Could Hearthstone Players on iOS Soon be Buying Dust Instead of Card Packs?
Note: Blizzard has not yet made an official statement on the change.
Back in June, Hearthstone players in China were no longer able to buy card packs but instead were purchasing a small amount of Arcane Dust with their money. As a bonus for their purchase, card packs were thrown into the mix as a "gift" for their dust purchase.
Why did Blizzard make this change? This is because of a change to laws in China regarding loot boxes in video games where it was required for video games to publish the odds of their drop rates.
The shop interface for Hearthstone in China.
So then, why on Azeroth are iOS players potentially buying dust soon? That's thanks to a policy change in Apple's App Store.
The Apple App Store Update on Loot Boxes
In the Apple App Store guidelines, a document which details the rules app devs must follow to get through the app approval process, there is now a section which states apps need to make note of the odds of receiving each type of item to customers.
- Apps offering “loot boxes” or other mechanisms that provide randomized virtual items for purchase must disclose the odds of receiving each type of item to customers prior to purchase.
With this addition, it looks like Hearthstone will need to go the same way as it did in China to prevent disclosure of the drop rates which would be accomplished through giving players another object and tack on card packs as a gift. The alternative would be to cut the crap and officially state card drop rates which have been well known for years at this point. On the plus side if they do try to get around it by using arcane dust and not disclosing the odds, it's a little bit more dust in everyone's pockets which will help craft the powerhouses we need for our decks.
Rarity Distribution in Card Packs Today
Card rarity distribution hasn't changed since Hearthstone launched, though players will see slightly more Legendaries now thanks to a guaranteed Legendary in your first 10 packs for each set. The following rarity distribution is from our TGT community card pack opening and is still inline with other documented, more recent pack openings.
Rarity | Normal | Golden | Total | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Legendary | 696 | 0.94% | 56 | 0.08% | 752 | 1.01% |
Epic | 3029 | 4.09% | 143 | 0.19% | 3172 | 4.28% |
Rare | 16017 | 21.61% | 934 | 1.26% | 16951 | 22.87% |
Common | 52153 | 70.36% | 1097 | 1.48% | 53250 | 71.84% |
Total | 71895 | 96.99% | 2230 | 3.01% | 74125 | 100.00% |
We've also got some totally new information from Blizzard China from in May which was posted with loot box regulations in mind.
- You'll get at least 1 rare, or better, in each pack.
- An epic will be received, on average, in 1 of every 5 packs.
- Legendaries, on average, will be received in 1 of every 20 packs.
- As players open more packs, the actual probability of opening cards with higher quality increases.
It's possible we could see the above being enough for the Apple App Store and it wouldn't require Blizzard to provide the actual drop rates which means they won't need to move forward with giving users dust for their money instead.
Quote from BlizzardAccording to the relevant national laws and regulations, "slag legend" is now the probability of taking cards to publish, as follows:
Note: "slag legend" card package a total of five cards, including four different quality.
Rare cards
Each slag card package, at least to get a rare or higher quality card.
Epic card
An average of 5 slag card card package, you can get an epic quality card.
Legend card
An average of 20 slag card card package, you can get a legendary quality card.
In addition, it should be noted that: with the number of cards to increase the number of packages, players actually get high-quality card card probability will also increase.
Loot Boxes: How Do You Feel?
It's been a very popular topic in gaming communities over the past few weeks thanks to EA and their garbage with Star Wars: Battlefront II having absurd lengths of time being required for character unlocks unless you buy loot boxes and I'd like to know how everyone else feels about loot boxes both specifically with Hearthstone and then with other titles.
And before you comment, remember that developers in large companies usually aren't the people deciding how much stuff sells for and the drop rates for these; There's a whole different team of people to thank for this. Don't be a dick to game developers and call them out personally. Attacking developers, especially when they aren't even to blame for the fiasco, pushes them away from interacting with the community and then everyone gets upset no one comes out to talk with us anymore.
I think it's a good thing that these lootboxes are more controlled.
I really don't think blizzard is the worse : the game is F2P, and totaly playable for people who don't wan't to pay (maybe a bit harder for beginners).
But with EA and their garbage lootboxes system, it goes to far !
You pay the game, and it's not a cheap game. Then, you have to pay for the online (on xbox or ps4), AND, they requiere you to pay if you want to unlock stuff fastly ? That's why I didn't bought the game, even if it looks really amazing, I don't have a lot of time or money to spend in such game...
It's not cool for blizzard, but the drop rate are known since the beginning f the game : they can just publish it, et voilà !
Shame on EA, the game reaper...
(sry for my english)
I like the idea to open packs. The problem is what you get, one legendary with 40 packs as pity timer is ridiculous considering 23 legendary every expansion. They dont give us even the opportunity to choose which one pick between three option for example. The adventures was a good compromise between costs and what you get. All the problems started when they choose to put 3 expansion. The dungeon run is a nice idea but from another point of you cannot improve your collection when during that time you could play quests or make extra gold..
