Hearthstone Open Beta Delayed, Releasing January 2014

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment has announced that the card battler’s open beta has been delayed into January.

This follows a patch for Hearthstone that nerfs the Mage’s freeze ability.

There was a post made on Battle.net, where the production designer for the game Jason Chayes explained that his team wanted to see how players would respond to the closed beta trial.

Chayes said, “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. 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.”

Chayes also said that Blizzard has sent closed beat invites to anyone who opted-in before December 16, while all new opt-ins will end January 7. The people that want to can still apply for a beta key here.

You can sound off in the comments section below on what you think of Hearthstone.