So i read Daily Mail article today that League of Legends earned 2.1 billion dollars in 2017.In the same article there were earnings for other games, including Hearthstone, who earned 201 million dollars, Now you may think that is pretty good, right? yeah it is, comparing to other games, but comparing to Hearthstone earnings in 2016, game earned less than half that amount. In 2016 game earned 406 million dollars. I guess removing that adventure really hurt them, right? I mean, people who are free to play, usually bought adventure, but i doubt they spent any money expansions, mainly because most cards are not used and 3 expansions per year is pretty greedy money earning politic.
Will this help us get better game, i hope so. I hope they see the numbers and say that they did something wrong and improve every aspect of the game. What do you guys think.
It was strictly from a greed POV, to remove adventures in favor of expansions, and people who disagree are just clueless. They saw that people love the game, so they decided to try to capitalize on it: More expansions, packs cost more, more legendaries every expansion.
The Kobold dungeon runs were added as an act of panic because they saw that their game is not good as they thought it was (which made them think that they can get away with making the game more expensive).
Here's to more free content and loot.
Also, instead of listening to feedback and trying to keep the player base they already had, they kept trying to bring in more and more new players, which was a huge part of the downfall last year.
Another point is that they decided to partner with activission and support Destiny 2, which comes from bungie, one of the greediest game publishers of all time, which many players really didn't like.
Dropping adventures when coupled with the pack cost hike was pure money motive. I agree. We as players have to gamble more with packs.
Apple have recently changed their terms of use I read somewhere to see it as such. This combined with what's happened in China gives me some hope we'll see a positive change l
Imo they should increase the Rewards. Aside from quests you can make a Max. Of 100 Gold, i.e. 1 Pack a day. And for that you have to not only play but WIN 30 Matches. That is insane. There are too few ways to earn Packs via gameplay
It’s a business, not a charity. If they see an opportunity to make more, naturally they will take it.
And no, they are not so ignorant to not know that player satisfaction and revenue are connected. There are so many more factors that their BI team have been reporting and analyzing on. A lot most here won’t be aware of.
they just see: adventure gone, earnings dropped = this has to be the only explanation!!!!!
True, it's not a charity, but there's a difference between a business that will do anything to get more money and one that respects its customers. Also, they're not only a business, they're a game company, they should also make games for the passion of it, and not just to capitalize, it's sad that people take for granted companies like EA or bungie and how they're acting, Blizzard is slowly leaning towards becoming a money hungry company and nothing else, but they're not there yet.
And did you even read my post to the fullest? I gave many more reasons than just "adventures gone".
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"As housecarl I am sworn to your service. I will protect you and all you own, with my life." - Lydia of Whiterun
People complained that the meta didnt change enough within the same year. Lets remove adventures to make space for more cards per set!
And thus, people complained that there were too many cards to collect.
One thing I've learned all this years skulking around blizz forums and fansites is that there will always be people complaining about fucking everything.
It was strictly from a greed POV, to remove adventures in favor of expansions, and people who disagree are just clueless. They saw that people love the game, so they decided to try to capitalize on it: More expansions, packs cost more, more legendaries every expansion.
The Kobold dungeon runs were added as an act of panic because they saw that their game is not good as they thought it was (which made them think that they can get away with making the game more expensive).
Here's to more free content and loot.
It’s a business, not a charity. If they see an opportunity to make more, naturally they will take it.
And no, they are not so ignorant to not know that player satisfaction and revenue are connected. There are so many more factors that their BI team have been reporting and analyzing on. A lot most here won’t be aware of.
they just see: adventure gone, earnings dropped = this has to be the only explanation!!!!!
No it's not just the adventures being gone that makes it the only explanation but that is part of it.
The rest has been mentioned above already. Higher price per pack, double legendary's per set and an extra set per year, all announced in a few months of each other. I know they want us to all be made of money and buy 1000 packs on release day but that's an unrealistic aim on their end. They are pricing lower spending players out of the game and there are more of those than your super whales like Kripp and Kibler so in the long term they lose hard.
