Hearthstone's next expansion will be revealed this week
It looks like an Alliance-themed expansion is on the way.
The wheels are turning on a new Hearthstone expansion, and while we don't know yet when it will be released, we do know when it will be revealed: at 9:30 am PT/12:30 pm ET on July 1.
Lead designer Alec Dawson will start the reveal event off with an overview of the second phase of the Year of the Gryphon, after which game designers Liv Breeden and John McIntyre will get into the meat of what's coming in the new card set. There will also be news on Hearthstone Battlegrounds.
Something that won't be seen during the stream is Hearthstone Mercenaries, the team-based roguelike mode with simultaneous combat that was revealed in February. A recent survey leak gave us a little more insight into what it's all about, but Blizzard said the mode isn't ready for its closeup just yet. The expectation right now is that Mercenaries will be rolled out sometime during Year of the Gryphon phase two. A date for that hasn't been set, but a "dedicated Hearthstone Mercenaries stream" will take place sometime in the fall.
𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐔𝐩! 🦁🛡Reveal stream coming July 1, 10AM PT. pic.twitter.com/zVPkR8nVOvJune 28, 2021
As for the next expansion, there are no further details but the tease pretty obviously hints at something themed after the Alliance. Given that the previous expansion, Forged in the Barrens, was all for the Horde, that makes sense. The Hearthstone expansion reveal will be streamed on Twitch and YouTube, and we'll have an interview with the developers going shortly after the show ends.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.
Bonaparte: A Mechanized Revolution tosses mechs into the French Revolution, but doesn't toss out the history
'Nobody, and I mean nobody, at Bethesda is patting themselves on the back while ignoring our players': Starfield design director reassures fans that developers are paying attention to community concerns