Blizzard's first-ever card game,
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, has finally entered open beta in North America, Latin America, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, making it playable for anyone who wishes to download it.
The upcoming free-to-play game has been in a closed, invitation-only beta since last year. The open beta was scheduled to begin in December, but ended up being delayed. That decision came as a result of Blizzard's desire to continue soliciting feedback from participants of the closed beta, particularly in light of a major patch that was launched last month.
Subsequently, the start of the second Test Season was delayed in early January following the discovery of new bugs. Test Season 2 did finally get underway on January 9, at which point players' ranks were reset.
For those in the regions with access, the Hearthstone open beta -- available on PC and Mac -- can be downloaded from the official website and only requires a free Battle.net account to play. According to Blizzard, there are no future wipes planned for the game, meaning players can collect cards without fear of losing them due to the release of a new update. It did, however, warn that it might be forced to disable account activations for a period of time if its servers are overwhelmed with demand.
While this open beta launch is limited to those in the 'North America region' (which includes North America, Latin America, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand), Blizzard says it will be allowing other regions into the beta in the "next few days." Android and iOS support, which was announced last year, is not yet available.
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