Also issues like printing busted ass cards in the first new set of the year and not fixing it until its about to go into wild. That is a joke "its been ok for the whole year you have all been complaining about it but it cant stay like that for ever". If anything that as a huge fuck you from blizzard to the fans. Making stuff like jade mechanics its just bad design and bad design should not be rewarded with our hard earned cash
All these things and more that I haven't even thought of are reasons why their profits have tanked and good, they deserve to loose every penny until they sort this game out.
Looks like people are voting with their wallets though and if they have earned half the amount they did from the year before all they can do is backtrack (which they wont do because it admits they were greedy as fuck) or give us stuff like dungeon runs with every new expansion.
I would except an announcement of Warcraft 4 or Diablo 4 as placation as well but I don't think that is on the cards (haha get it) either
I read that the earns are 394.6 million dollars for 2016 and 217 million for 2017. I guess different sites will report slightly different amounts, didn't check it. Still a big loss though
action and reaction....they were too greedy now they want to attract more player with giveaways but have 2 mega less galleons....i still dont understand how somebody can get so greedy with a card game...i am sure they make lot of money with WOW and other shit
It was strictly from a greed POV, to remove adventures in favor of expansions, and people who disagree are just clueless. They saw that people love the game, so they decided to try to capitalize on it: More expansions, packs cost more, more legendaries every expansion.
The Kobold dungeon runs were added as an act of panic because they saw that their game is not good as they thought it was (which made them think that they can get away with making the game more expensive).
Here's to more free content and loot.
It’s a business, not a charity. If they see an opportunity to make more, naturally they will take it.
And no, they are not so ignorant to not know that player satisfaction and revenue are connected. There are so many more factors that their BI team have been reporting and analyzing on. A lot most here won’t be aware of.
they just see: adventure gone, earnings dropped = this has to be the only explanation!!!!!
No it's not just the adventures being gone that makes it the only explanation but that is part of it.
The rest has been mentioned above already. Higher price per pack, double legendary's per set and an extra set per year, all announced in a few months of each other. I know they want us to all be made of money and buy 1000 packs on release day but that's an unrealistic aim on their end. They are pricing lower spending players out of the game and there are more of those than your super whales like Kripp and Kibler so in the long term they lose hard.
Also issues like printing busted ass cards in the first new set of the year and not fixing it until its about to go into wild. That is a joke "its been ok for the whole year you have all been complaining about it but it cant stay like that for ever". If anything that as a huge fuck you from blizzard to the fans. Making stuff like jade mechanics its just bad design and bad design should not be rewarded with our hard earned cash
All these things and more that I haven't even thought of are reasons why their profits have tanked and good, they deserve to loose every penny until they sort this game out.
Looks like people are voting with their wallets though and if they have earned half the amount they did from the year before all they can do is backtrack (which they wont do because it admits they were greedy as fuck) or give us stuff like dungeon runs with every new expansion.
I would except an announcement of Warcraft 4 or Diablo 4 as placation as well but I don't think that is on the cards (haha get it) either
You have some good points here but also a few false accusations. Blizzard didn't double the amount of legendaries per set, it stayed almost the same. Also Patches wasn't printed in the first swäet of the year, it actually came in the last one which means it had much less time in Standard than cards from the first and second expansions. In addition, card balancing and marketing are done by different people in the company so nerfing Patches late doesn't even have anything to do with this topic.
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On the third day before Witchwood, Blizzard gave to me,
You all are talking about new player. Imagine if you just start game. Ok, you can get rank 20, maybe 18 with basic deck but no more. It's not even possible to get rank 15, even at these ranks people plays tier 1/2 decks. And new player comes to mind that he needs packs/dust to craft at least tier 2 deck. And here he have to choose play a lot (100g/day, quests, arena), donate (so expensive, too much expansions) or just find another game.
I played since LoE, bought Khadgar, Welcome Bandle and Karazhan. For every expansion I open around 100-140 packs. I can craft 2-3 best decks but I can't craft everything cuz I don't get all legendaries. And even if I buy 50 packs, there is no big difference at all. So, there is no point to do it, I will never get all cards. So I stay f2p.
