Blizzard/Activsion are ridiculous with these bundle prices.

Anyone who says these bundles aren't too expensive is wrong.

80 dollars + tax nearly 90 dollars for the path of arthus mega bundle, it should be included in the 50 dollar bundle as well.

So we are expected to buy a 50 or 80 dollar bundle + tax every 4 months, a 20 dollar mini expansion and 20 dollar battle pass every 4 months as well, while they will also be selling 30 dollar skins

All this money but they market the game towards children who will get upset that their parents won't spend 500 dollars a year on hearthstone expansions.

and they're talking about adding a 4th expansion into the cycle? This is absolutely ridiculous.

Well, whatever you're saying is not inaccurate, but also fairly futile, because this is the state of blizz today. Its actually a very junior partner in terms of revenue, third place to king (and the ridiculously easy money they get off candy crush) and activision, despite its much more impressive history and IPs. Hearthstone is indeed an easy way to milk money because unlike other games you can't exactly play hearthstone without buying into at least a portion of its expansions - unless you like seeing your face explode all the time.

As for what is the acceptable amount of cash you should drop to that giant maw of a company, well, that's really up to the individual player. I usually pay for the rewards track and that's about it. Sometimes I drop another 20 bucks their way for 20 (+ 2 extra lengendaries) packs but never over that amount. I get more than enough dust to play all the tier 1-2 decks doing that.

The path of arthas set is definitely something I don't support, because Im asked to pay yet another 20 bucks for a set that is practically mandatory to play DK at all. The alternative is paying somewhere around 3k or more in dust, just to play frost DK which will definitely be tier 1.

That 80 bucks bundle is not worth it, trust me. The 20 bucks bundle is far superior because of the complementary 2 legendaries that comes with it. Preordering bundles are for whales, because anything below that category of homo sapiens will immediately be suffering from buyers remorse.

What is there to say. As bad as it is, there's still gonna be people buying it, even if, for some reason, they sold them at higher price in the first place. I wouldn't say predatory, but $80 for 80 packs of worthless cards is bad.

What's here to take point is, they still trying to make up for those bundles by adding and adding more. I still remember the old days when bundles only gave 1 free legendary, now there's 2, and now they even include merc packs. God knows what more they gonna add in the future.

But if anything, my single opinion was, it's not gonna be here for a lot longer. The signs is there, The game is old, and Marvel Snap getting more popular than ever. Dean and some known designer is already out, the total playable cards is already very hard to keep track as it is (almost 5000 I assume), the platform is old and no longer fit for 3 massive game modes for mobiles, etc

Unless they make a significant move to upgrade the game, I couldn't see any future with this. Along with everyone worthless collections. Yeah, in the end, everyone buying the bundles won't get their money value back. 

Quote From h0lysatan

But if anything, my single opinion was, it's not gonna be here for a lot longer. The signs is there, The game is old, and Marvel Snap getting more popular than ever. Dean and some known designer is already out, the total playable cards is already very hard to keep track as it is (almost 5000 I assume), the platform is old and no longer fit for 3 massive game modes for mobiles, etc

Unless they make a significant move to upgrade the game, I couldn't see any future with this. Along with everyone worthless collections. Yeah, in the end, everyone buying the bundles won't get their money value back. 

Well, simple stats seem to show that SNAP is still a minnow, at around 6k monthly players whereas hearthstone's are about over 4 million, with at least 100,000 players active at any given time.

LoR has been here a while and despite the fact that its substantially less expensive and feature a more attractive art style (debatable, but I seem to think so) its still somewhere around half of hearthstone's players.

In other words, yes hearthstone is nowhere near as popular in its peak 6 years back its still the best card game in terms of active users, or at least one of the best, around. SNAP is faster and more appealing because of its mobile-friendly nature, but I doubt its ever reaching hearthstone's level of success, at least not without significant changes to its monetization model.

If ever hearthstone gets 'old' it'll just be refreshed ala Overwatch, into hearthstone 2. Lets be honest here, that's likely a reality maybe in 6 years time. As long as it keeps pumping out money its unlikely to ever die.

The argument that HS is dying is so absurd to me because Overwatch is an example of what happens when a Blizzard game dies. It immediately stops getting supported. 

People point to the fact it isn't at the top of Twitch, or that is has the biggest player base without recognizing that the people that HS appeals to is slim. It is a card game. It is hard to get Timmy with ADHD who ate sugar for breakfast and lunch to pay attention to it after sitting still in school for 8 hours. Hell, most adults and teens are playing Apex Legends or some FPS. Even though it has a smaller audience, it has them all pretty much locked down.

Hearthstone will die when it no longer has the digital CCG market cornered. 

Also, you have said HS is dying literally every other month for the past few years. I am more inclined to think it is doing just fine when you think it is doing bad.

Quote From HuntardHuntard

The argument that HS is dying is so absurd to me because Overwatch is an example of what happens when a Blizzard game dies. It immediately stops getting supported. 