I don't know how much it costs have all the cards and so have the complete game on your hand but sounds expensive and worthless.
I've definitely noticed this myself. I can't play for hours a day anymore and the time I do spend playing is a terrible experience being completely stomped by very refined and dominating decks. HS just isn't a casual game anymore and the amount of dust needed each expansion to stay even half competitive is insane. Had a friend open 250 packs this expansion and after disenchanting duplicates he still has only 3/4 of the set with many legendaries and epics missing. The game has become a blatant cash grab with no regard for the state of the game or how the player base feels. I understand that this is a business but what happened to Blizzard? They've just turned into another greedy money hungry empire. Bring back WC3, SC and Diablo 2 Bilzzard!
1 dust = 1 pack
you receive a free pack for each dust bought
I think you didn't get the purpose here...
ere's a hint : you actualy buy packs, not dusts, but shhhh, it's a secret...
I personally hate loot boxes, because they are very close to gambling and a lot of games using this kind of microtransactions, are accessible for underage folks. The argument, that you need a credit card for these transactions is no longer true, because you can buy a gift card with credit in a regular supermarket for cash.
This may be an unpopular view, but how is this any of Apple's business? (Sure, it's their platform and they can make it their business but why should they? They've already earned a rep among developers as dictatorial.) We already know the rates are annoyingly low but some of us choose to buy the packs anyway. It's not a scam by any actual definition of that term. I don't like the free to play plus nickel-and-dime-you model but there's nothing illegal about it and it seems busybody-ish for Apple to care so much about strategies like Hearthstone's, especially compared to so many arguably-far-less-moral (and far more annoying/disruptive) business models they seem okay with.
Edit: Although I do agree that it's weird that Blizzard doesn't want to give numbers out. Perhaps they want the freedom to tweak the numbers whenever they want without red tape -- if so, all the more reason this isn't good practice by Apple.
I don't know man, I think I have to disagree with you. They could tweak it whenever and just update the info. With the amount of effort they put into hiding the actual numbers, it just feels something is off. And at this point, I wouldnt be surprised by something as crazy as small drop manipulations for some people or tiny alterations made by purchases. As OP wrote - it is not on the developers of the game, the big boys decide this kind of things. People just like to see the numbers and I honestly don't see any reason as to why not.
A lot of different organizations/laws think that lootboxes are gambling. If it is really gambling and because of EA that became bigger problem, that means that Apple allow gambling game for 6 yeard old. Most likely apple somehow want to workaround this for the store in order to be able to distribute it and etc. If we look from this point of view that lootboxes are gambling, than it is understandable, why they put some restrictions for the market, until they give you exact chance.
Fair point, if governments call it gambling, but giving exact odds doesn't make it not gambling any more. We know the odds of a lot of classic gambling games and they're still gambling.
Don't spend money on video games!
I hope that if they try this Apple shoot them down since it would probably lead to every other mobile game that uses loot boxes doing the same.
I hate that work around of buy 1 dust and getting card pack as a gift. Not in the spirit of the rule. Keep in mind this rule wasn't directed at HS, there are some really scamaz-y games out there. They just trying to inform the consumer of what they are getting.
It's the same kind of work around that you see everywhere in the gambling industry when there are new laws. It just shows that Blizz has by now the same ethical codex as gambling companies(which shows as well in World of Warcraft where Blizz tries to keep people nonstop busy and make use of their addiction. A company that knows that their game is a reason for serious addiction then proudly announces that with decreasing number of players the time spent in the game is increasing...well...says a lot, doesn't it?).
I think the rate apply to global transaction not per person that why someone get more and someone get nothing. Thus make the whole system look like gambling.
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....... That's exactly what it is? Same with any other (T/C)CG. Like Magic, just because it is physically manufactured doesn't mean there is no RNG involved; there still is. I played the odds on the Pokemon TCG with their new set this fall and won. Ended up spending almost $70, but I feel it was worth it. Got all the cards I wanted, too. (I have silver Gladion. Be jealous.)
I have a Platinum Gladion ... YOU B Jelly! Pashaw, Guffaw!
Nice article. I hope Hearthstone doesn't get pulled into this Scammy Chinese / Asian Bullshit. Let those people pay for paying to play!
Here's what I don't like about the buy 1 dust, get 1 free pack method. The dust will come in units of 1. Dust from disenchanting comes in units of 5. I've got just enough OCD to really hate uneven numbers like that. I like that Gold comes, essentially, in units of 10 (they used to do 5s, back in the day, right?).
Anyhow, I'm glad I never have 237 gold around or such, with that awkward 7 just sitting there. Laughing at me. I don't want this to happen with dust.