For those without a key to Hearthstone’s closed Beta are probably frantically waiting right now for the game’s open Beta stage to begin. At Blizzcon it was announced that it would probably begin sometime this month. If you’re one of these people, you’re probably going to be mildly disappointed by the latest update on the game’s open Beta…

“We hoped to get the game into a state where it’s ready for open beta this month, but we’re just not quite there yet” Jason Chayes says in his update to Blizzard’s Hearthstone news page. He states that the latest patch to the game (which made Freeze a little less powerful by bumping up the cost of many spells with the effect) involved some code changes which might yet break the game and that Blizzard would rather make sure the game is as bug-free as possible rather than rushing it out before year’s end to meet the expectation.

If you signed up with the opt-in on the site though, there is good news: Blizzard is now in the process of sending EVERYONE who opted-in keys for Closed Beta, at least if you signed up before the 16th of this month. The closing date for opting-in has been set now as the 7th of January with the company planning to make sure everyone who signs up by that date will get access to the closed Beta at some time before the gates are opened. People sent their keys who don’t claim them will also have their accounts flagged to get access during the first few weeks of January too.

So the game’s open stage has been pushed back, but if you opted-in… go check your e-mails now. And don’t forget the spam folder!

Hearthstone News Post: Here