Mysteries abound in Blizzard’s juggernaut of a collectable card game, Hearthstone. One one hand, an official Blizzard invitation has dropped some major hints for the setting of the next Adventure, while on the other, some encrypted data has gotten out that suggests the company could be bringing test servers to their card game.
Hearthstone’s next Adventure will be revealed on July 28 at ChinaJoy 2016, and the event’s invitation seems to have dropped some strong hints as to what that Adventure’s theme will be. I’m no Warcraft lore expert, but the good folks at Metabomb have broken it down. It looks like a return to Kharazan, the setting of WoW’s first ten-man raid.
Hearthstone might just be the next addition to our list of the best free games on PC!
Blizzard keeps Public Test Realms available for most of their titles, allowing players to test content for bugs and balance before it goes out to the public at large. Overwatch’s Ana, for example, hit the PTR for a week before making the game proper. But Hearthstone has been an exception. ”There are real downsides to a PTR,” Ben Brode, Hearthstone lead designer said. “Because we ship on so many platforms, it would take at least a month of cards being fully spoiled before they release.”
But even with those caveats, a PTR might be in the works for Hearthstone. People at HearthPwn have sniffed out encrypted data in the Battle.net client, which appears to be for a Hearthstone Test Client. That could mean the beginnings of a proper PTR, or it could just be behind the scenes testing of an upcoming expansion. Blizzard has yet to respond.