Blizzard Delays Hearthstone Open Beta

The open beta of card-battling game Hearthstone is coming in January 2014, Blizzard announced.

A Battle.net post, in which production director Jason Chayes reveals the team want more feedback from the closed beta was the source of the news.

"We believe the right thing to do for the game is to not rush it out into open beta, but to instead hold onto it a little longer to make sure it’s ready for wider testing," he explained. "At BlizzCon, we mentioned that we hoped to get the game into a state where it’s ready for open beta this month, but we’re just not quite there yet.

"The development team has been working hard to get this out before the end of the year, but our highest priority is that Hearthstone has an awesome launch when all gates are lifted and everyone can download it and play at the same time."

"We’re close to the open beta—very close. And to enter this final part of our beta phase, we need your help. Keep trying out new decks, reporting bugs, and giving your feedback on our forums. That’s the best way you can help the team get Hearthstone into everyone’s hands as soon as possible."

The good news from all this is that everyone who opted into the closed beta before Monday December 16 should now have an invite waiting for them in their inbox.