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 guess its time to stop collecting everything and quit crafting golden cards altogether.
I spend 300$~ per xpac for me and about 120 on gf account.. let’s just say that this time around it’ll be just the 50packs
3 of my friends already quit, 2 more are quitting because of this blatant cashgrab.
Cash Grab? Dude you are the one blowing $420 on card each xpac and to be quite honest with you, I purchase the odd 50-70 pack special before release and agree that it is a joke but at the end of the day you are fool buying anything more than the extra card back.
It really is, i’m not going to quit of course ! I’ll even buy packs still but much less, the real problem is all the poeple I know leaving one after another.
my fun in this game is friendly matches ... -_-‘
Loss or gain, they should of just made everything on par in all regions imo.
50$ 50C$ 5000¥ 50NZ$ etc. etc.
Not sure why they would want to milk out as much as they could from other currencies. F2P is looking more attractive than ever before.
To be fair, switching from expansions and adventures to only expansions means Hearthstone is becoming more expensive for everybody. I miss the good old days of dropping $20 and getting a ton of cards and usually 5 or more legendaries.
Blizzard's greed shows no bounds. First Overwatch's loot boxes, now this. They're just hellbent on milking all of you for every last coin.
But it's cool. Just keep pre-ordering expansions and buying packs like the skilled players you are.
I do it for the cardback everything else is a bonus. If they gave the option of $20-$30 payment for x. amount of packs + cardback as an alternative option I wouldn't be forking them so much cash.
I can already feel the sense of pride and accomplishment that accompanies being able to paying in my own currency. Kappa.
man would like to show that i'm f2p these days when i'm playing hs,
there should be an emote: "that's way too high!" .
Does anyone remember the day when expansions didn't cost more than a full game? And it's not like it's a expansion that holds a ton of content....It's a friggin card game.
On top of that, buying an expansion only gives you 1/5 to 1/10 of the cards in a set depending on how you look at it. All at a cost higher than an average FULL triple A game.
''Blizzard is preventing themselves from losing any money'' But yet.......They lost my money. Am not paying $70 for 50 digital packs.
China has the best pricing with:
40 pack - CNY 328 (49.51 USD)
60 pack - CNY388 (58.57 USD)
Blizzard values Chinese players much more than Canadian players LMAO.
I want to take the time to thank Blizzard and Hearthstone for raising the price of packs! - said no one ever
I love HS but it is getting way too expensive, i am playing since beta and i preordered every expansion until ungoro
but with all theese changes lately i feel like i am not getting enough for my money so i decided to vote with my wallet
I went free 2 play, didnt preorder Knights, wont preorder kobolds and its ruining the fun for me a little because i like experimenting with new cards and decks, so if things dont change i probably will quit HS the expansion after kobolds
Why does it seem like team5 is TRYING to kill their own game?
KOFT was the last time I’ll buy packs, thanks guys. 💋
They want to make players "feel at home" so they are localizing currencies which prevents any sort of dynamic exchange rate being factored in. Now they can just charge whatever on a per-country basis. They omit the fact that the price is being increased in addition to being localized. Of course if their dollar loses value you can be sure they wont lower the prices for any country.
So instead of feeling remotely "at home" many players may instead feel much worse because Americans are paying less. Great, now some people can avoid those "transaction fees". Instead they can just pay a blizzard fee for not being American. Well played... as if you did not charge enough already. This may lead to fewer purchases, at least for me.