Scrolls goes into full release next week

Mojang has revealed that Scrolls, its long-awaited collectible card/board game crossover, will finally come out of beta next week. And while most free-to-play games depend on players spending ungodly amounts of money on gold, potions, cards, power-ups of various sorts, or whatever else the developers offer in order to make progression easier, or even possible, Scrolls will apparently take the opposite approach.

"We restrict how much you can spend to retain game balance," the studio said, as reported by Eurogamer. "This sounds unlikely, but you really don't have to spend more than the cost of Scrolls ($4.99) to progress." Scrolls players will be able to buy in-game items using "shards" purchased with real money or gold earned through gameplay, and "All items are available for a reasonable amount of gold," it added.

That's a fairly common claim for free-to-play developers to make, but in the case of Scrolls it might actually hold water. Mojang has a well-earned reputation as a "gamer-first" studio, for one thing, and the runaway success of Minecraft means there's not a huge amount of pressure for Scrolls to be a money-making blockbuster itself. Players will also be able to trade scrolls directly or for in-game gold, providing another avenue for satisfying their specific needs.

Official box art! #Scrolls is getting a digital release, but if it were sold on disc, it'd look something like this! pic.twitter.com/nATWMBxkBZ

Scrolls goes into full launch mode on December 11, which will also see the release of a free trial version of the game. Anyone who picked it up during either the alpha or beta periods will be upgraded to the full version for free, while everyone else will have to pay $5.

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.