Hearthstone is Getting More Expensive for Players in Canada, Japan, and New Zealand on Nov 16
Attention! It looks like pack prices on Battle.net are not the same as Google Play and are actually cheaper.
Looking specifically at Canada, players will be charged $62.99 CAD, or $49.39 USD at current exchange rates for the expansion pre-order. This post's numbers are no longer accurate but are being kept for historical purposes. Pitchforks can be laid to rest for now!
Pricing changes are coming to Battle.net! Players in Canada, Japan, and New Zealand are currently charged in USD but starting tomorrow, players in these regions will be charged in their local currencies.
- The changes affect prices on Battle.net, In-Game Shops, and your Blizzard Balance.
- Blizzard Balance you currently have in USD will convert using the exchange rate when the transition occurs.
It should be noted that when Hearthstone last updated, the prices on Google Play changed to the point where it's actually more expensive to buy things in these currencies due to the exchange rate being better than what they've priced packs at. If this same pricing applies to Battle.net, you're better buying the Kobolds pre-order now to save some money.
Country | New Price | Price Today | Price Increase | USD Increase |
---|---|---|---|---|
Canada | C$69.99 | C$63.86 | C$6.13 | $4.80 |
Japan | 6000¥ | 5646¥ | 355¥ | $3.14 |
New Zealand | NZ$79.99 | NZ$72.69 | NZ$7.30 | $5.02 |
As seen in the above table, we've got price increases across the board for these regions assuming Blizzard will be charging the same price on Battle.net that they are charging on Google Play, which in order to be in terms with Google Play's policies, they will need to be.
To play devil's advocate for a moment, it's understandable that they want to keep round pricing as it's easier to understand for consumers, and currencies do fluctuate on a daily basis. By charging a bit more than the day-to-day exchange rate, Blizzard is preventing themselves from losing any money when things may change in favor of the above countries.
Does it need to be as steep of an increase as it is though? Could they not simply adjust their pack prices more often if they need to be increased for certain countries based on their economic situations? Tell us what you think about it in the comments.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have an expansion to pre-order before tomorrow.
Blog Post
Quote from BlizzardIn October, we announced that we’ll be converting from USD to local currency on Blizzard Battle.net® in Canada, Japan, and New Zealand. These changes will begin to roll out in these regions within the next 24 hours.
For players in these regions, Blizzard Balance will be unavailable during the brief update process, but purchases can be made using other payment methods. Any purchases made during this period will be processed in local currency.
For World of Warcraft® subscribers, the recurring subscription will continue to be charged in USD for the next 12 months. If there’s any interruption to your subscription, however—including an expired card, changes in payment methods, or account cancellations—any new subscriptions will be charged in your local currency.
We want to make as many of our players as possible feel at home in the Blizzard ecosystem, and make managing your account with us easier. By switching from USD to local currency, we’re expanding the types of payment we accept and helping some of you avoid paying transaction fees charged by financial institutions.
Please see our announcement in October for more information and follow @BlizzardCSfor the latest updates.
I started playing in Nov 2015 and had to spend a fair bit of cash to catch-up can't imagine getting anyone to play and have to drop several hundred to catch-up now and forget about ever playing wild.
Never pre-ordered, never will. I'm happy to have played since closed beta in order to acquire all the necessary cards. This company is getting out of control
Ben(Brode)jamins*
Gamers unite...!
Just saw that EA's Star Wars Battlefront 2 has just succumbed to public pressure to remove (or change) it's micro-transaction scheme. There are so many upset players cancelling their pre-orders that EA has to do something then & there.
I know that BF2 & HS are different games but this shows that if people make their voices heard or unite in their complaints something can be achieved...
except hearthstone is a free game and battlefront costs 60 bucks. kids can complain but blizzard don't care
Correct me if I am wrong, but is Canada not paying less per pack given our current exchange rate?
Thankfully the price is set at 62.99 in Canada, i can live with that. Mobile purchases are now the more expensive option.
That’s probably exactly what they wanted, clever way to avoid paying 30% of their sales to Google/Apple
Prices for Canada did not go up as much as claimed... only $62.99 for pre-purchase of KNC or for 40 packs.
Yeah that's the prices on PC, it's about 10% more on app store, not too sure about the taxes though.
I think we are saving money now....
Sad thing. I would really love to show Hearthstone to friends but with things like this they will think I'm f---ing crazy. And it's true, it's really insane. Imagine all the new players. Budget decks are not efficient like in the past. Not even with all the dust a f2p can make in a month and packs that only have 5 cards can have a decent deck, and pray your deck works because if you use even the last pinch of dust that you have, you will make just 1 incomplete deck to try hard with that. Frustrating.
To old players, this is not motivating. Most of them that paid for packs are not going to do that anymore, and I can't understand how that's a profit!
Unbelievable how greedy they can be. Unbelievable how you can kill a hype of a new expansion.
I pre-purchased the last 2 expansions, which feels okay for 50 Canadian $ for it (on google play). For 20$ more, I'm just gonna looking elsewhere to put my 50 bucks, maybe if there's less and less Canadian who play their game, they will reconsider pushing price.
On the other hand, they should change the quest system (40 Gold playing 3 games feels kind of slow and not very rewarding)
Giving player more things each week than a Tavern Brawl for one pack.
Bringing Adventure pack or at something similar in therm of value.
Change the whole wild versus standard system, it's feels bad playing only 15 months with a complete set (Gadgetzan/Kobolds)
The nerf change in standard and changes in arena are too slow, and most of player are getting tired of the game before they happened.
They should had more mode for fun, like 2 v2 , or free for all 4 players, like magic, something to play with your buddies on a Saturday nite.
Now I feels the only point of the game is playing on ladder to get legendary and get some golden card at the end of the month...
I like the Dk and Quest but most of them don't really matter in the meta right now (and the last 2 months) (Except Priest\Druid\Warlock) , who play quest theses days?
“Even the most beautiful scenery is no longer assured of our love after we have lived in it for three months, and some distant coast attracts our avarice: possessions are generally diminished by possession.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
you guys sound really entitled tbh. get a job and buy some packs
I like that they made it the same price as a new AAA game. This way it makes the decision of what to use your money on really easy.
I’ve been playing since open beta and have been f2p since around the Grand Tournament (save a few arena runs I bought)
The value for packs is just complete crap in this game
and only 5 cards a pack? That’s hardly a pack even
like many of us here, I like the game, I’m invested in it but... the value for your money prevents me from spending a dime
Not to mention when you get 3 of the same card you already own in one pack :/
Again, right before an expansion. Just simple coincidence.
Really love this game and it's sad to see how my friends start quitting it, or go "quest only" mode. Giving.. ok, less than 10 packs and 2 free legendaries out of 20 now each xpac.. seems only teasing.
Blizz really should think about increasing amount of rewards/free stuff. Things like summer festivals are important. I tried to bring into hs 3 friends this year, and they all like.. hmm, too much grind for even first good deck.
I hope that dungeon runs will change something. I preordered each xpac but now I will be sitting on my money until all card reveal and I will count every pack filler as reason not to buy. 22k dust is enough to craft a couple legs.
Damn, how many hero quests and DKs are in play right now? Like 2 quests and 3 dks? Why the hell do I need to buy packs if I can craft bonemare and cobalt scalebane and win games? Thats boring.