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One day this game will stop existing. I can't wait.
It was strictly from a greed POV, to remove adventures in favor of expansions, and people who disagree are just clueless. They saw that people love the game, so they decided to try to capitalize on it: More expansions, packs cost more, more legendaries every expansion.
The Kobold dungeon runs were added as an act of panic because they saw that their game is not good as they thought it was (which made them think that they can get away with making the game more expensive).
Here's to more free content and loot.
It’s a business, not a charity. If they see an opportunity to make more, naturally they will take it.
And no, they are not so ignorant to not know that player satisfaction and revenue are connected. There are so many more factors that their BI team have been reporting and analyzing on. A lot most here won’t be aware of.
they just see: adventure gone, earnings dropped = this has to be the only explanation!!!!!
No it's not just the adventures being gone that makes it the only explanation but that is part of it.
The rest has been mentioned above already. Higher price per pack, double legendary's per set and an extra set per year, all announced in a few months of each other. I know they want us to all be made of money and buy 1000 packs on release day but that's an unrealistic aim on their end. They are pricing lower spending players out of the game and there are more of those than your super whales like Kripp and Kibler so in the long term they lose hard.
Also issues like printing busted ass cards in the first new set of the year and not fixing it until its about to go into wild. That is a joke "its been ok for the whole year you have all been complaining about it but it cant stay like that for ever". If anything that as a huge fuck you from blizzard to the fans. Making stuff like jade mechanics its just bad design and bad design should not be rewarded with our hard earned cash
All these things and more that I haven't even thought of are reasons why their profits have tanked and good, they deserve to loose every penny until they sort this game out.
Looks like people are voting with their wallets though and if they have earned half the amount they did from the year before all they can do is backtrack (which they wont do because it admits they were greedy as fuck) or give us stuff like dungeon runs with every new expansion.
I would except an announcement of Warcraft 4 or Diablo 4 as placation as well but I don't think that is on the cards (haha get it) either
You have some good points here but also a few false accusations. Blizzard didn't double the amount of legendaries per set, it stayed almost the same. Also Patches wasn't printed in the first swäet of the year, it actually came in the last one which means it had much less time in Standard than cards from the first and second expansions. In addition, card balancing and marketing are done by different people in the company so nerfing Patches late doesn't even have anything to do with this topic.
Ok fair enough I didn't realize they had just redistributed legendary's within the set and that there are less neutral ones.
As for the Patches/Rotation issues you are correct about the last set in the calendar year but it was the middle "standard" set that it came in wasn't it? we are losing Old gods, Mean streets and Ungoro right? Making mean streets the middle set not the last. Mean streets came out in December 2017 and leaves in April 2018. If the standard year was the same as the calendar year and not the tax year it would be so much better.
Also if you think late nerfs don't effect profits then sorry that is silly. As far as the average player is concerned blizzard is blizzard and if its a different department or a different building it shouldn't matter phones and emails are thing as are meetings. If they can't be arsed to talk to each other to fix the others mistake through nerfs its even more reason why I shouldn't give them my hard earned cash
It was strictly from a greed POV, to remove adventures in favor of expansions, and people who disagree are just clueless. They saw that people love the game, so they decided to try to capitalize on it: More expansions, packs cost more, more legendaries every expansion.
The Kobold dungeon runs were added as an act of panic because they saw that their game is not good as they thought it was (which made them think that they can get away with making the game more expensive).
Here's to more free content and loot.
It’s a business, not a charity. If they see an opportunity to make more, naturally they will take it.
And no, they are not so ignorant to not know that player satisfaction and revenue are connected. There are so many more factors that their BI team have been reporting and analyzing on. A lot most here won’t be aware of.
they just see: adventure gone, earnings dropped = this has to be the only explanation!!!!!
No it's not just the adventures being gone that makes it the only explanation but that is part of it.
