Hearthstone Goes Through With Highly-Criticized Monetization Model As Season 2 Begins

Hearthstone has kicked off its second battleground season with its new, highly-criticized monetization system that makes a significant change to how players can purchase the new season pass. For Season 1, season passes could originally be bought directly using real-world money. In Season 2, however, players will first need to purchase premium currency called Runestones which they can then use to purchase a pass for the entire season.

This might not have been a big deal if not for the fact that Runestones are sold in bundles, thereby requiring players to purchase more of them than what’s needed to gain access to seasonal content and additional rewards. It’s worth noting that players are still able to purchase season passes directly and will be able to do so during the current transition period between the first and second seasons although Blizzard failed to specify how long that transition period will be.

Regardless, players are still upset about the move and are flooding the online CCG’s subreddit with complaints, angry memes, and threats of quitting the game entirely, most of which are aimed specifically at the pricing of Runestone bundles.

“Like the current Hearthstone-wide Rewards Track, there will be both free and premium unlockable rewards along the Battlegrounds Track, and progress towards those rewards is earned by playing,” Blizzard explained. “By giving Battlegrounds players their own rewards track, we can give them more rewards they care about, and we no longer need to try to mesh Battlegrounds rewards with a Gold and XP system that was designed to serve traditional Hearthstone.”

The full Season 2 patch notes can be found on the Hearthstone official site.