Who doesn’t love a good delay? Except, well, everyone. The latest victim to this trend is Blizzard Entertainment’s card battler Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, which is now set to debut its open beta in January.
According to production director Jason Chayes on Battle.net, “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.”
Those who applied for the closed beta before December 16th should have received their keys already, with newer opt-ins to conclude on January 7th. If you’re interested in applying for a beta key, head here.