I fear so has almost everyone else... This leads me to believe this new model will probably end up making it very difficult to compete against anyone who has purchased the expansions and unlocked the new cards, by design.

I suppose I can't fault Blizzard. After all, if there's no profit, there's no point for them. And, I enjoy the game enough I'll probably pony-up for the expansion. So, I guess their free to play for a while strategy worked on me.

The wings are purchasable with gold and/or real currency. There are 5 wings in total and each wing is 700 gold or $6.99. The first ring will be free for the first month. There's also bundle pricing with a significant discount, somewhere along the lines of 25% off. If you plan to purchase packs, it's a much better value to purchase the wings with real currency and spend your gold on packs.

 

[Reason077]

I've also been enjoying it without spending a dime. I fear so has almost everyone else... This leads me to believe this new model will probably end up making it very difficult to compete against anyone who has purchased the expansions and unlocked the new cards, by design.

You can actually purchase the expansions for gold, if you've saved up enough (700 gold for each part, and the first one is free).

You can generate over 100 gold per day if you play enough, so it's quite possible to play right through Naxxramas and get all the cards without spending real $, if you're willing to put the time in.

 

[akm3]

I've also been enjoying it without spending a dime. I fear so has almost everyone else... This leads me to believe this new model will probably end up making it very difficult to compete against anyone who has purchased the expansions and unlocked the new cards, by design.

I suppose I can't fault Blizzard. After all, if there's no profit, there's no point for them. And, I enjoy the game enough I'll probably pony-up for the expansion. So, I guess their free to play for a while strategy worked on me.

Plenty of people seem to have spent PLENTY of money. Don't worry about blizzard

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Quite a bit expensive if you ask me. But I guess I've been spoiled by the low prices of iOS games.

 

[Crichton333]

Seems so long that the beat came out Ive totally forgot about Hearthstone and I play Starcraft2 every day.

 

[bpcookson]

Plenty of people seem to have spent PLENTY of money. Don't worry about blizzard

Definitely. I don't usually make IAP for transient game elements (coins, energy, etc), but I'm a big fan of "unlocking" a complete game for a one-time IAP (remaining chapters in FF Dimensions, red gems in Nimble Quest, etc).

Somehow, I had convinced myself that buying card packs in Hearthstone was more like the latter. It seemed like a great way to improve my collection and get into ranked competition faster. Cards seemed like permanent things, as if I were paying to permanently unlock a portion of the game. So I spent some cash; like $30 probably.

I got a ton of in-game value for all those packs and subsequently played a lot of Hearthstone. I've certainly gotten my money's worth, so no hard feelings, but... now that I have a decent collection and mostly just bang out daily quests, I get free card packs regularly via gold. Many of the packs I open now only get dusted to eventually make other cards I don't have (i.e. I'm getting lots of cards that I've already got). Now that I've reached this point, the IAP for a card pack is clearly in the "transient game element" camp. Clearly, and of course hindsight is 20/20, I was just being impatient.

So I feel a bit silly about it, but then I also got a lot of enjoyment for my money. I won't be making more IAP in Hearthstone, but I don't entirely regret the purchases I've already made either. This leaves me on the fence a bit regarding IAP. I had thought there were two clearly delineated camps of IAP and I thought one was right and the other was wrong. That line has been blurred a bit for me and I intend to exercise a bit more caution in the future before giving in to my impatience.

I still think that an IAP to Unlock is a good thing for everyone (free demos, yay!), but my disgust of IAP for Transient things has been challenged. Maybe Transient IAP are ok, but they have to be done right; it's too easy to take advantage of consumers when they don't have to touch cash or a credit card to make that IAP.

tl;dr
I spent money on Hearthstone. I feel ok about it, but kind of mixed. IAP to unlock features is awesome; IAP for transient in-game goods gets a bad wrap but can be done well if the customer is respected.

 

[Vulkan]

You can generate over 100 gold per day if you play enough, so it's quite possible to play right through Naxxramas and get all the cards without spending real $, if you're willing to put the time in.

Sounds like a Job to me... GASP! like the one I actually have and allows me to spend money for this.

Yeah $20 is cheaper than a date, so I will probably just buy the expansion and keep enjoying the game as I do on my long treks on the train.

 

[pankajdoharey]

I wish if blizzard ports WoW and Diablo

Card games Suck the only game i like from Blizzard are WoW and Diablo.

It will be awesome if Blizzard Published there Diablo and WoW games to ios and we could play these games using nothing but a bluetooth controller.

WoW seems difficult to port though because of so many controls. But certainly Diablo can be. Who the ******* wants to play a Bl**dy card game.

 

[westrock2000]

Card games Suck the only game i like from Blizzard are WoW and Diablo.

It will be awesome if Blizzard Published there Diablo and WoW games to ios and we could play these games using nothing but a bluetooth controller.

WoW seems difficult to port though because of so many controls. But certainly Diablo can be. Who the ******* wants to play a Bl**dy card game.

Conceptually there isn't a difference between an RPG and a card game. The reality is that even WoW is evolution of the card and board based genres.

It's still about building stats and collecting items. Something that appeals to a lot of people.

Before hardware could do smooth real time processing, a lot of games were turn based. And now people react to those much the same way you do.

What I'm getting at is. What is the difference between having a 3D character on screen with certain stats and fighting a monster in real time that has certain stats versus showing two cards on screen that represent the exact same encounter?

 

[Reason077]

Sounds like a Job to me... GASP! like the one I actually have and allows me to spend money for this.

You'll never make legendary with that sort of attitude!

 

[PocketSand11]

This game is 90% of the reasons why I didn't choose the Foothill dorms. Too many lvl 9000 dark electric magic mage blue-eyes-white-dragon legendary paladin spell casters for me to handle!