Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft now in open beta in North America

No more patience - Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is now available to all comers. Well, provided those comers are coming from North America.

Forget beta codes and invites - just download the client and get started with your Battle.net ID. It's free-to-play, so you don't even need to fork over any cash.

Australian and New Zealand players are included in the North American pool, but Europeans will have to wait. According to an announcement post on Battle.net, the open beta is expected to roll out to other regions "within the next few days".

If demand is too high, Blizzard will temporarily halt beta registration in order to keep its servers up and running.

Although Hearthstone is still in beta, Blizzard does not intend to perform any more resets or wipes, so all your progress should be retained from here on in. Blizzard does expect to be making changes to the game as the testing continues, though.