People point to the fact it isn't at the top of Twitch, or that is has the biggest player base without recognizing that the people that HS appeals to is slim. It is a card game. It is hard to get Timmy with ADHD who ate sugar for breakfast and lunch to pay attention to it after sitting still in school for 8 hours. Hell, most adults and teens are playing Apex Legends or some FPS. Even though it has a smaller audience, it has them all pretty much locked down.

Hearthstone will die when it no longer has the digital CCG market cornered. 

Also, you have said HS is dying literally every other month for the past few years. I am more inclined to think it is doing just fine when you think it is doing bad.

Who are you talking to? I've never said Hearthstone is dying

Quote From anchorm4n

While I agree with most of what's said in this thread, let's not forget sunken cost fallacy. I have been preordering most expansions for the last four years because I could afford it and it made the game more fun for me. If hearthstone would die tomorrow I'd be sad because it's my favorite game, but I wouldn't be mad because the investment I've made over the years is gone. I didn't really pay for my collection, I've paid for the fun it gives me. 

I like the game but I just wish I didn't have to pay nearly 300 dollars a year to keep up with it. I also can't afford to spend all of my time on Hearthstone as I play other games as well, so I don't earn as much gold from the battlepass as I could have.

Don`t like a price of a product, just don`t buy it.

No reason to be angry about it.

In addition to that these days it is pretty easy to get the important stuff to play the game. There is no need to buy any bundle with real money if you playing regularly and spending your gold and dust wisely.

Last time I spent money on HS was when I wanted the N'Zoth skin - I think this was in 2020. I play since the open beta, I have over 80.000 dust and currently over 9.000 gold. I see no reason to buy something with real money in HS ever again until I really, really, really want a special skin.

There's plenty of reasons to be angry about it.

Predatory practice in marketing and sales actively hurts vulnerable people, and strive to create even more of them. (most notably, children and dopamine-addict)

Even, if you're not part of that vulnerable population yourself, you're still concerned :

It promotes mindless grinding, and force-fed content such as those egregious "you-have-to-play-mercenary" quest chainlink, or the weekly "go-get-yourself-grinded" 5-ranked win quest.

It's discouraging experimentation in deckbuilding for casual player. Because the cards you craft have to be good, otherwise, you're "wasting" dust. Thus, resulting in staler meta for everyone.

I could go on and on.

Cosmetic is the best step they have taken in years.

Price inflation, and whatever they are trying to pull with "runestone" are huge setbacks.

(I'm having mixed feeling about mini-set and that new "path of arthas" set. It does feel nice to have something to dump gold into. But apart from that, it stinks of bad/greedy intentions.)

I forgot to hit reply on another user's post. My bad.

On a side note, unless someone can correct me, Blizzard hasn't done anything Shady with Runestones yet. I expect them to do so, but at the moment 100 Runestons = 1 Dollar so everything costs the same. I wonder how it impacts other countries, though?

Online currency are shady by nature.

You can only buy them in bulk, which mean in some cases, you will be left with a currency excedent after buying the desired service. Ergo, you now have given actual money for virtually no service. (all you've got is an I-Owe-U).

Even "better", you're now incentized to spend that remaining currency, otherwise it would go to waste, right ? But because you will probably not have enough for the service you desire, you now have to buy even more currency.

It's particularily true for vulnerable consumer, as it "helps" them to underestimate the amount they actually spent. Because "it's not spending actual money ! I'd already paid for it".

Also, it's an opened gate to reimbursing purchase made with actual money in virtual currency. (I.E. not reimbursing anything at all). They cannot actually cross that gateway yet though. Because there's a lot of country which frown upon such practice. But still, it's opened...

I would agree with you,  but that literally is not the case with Runestones. You should at least check the prices before you make a claim like that. Everything costs the same it used to before Runestones.

I think if there is anything to be upset about when it comes to HS, it is the F2P experience. Runestones as they are, are not shady or slimy in the slightest. 

Quote From Maurice

Don`t like a price of a product, just don`t buy it.

No reason to be angry about it.

In addition to that these days it is pretty easy to get the important stuff to play the game. There is no need to buy any bundle with real money if you playing regularly and spending your gold and dust wisely.

Last time I spent money on HS was when I wanted the N'Zoth skin - I think this was in 2020. I play since the open beta, I have over 80.000 dust and currently over 9.000 gold. I see no reason to buy something with real money in HS ever again until I really, really, really want a special skin.

Herd mentality just let capitalist piss all over you.

Why is a randomized card bundle cost as much as a triple A game and it's not even the mega bundle. The mega bundle should be the price of the normal bundle.

My mom is wondering why im paying 90 dollars for a game when it's not even a game just content for the game and not much content at that.

Just because I like the game doesn't justify the extreme prices, I pay it because there's no other way to get to the majority of new cards without paying. 

I would like to add that HS is also experiencing shrinkflation since solo content was cut since the last expansion. This is something I really do not like. But there is no point in getting mad on points like price and content. Just quit if you don't like it. I personally will continue to play as long as this games provides some fun to me, but certainly not going to buy any bundles.