The rest has been mentioned above already. Higher price per pack, double legendary's per set and an extra set per year, all announced in a few months of each other. I know they want us to all be made of money and buy 1000 packs on release day but that's an unrealistic aim on their end. They are pricing lower spending players out of the game and there are more of those than your super whales like Kripp and Kibler so in the long term they lose hard.
Also issues like printing busted ass cards in the first new set of the year and not fixing it until its about to go into wild. That is a joke "its been ok for the whole year you have all been complaining about it but it cant stay like that for ever". If anything that as a huge fuck you from blizzard to the fans. Making stuff like jade mechanics its just bad design and bad design should not be rewarded with our hard earned cash
All these things and more that I haven't even thought of are reasons why their profits have tanked and good, they deserve to loose every penny until they sort this game out.
Looks like people are voting with their wallets though and if they have earned half the amount they did from the year before all they can do is backtrack (which they wont do because it admits they were greedy as fuck) or give us stuff like dungeon runs with every new expansion.
I would except an announcement of Warcraft 4 or Diablo 4 as placation as well but I don't think that is on the cards (haha get it) either
You have some good points here but also a few false accusations. Blizzard didn't double the amount of legendaries per set, it stayed almost the same. Also Patches wasn't printed in the first swäet of the year, it actually came in the last one which means it had much less time in Standard than cards from the first and second expansions. In addition, card balancing and marketing are done by different people in the company so nerfing Patches late doesn't even have anything to do with this topic.
Ok fair enough I didn't realize they had just redistributed legendary's within the set and that there are less neutral ones.
As for the Patches/Rotation issues you are correct about the last set in the calendar year but it was the middle "standard" set that it came in wasn't it? we are losing Old gods, Mean streets and Ungoro right? Making mean streets the middle set not the last. Mean streets came out in December 2017 and leaves in April 2018. If the standard year was the same as the calendar year and not the tax year it would be so much better.
Also if you think late nerfs don't effect profits then sorry that is silly. As far as the average player is concerned blizzard is blizzard and if its a different department or a different building it shouldn't matter phones and emails are thing as are meetings. If they can't be arsed to talk to each other to fix the others mistake through nerfs its even more reason why I shouldn't give them my hard earned cash
Dude u re wrong. We are not losing Un'goro, next rotation will involve Krazhan, Old Gods and MSoG
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"The flow of time is always cruel... its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it... A thing that does not change with time is a memory of younger days..."
It's quite simple: many people bought the adventure with real money and packs with gold. Also adventure were a nice mid-season game, allowing some powerful cards to change the meta; and it worked with Naxxramas and League of Explorer very good, because they were good designed cards.
Then blizzard got greedy, first they made standard and wild; worst move ever. Instead of simply nerfing Dr. Boom (a card that isn't even used in wild right now) and Piloted Shredder (also no longer the top-tier card), they created a legady-gameplay WITH WAY TOO FEW EXPANSIONS. For Hearthstone, a legacy-gameplay change was not necessary until 2019/2020; then the card pool would have gotten too big.
Then they removed expansions: before it was always 1 expansion pack and 1 adventure pack. This was easier for people with less money to buy an adventure, and have many good cards to play with, and then buy packs with gold (and here and there some packs too)
Shareholders might think different, but gamers are not stupid cattle; at least not everyone. Most money comes in with the occasional buying something, not from the big whales that buys 300 packs with real money. But instead of keeping the system, blizzard thought: more expansions more money. So they removed adventures and the pve-content; first they changed the shedule to 2 expansions and 1 adventure per year and now 3 expansion packs and nothing for the f2p-players or the one who spend here and there a buck for the game.
