You’re a Hearthstone expert, so that means you have a deck for every occasion. But the card battler only enables you to save nine decks at any one time. Thankfully, that’s going to change.
Senior game designer Ben Brode tweeted today that the Hearthstone development squad is “actively” working on adding additional deck slots for players. This is something that many of the most vocal members of the Hearthstone community have asked for, and it should help pacify the hardcore players who believe Blizzard isn’t listening to them. Considering Hearthstone makes around $20 million a month for the publisher, it likely doesn’t want to do anything to alienate that audience.
More deck slots makes sense for Hearthstone from a business perspective since making more decks means dedicated players are more likely to spend money on cards to fill out those slots. And extra slots is another thing that Blizzard could potentially charge for to help its free-to-play game make money. Call of Duty, which is also owned by Activision Blizzard, has done something similar where it enabled players to buy (or earn through in-game accomplishments) extra loadout slots for weapons and gear. The Hearthstone competitor SolForge, which is another popular card game, also already charges for deck slots. Players can spend 280 gold to buy one, which is a little more than a dollar since players can buy 260 gold for $1.
https://twitter.com/bdbrode/status/661952175824736257
Brode’s tweet comes after a Hearthstone community manager on Reddit tried to explain to fans why Blizzard hasn’t rushed to bring new deck slots to the game. The Blizzard employee, who goes by CM_Aratil on Reddit, said that the company’s data shows that the majority of players don’t need more deck slots. Aratil also noted that most people do not care or want a ladder system, a tournament mode, or achievements.
At this point, Hearthstone players on Reddit have downvoted Aratil’s explanation more than 450 times, and that prompted the community manager to elaborate.
“I fully understand that there are probably a good amount of people [who] use deck slots in the same way that you do,” Aratil wrote in response to someone who said they need more than nine slots. “But it still does not mean that this is what the majority of players need … personally, as a player, I need more deck slots. I have needed more since [the adventure add-on Curse of Naxxramas]. This is an extremely important topic for us, but we ultimately still have to prioritize tasks based on what more players need.”