Hearthstone's free-to-play status validated by strong player-progress, says Blizzard's Chayes

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft's free-to-play nature was validated by seeing players hit Legendary status without ever spending a penny, Blizzard's production director Jason Chayes has explained.

It follows Chayes stating that Hearthstone on consoles isn't something Blizzard is currently looking at.

Now, speaking with Eurogamer, Chayes said of the game's free offering, "We really wanted to make sure that it wasn't just lip service to say it's free to play and then hit some kind of monetisation gate where you had to buy things, so for us making sure you could actually earn all the things you needed to be competitive was something we put a lot of time into.

"Seeing that happen and seeing people construct the decks they need to play at the very top levels of play and seeing that happen through the community was awesome. So overall we felt very good about how that evolved and how in some ways helped validate our approach, and we feel pretty good about the direction that's been heading."

Have you tried Hearthstone yet? If not, check out my impressions for an insight into how it caters to card strategy newcomers and veterans alike.