So yes, for many people the game got too expensive and now it's in a state of decline. Hearthstone HAD the potential for greatness, but greediness, laziness (like nerfing basic cards instead of the problematic ones
And what does NEW PLAYERS GET? A crappy set that got crappier nearly every nerf-round. With the basic-cards YOU CAN'T PLAY NOWADAYS, and instead of giving some NEW BASIC CARDS, they went full retard and say: hey, new player, if you want to play craft card x and y; ok, you need to buy packs before you can even play the game, so GIEV ME THE MONÄHHH! Oh, and for example as they said in an tournament: build bonemare as a new player: but the ONLY CARD that was cheap and strong get now nerfed. And the rest: Fiery War Axe got nerfed to oblivion instead of changing it that it can't attack the enemy players because they think that new players are too stupid to read the card text. Innervate got nerfed to a coin instead of nerfing it otherwise (for example as kripp said: cost 2 mana, give 4 mana crystals this turn) and so on. Always nerfing basic cards without giving new cards for replacements for free.
And it got even worse with Kobolts and Catacombs: There is virtually 0 good neutral common cards. Instead all strong cards are this time epic: because to craft them people need to spend far more dust, and that means MOAR MONÄÄÄHHHH!
That the revenue declined in 2017 is really not surprising. Bring back adventures, create NEW basic cards that every player get, make the hurdle smaller and then this game might be far more successful. 2017 was the wrong direction. Hearthstone is still one of the best card games, but as long as blizzard listen more to their shareholders than to the players, it will decline.
The downfall of HS is not given only by the greed of Blizzard (removal of Adventures, more expansion sets per year, more legendaries, ecc.) but also by the bad design choices made in the last times: more RNG driven mechanics, prolonged awful meta (Patches the Pirate was clear after a week of MSoG that was broken but Team 5 did nothing to fix it since a few weeks before it rotates out of Standard) and so on. The free stuffs and events that were gone out in recent times are just little things in comparison about what other competitors of HS do regularly, while the usual system of dust and gold are still terrible and slow. It's not only an issue about money, but about the road on which the game is going that has determinated its actual downfall.
It was strictly from a greed POV, to remove adventures in favor of expansions, and people who disagree are just clueless. They saw that people love the game, so they decided to try to capitalize on it: More expansions, packs cost more, more legendaries every expansion.
It’s a business, not a charity. If they see an opportunity to make more, naturally they will take it.
You have some good points here but also a few false accusations. Blizzard didn't double the amount of legendaries per set, it stayed almost the same. Also Patches wasn't printed in the first swäet of the year, it actually came in the last one which means it had much less time in Standard than cards from the first and second expansions. In addition, card balancing and marketing are done by different people in the company so nerfing Patches late doesn't even have anything to do with this topic.
What makes me sad is that i would like to spend money in the game if they make it worth my while, like if i spend 5-10 bucks and im guaranteed like 2 epics and 10 rares in 40 cards i would do it, spending little money in this game is the worst experience ever, because the odds are im spending money to get 40 dust worth of duplicates and nothing else.
Also the cosmetic options are risible and overpriced. This game is not a friend of the little spender at all, you either go ftp or spend 50€ a tranche. Adventures where cool from this prospective but now they are gone so yeah...
If the data is true, that might be the reason we get the first non-prepurchase pack sale in Mammoth Bundle. If the trend continues, they might even make "Starter/Welcome Bundles" for each new expansion.
Ah I see I got the rotation wrong I completely forgot about Karazan cards and that makes the other dude correct my bad. It still doesn't change the fact that standard years and calendar year should be the same thing. The extra 1/4 of a year does no one any good and we are still cursed with Msog cards way into Kobalts meta. If the rotation had happened with Kobalts then patches and raza would be in wild already with no need for nerfs and the other 2 nerfs would still be justifiable but the main 3 "problem" cards would be gone. the last being Jade Idol.
I LOVED the adventures. First of all, more or less, fun bosses. Atleast Heroics were quite challenging. And 700 Gold for 1 Wing which has 1 legendary was a good deal. And most of the cards were pretty good and not complete trash, some even changing the meta. Like reno. <3
Farming heroic card backs was the best thing ever, also it felt good even buying wings with money, i'm pretty sure i've dropped around 40 bucks between all the adventures, since they were gone i've spent literally 0 euros because i could be fucked to spend my money to buy a shitty pack for 2 dollars that gives me absolutely nothing. At least when i buy a tcg card pack if i get dupes i still have the phisical duplicate card in my hand you know...
