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.
Basically if you live outside the US, cough up the cash.
Everyone needs to question if preorders every expansion is going to be worth it. It is going to be roughly the price of a triple-A game for one preorder and we get three a year? The prices should be getting cheaper, this is a virtual card game! Is 69 dollars really worth getting 2 or 3 legendaries for an expansion with 20+ legendaries??
Pre-ordering is never worth it. NEVER. What do you get for pre-ordering something you know nothing about? A card back? Who the hell cares? These things are meaningless to the average player.
That’s basically what happened to me, I was about to spend 100 bucks Canadian on packs, then I realized there was a huge steam sale, so I ditched hearthstone for more and better games. Cough cough ones that don’t rely on luck more than skill
Why do you keep pre-ordering? No really, this is a good question. You're wasting so much money on something you know nothing about. It's never worth it to pre-order video games under ANY circumstances.
Your argument is quite pointless. The whole never preorder thing has nothing to do with hearthstone. You can "preorder" just before the expansion hits when all the cards have been revealed. You know what you'll be getting
Putting out more expansions a year with twice as many legendaries and raising the price?? Seems like they are trying to milk the long term customers while they can since new players will never be able to keep up. I love this game but I really regret getting into it because I cannot afford to keep up.
I know that for some people feelings matter more than facts, best example is that Trump is the president of the US. But I will still try to give you some facts:
Numbers of legendaries per expansion: gvg 20 tgt 19 wotog 21 msg 20 ungoro 23 koft 23 Dosn't look like twice as much for me.
Prior to "only expansion mode" we had 2 expansions per year and 1 adventure. So they only changed 1 adventure to an expansion. They also began to give out free legendary cards for each expansion and changed the packs, so you can't get any dupe legendaries. It's strange how everyone allways forgets the nice things blizzard did the moment they adjust or rise some prizes.
your missing the point dude. by voting with your walllet, and leaving,is exactly the solution. Blizzard will care if enough of us do it. why you so ignorant?
Good thing I am slowly mooving towards TES Legends
''Greedy Bli$$ard, me no giff money, me move to tes, it be cheaper!''
TES:
40 packs: 50$
60 packs: 70$
HS:
40 packs: 50$
60 packs: 70$
Math is good. Look it up
TES is way more f2p friendly
I would guess that not only is the increase due to fx but that there is a portion of the price increase that is due to the withholding rates the countries charge on the repatriation of the cash.
TEAM 5: The feedback about the cost is really negative this time. At least it can't get much worse.
BLIZZ PR: Hold my beer.
for us in brazil the pre order is 110R$ way more than the 50U$
f2p ftw