Hearthstone Open Beta Begins

Players no loonger need and invitation to try Blizzard's free-to-play, Warcraft-themed card game.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Blizzard's first card game has finally entered open beta in North America, Latin America, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, making the game playabe for anyone who wishes to download it.

The game has been in closed, invitation only beta since last year. The open beta was to begin in December, but it got delayed. This decision was a result of Blizzard's desire to continue getting feedback from participants of the close beta, especially because of the major patch launched last month.

As a result, the start of the second Test Season was delayed in early January following the discovery of new bugs. Test Season 2 finally started on January 9, with all players ranks reset.

Players who are within the regions with access, the Hearthstone open beta is available on PC and MAC and can be downloaded from the official website and requires a free Battle.net account to play. Blizzard revealed that there are no plans for future wipes, however they warned that account activations could be disabled for a period of tame if their servers are overwhelmed with demand.

While this open beta launch is limited to those in the North America region, Blizzard assured players that other regions will be open in the "next few days."