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So i read Daily Mail article today that League of Legends earned 2.1 billion dollars in 2017.In the same article there were earnings for other games, including Hearthstone, who earned 201 million dollars, Now you may think that is pretty good, right? yeah it is, comparing to other games, but comparing to Hearthstone earnings in 2016, game earned less than half that amount. In 2016 game earned 406 million dollars. I guess removing that adventure really hurt them, right? I mean, people who are free to play, usually bought adventure, but i doubt they spent any money expansions, mainly because most cards are not used and 3 expansions per year is pretty greedy money earning politic.
Will this help us get better game, i hope so. I hope they see the numbers and say that they did something wrong and improve every aspect of the game. What do you guys think.
It was strictly from a greed POV, to remove adventures in favor of expansions, and people who disagree are just clueless. They saw that people love the game, so they decided to try to capitalize on it: More expansions, packs cost more, more legendaries every expansion.
The Kobold dungeon runs were added as an act of panic because they saw that their game is not good as they thought it was (which made them think that they can get away with making the game more expensive).
Here's to more free content and loot.
Also, instead of listening to feedback and trying to keep the player base they already had, they kept trying to bring in more and more new players, which was a huge part of the downfall last year.
Another point is that they decided to partner with activission and support Destiny 2, which comes from bungie, one of the greediest game publishers of all time, which many players really didn't like.
"As housecarl I am sworn to your service. I will protect you and all you own, with my life." - Lydia of Whiterun
Dropping adventures when coupled with the pack cost hike was pure money motive. I agree. We as players have to gamble more with packs.
Apple have recently changed their terms of use I read somewhere to see it as such. This combined with what's happened in China gives me some hope we'll see a positive change l
Golden Hero Collections thus far; -
Europe: Druid, Hunter, Paladin, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior (9/9)
Americas: Druid, Mage, Paladin Shaman (4/9)
Everywhere else: Workin on it.. (0/9)
Imo they should increase the Rewards. Aside from quests you can make a Max. Of 100 Gold, i.e. 1 Pack a day. And for that you have to not only play but WIN 30 Matches. That is insane. There are too few ways to earn Packs via gameplay
"As housecarl I am sworn to your service. I will protect you and all you own, with my life." - Lydia of Whiterun
People complained that the meta didnt change enough within the same year. Lets remove adventures to make space for more cards per set!
And thus, people complained that there were too many cards to collect.
One thing I've learned all this years skulking around blizz forums and fansites is that there will always be people complaining about fucking everything.
I read that the earns are 394.6 million dollars for 2016 and 217 million for 2017. I guess different sites will report slightly different amounts, didn't check it. Still a big loss though
action and reaction....they were too greedy now they want to attract more player with giveaways but have 2 mega less galleons....i still dont understand how somebody can get so greedy with a card game...i am sure they make lot of money with WOW and other shit
On the third day before Witchwood, Blizzard gave to me,
three Handlock decks,
two Molten Giants
and a winstreak to Legend Rank #3
Disclaimer: This is a fictional poem and this didn't actually happen to me.
You all are talking about new player. Imagine if you just start game. Ok, you can get rank 20, maybe 18 with basic deck but no more. It's not even possible to get rank 15, even at these ranks people plays tier 1/2 decks. And new player comes to mind that he needs packs/dust to craft at least tier 2 deck. And here he have to choose play a lot (100g/day, quests, arena), donate (so expensive, too much expansions) or just find another game.
I played since LoE, bought Khadgar, Welcome Bandle and Karazhan. For every expansion I open around 100-140 packs. I can craft 2-3 best decks but I can't craft everything cuz I don't get all legendaries. And even if I buy 50 packs, there is no big difference at all. So, there is no point to do it, I will never get all cards. So I stay f2p.
One day this game will stop existing. I can't wait.
"The flow of time is always cruel... its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it... A thing that does not change with time is a memory of younger days..."
well they only did give us fire festival event and ice festival event becouse of gwent, now the hype is over, so back to the money train...
they could run so many good events, but instead they are doing nothing
It's quite simple: many people bought the adventure with real money and packs with gold. Also adventure were a nice mid-season game, allowing some powerful cards to change the meta; and it worked with Naxxramas and League of Explorer very good, because they were good designed cards.
