In today's Year of the Hydra announcement Dean Ayala, Lead Game Designer, talks about future of the Battlegrounds for 2022 and beyond:
- Since its release in 2019, Battlegrounds only grew in popularity.
- Battlegrounds' steady growth allowed Blizzard to increase the team of people working on the game mode = more content.
- Hearthstone E-Sports is going to include Battlegrounds in Lobby Legends, first one already happened last weekend.
- Total prize pool for Lobby Legends will be $500.000 spread across multiple events during the year.
- New, large changes to Battlegrounds are going to be known as 'Seasons' from now on.
- Seasons will come regularly similar to Standard expansions.
- Expect new minions, heroes and fundamental changes to the Battlegrounds experience.
- New minion types, keywords, or system changes like Buddies.
- First Season starts with Patch 23.2 and will bring a new keyword, Naga minion type, heroes and more.
- New progression system will be added to Battlegrounds at some point mid-year.
- Your progress and time spent playing will translate into great Battleground rewards.
- More details the closer we get to a mid-year point.
- New and cooler-than-ever cosmetics coming in 2022.
- Emotes are getting a huge facelift.
- Combat boards are going to enter 'next level'.
- They are working on expanded competitive features and revamp of the Battlegrounds Hub screen.
- The teams is looking for any community feedback and content players would like to see in Battlegrounds.
Welcome to the Year of the Hydra
Are you excited about what is coming to Battlegrounds this year? Tell us in the comments below!
More From Year of the Hydra
Blizzard has plenty of new information to share about Year of the Hydra including the remaining cards for Voyage to the Sunken City.
- All 46 New Voyage to the Sunken City Card Reveals
- All Card Flavor Text for the Voyage to the Sunken City Hearthstone Expansion
- Everything You Need to Know About Hearthstone's Year of the Hydra & Core Set
- Future of Hearthstone Battlegrounds in 2022 - Seasons, E-Sports, New Keywords, Progression System and More
- Hearthstone Mercenaries Receives Big Updates in Patch 23.0 - Task System Rework, Balance Updates, & More!
- All Hearthstone Duels Updates for Patch 23.0 - The League of Explorers, Hero Selection Expands, Retired Heroic Runs, Treasures, & More
- Drek’Thar and Loatheb Are the Latest Cards To Join Hearthstone’s Diamond Club
- Our Wild Thoughts on the 24 Reverted Card Nerfs in Hearthstone's Year of the Hydra
- Open a Voyage to the Sunken City Pack in our Pack Opener
Comments
The idea of Seasons seems a good one to me. I like playing with new features in Battlegrounds - Darkmoon Faire tickets, Diablo (!) - but they don't have to be there all the time. Similarly the minion pool is larger now, so you could have a season where a minion type is excluded for a while, or some heroes come back. I think it would help to know that changes will come again so that people are clear whether something is a permanent change (like I hope armour is) or something temporary (like adding in a powerful card such as Friend of a Friend)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't "seasons" just a description of what they are already doing since its launch?
Yes and no, i think we have thought of Seasons as ranking resets so far, but while that might continue to be true, they want to mark some milestones with it as well, i guess, so we can expect some "big changes" when those things happen.
That's kinda what I meant, I probably should have been more specific. I was talking about regular big updates in the past like Dragons, Pirates, Elementals, Quillboars, Refresh and Buddies and the upcoming Nagas.