Hearthstone Open Beta North America

If there's one thing to be said about Blizzard Entertainment — developer of World of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo — it's that they never rush into a genre. In most cases, Blizzard likes to take their time, slowly testing the limits of their latest creations, knowing full well that a perfect product is more appealing than a broken one.

Their latest creation, Hearthstone, has been in closed beta for the past few months and has been sucking endless hours of playtime from its beta participants. By all accounts, Blizzard has created an extremely addictive collectible card game - one that has their signature creative flourishes.

We know what you're thinking, "Why all this talk about Hearthstone if we can't even play it yet?" Well, today you can, as the Hearthstone closed beta has transitioned into an open beta for North America.

Thus far, Blizzard has received an overwhelmingly positive reaction to Hearthstone, both for its smart design and its enticing gameplay. Collectible card games have been around for decades, and yet Blizzard once again appears to be leading the pack…at least in the virtual space.

Blizzard was also quick to point out that although the Hearthstone open beta is currently limited to North American territories, they plan to expand to the world eventually. They anticipate demand for the open beta will be high, and so they are starting with a gradual rollout first. In that regard, Blizzard might also need to take down the open beta activation servers from time to time if server stress gets too high. So if you can't get in, rest assured it isn't because the open beta is full.

The good news, beyond this open beta announcement of course, is that Blizzard has no plans to wipe players' card collections in the near future. Instead, they encourage players to amass decks at-will, and try out all of the various combinations that Hearthstone has to offer.

Those who are interested in the Hearthstone beta can head here to register and download the client.

Have you had a chance to play Hearthstone? What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

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Source: BattleNet