Then blizzard got greedy, first they made standard and wild; worst move ever. Instead of simply nerfing Dr. Boom (a card that isn't even used in wild right now) and Piloted Shredder (also no longer the top-tier card), they created a legady-gameplay WITH WAY TOO FEW EXPANSIONS. For Hearthstone, a legacy-gameplay change was not necessary until 2019/2020; then the card pool would have gotten too big.
Then they removed expansions: before it was always 1 expansion pack and 1 adventure pack. This was easier for people with less money to buy an adventure, and have many good cards to play with, and then buy packs with gold (and here and there some packs too)
Shareholders might think different, but gamers are not stupid cattle; at least not everyone. Most money comes in with the occasional buying something, not from the big whales that buys 300 packs with real money. But instead of keeping the system, blizzard thought: more expansions more money. So they removed adventures and the pve-content; first they changed the shedule to 2 expansions and 1 adventure per year and now 3 expansion packs and nothing for the f2p-players or the one who spend here and there a buck for the game.
So yes, for many people the game got too expensive and now it's in a state of decline. Hearthstone HAD the potential for greatness, but greediness, laziness (like nerfing basic cards instead of the problematic ones
And what does NEW PLAYERS GET? A crappy set that got crappier nearly every nerf-round. With the basic-cards YOU CAN'T PLAY NOWADAYS, and instead of giving some NEW BASIC CARDS, they went full retard and say: hey, new player, if you want to play craft card x and y; ok, you need to buy packs before you can even play the game, so GIEV ME THE MONÄHHH! Oh, and for example as they said in an tournament: build bonemare as a new player: but the ONLY CARD that was cheap and strong get now nerfed. And the rest: Fiery War Axe got nerfed to oblivion instead of changing it that it can't attack the enemy players because they think that new players are too stupid to read the card text. Innervate got nerfed to a coin instead of nerfing it otherwise (for example as kripp said: cost 2 mana, give 4 mana crystals this turn) and so on. Always nerfing basic cards without giving new cards for replacements for free.
And it got even worse with Kobolts and Catacombs: There is virtually 0 good neutral common cards. Instead all strong cards are this time epic: because to craft them people need to spend far more dust, and that means MOAR MONÄÄÄHHHH!
That the revenue declined in 2017 is really not surprising. Bring back adventures, create NEW basic cards that every player get, make the hurdle smaller and then this game might be far more successful. 2017 was the wrong direction. Hearthstone is still one of the best card games, but as long as blizzard listen more to their shareholders than to the players, it will decline.
The downfall of HS is not given only by the greed of Blizzard (removal of Adventures, more expansion sets per year, more legendaries, ecc.) but also by the bad design choices made in the last times: more RNG driven mechanics, prolonged awful meta (Patches the Pirate was clear after a week of MSoG that was broken but Team 5 did nothing to fix it since a few weeks before it rotates out of Standard) and so on. The free stuffs and events that were gone out in recent times are just little things in comparison about what other competitors of HS do regularly, while the usual system of dust and gold are still terrible and slow. It's not only an issue about money, but about the road on which the game is going that has determinated its actual downfall.
For what profit is it to a man, if he gains the world and loses his own soul?
If the data is true, that might be the reason we get the first non-prepurchase pack sale in Mammoth Bundle. If the trend continues, they might even make "Starter/Welcome Bundles" for each new expansion.
Ah I see I got the rotation wrong I completely forgot about Karazan cards and that makes the other dude correct my bad. It still doesn't change the fact that standard years and calendar year should be the same thing. The extra 1/4 of a year does no one any good and we are still cursed with Msog cards way into Kobalts meta. If the rotation had happened with Kobalts then patches and raza would be in wild already with no need for nerfs and the other 2 nerfs would still be justifiable but the main 3 "problem" cards would be gone. the last being Jade Idol.