Season 2 of Hearthstone’s popular Battlegrounds mode will begin on August 30, and Blizzard will add a new premium currency to the game with this season. In the Hearthstone store, you will now be able to purchase using Runestone, not real money, and Runestones will be available for purchase in variable packs.
Although Blizzard says that Runestone package sizes will be compatible with the best-selling products, such currencies often have amounts of money left in your wallet that you can’t use and you have to buy packages again to buy something new. Blizzard explained one of the reasons for this change as being able to offer smaller products for sale, and the deductions made by digital stores from sales reduce the profitability of making such small sales with real money.
Another change that attracts as much reaction as the premium currency is that the Battlegrounds season pass will have a premium tier. Almost all the rewards in this tier are actually cosmetic, but the first prize gives players two extra hero slots, and you don’t have a chance to have it otherwise. This means that players who do not purchase the season pass will be able to stretcher between two random heroes, while players who purchase them will choose from four heroes.
Blizzard says this isn’t a P2W feature either, with this extra “offering choice rather than power.” However, given how powerful and popular heroes like Ysera and Heistbaron Togwaggle are, the four hero slots will significantly increase the chances of owning these heroes.
Blizzard has once again managed to get reactions from players with its changes to the monetization system. It seems that all the criticism of Diablo Immortal does not affect such decisions at all.