Hearthstone beta used to validate free-to-play model

Blizzard has claimed that Hearthstone's beta was used to validate the free-to-play model that has made the game so successful.

The developer used Twitch to see that players were able to participate in the game for long periods without having to spend a penny to remain competitive.

Production director Jason Chaves said watching the streams gave the team an indication that they'd got the balance right.

"We really wanted to make sure that it wasn't just lip service to say it's free to play and then hit some kind of monetisation gate where you had to buy things," he told Eurogamer, "so for us making sure you could actually earn all the things you needed to be competitive was something we put a lot of time into.

"Seeing that happen and seeing people construct the decks they need to play at the very top levels of play and seeing that happen through the community was awesome. So overall we felt very good about how that evolved and how in some ways helped validate our approach, and we feel pretty good about the direction that's been heading."

Players can choose to buy packs of cards using in-game gold or real world money, but those who don't want to spend anything can still get along fine.

Click here to check out our first impressions of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.