‘Hearthstone’ is randomly giving away hundreds of packs to players

It’s been confirmed that Hearthstone is giving away hundreds of packs to random, returning players as part of a “targeted test” by Blizzard.

The Hearthstone giveaway was first reported on Reddit earlier this week. Lichnaught posted a thread asking “Why grind gold daily when you can just not play for a couple of months” alongside a screenshot of Blizzard offering them a gift. “Come back to Hearthstone and enjoy 150 packs, on us” reads the text, with the offer expiring on August 5.

Some claimed it was a fake, before others revealed they had been offered a similar bonus to return. One player received 20 bonus packs after not playing for “a few years” while another got the full 150.

@PlayHearthstone Hi, I recieved a gift of 20 packs which I am very grateful for! But I’m just upset why my boyfriend recieved 150 free packs? How is this calculated?
It just doesn’t seem fair! Yes I know its free, I was happy until I seen how many he got! ????

— Steffanie Elwood (@steffaniexD) July 7, 2022

Talking to PCgamer, a Blizzard spokesperson explained: “We run many different limited and targeted tests such as this to better determine what drives former, new or current players’ interest, which is a common industry practice. This was a region-specific test for Hearthstone in the UK and France for a subset of relevant players who were first randomly sorted into groups before being assigned a corresponding offer between 20 and 150 packs.”

And while some returning players are over the moon at the mountain of free cards, other Hearthstone players are less impressed.

“I return to this game almost every day of the year, that should count for something,” wrote one player. “Agreed. Little compensation for playing it everyday,” added another.

In other news, earlier this week it was confirmed that CD Projekt RED is planning a new, standalone, single-player version of Gwent, its card game spinoff from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

The game is currently under development with the existing Gwent development team, and has the working title “Project Golden Nekker”. The game is also expected to be an entirely new game, not requiring players to have any existing version of Gwent before jumping in.