Hearthstone VR Was Briefly Developed by Blizzard

In an interview with PowerUp, lead effects artist Hadidjah Chamberlin noted that Blizzard briefly worked on a VR version of Hearthstone. 

“They actually prototyped a VR version of Hearthstone during that time,” says Chamberlin. “You could walk around the tavern and sit down to play a game with someone. They only had two weeks, so they only got as far [allowing you to] throw cards at the table and you could flip the table over!”

It appears that version of the game was prototyped during a “free your mind” event in which seemingly encourages Blizzard team members to explore new projects in a limited time. The idea that these developers used that limited time to develop an elaborate new way to rage quit a game of Hearthstone is certainly amusing. 

While we imagine that future Blizzard projects have come out of this event in the past, don’t hold your breath for Hearthstone VR to become a reality. Other members of the Hearthstone team have mentioned that version of the game in the past and essentially concluded that they’re not convinced there’s enough long-term interest in the project to justify the resources that would have to go into it. You can always forever on that subject as it relates to any hypothetical subject, but Hearthstone does feel like the kind of game that probably has a longer shelf life on the Nintendo Switch than it would on the Oculus VR.

The good news is that Hearthstone has enjoyed some great updates outside of this hypothetical VR version. The title’s Battlegrounds mode has rejuvenated the CCG while a series of smaller updates have helped keep Hearthstone fresh in-between the release of more significant expansions. 

So while it doesn’t sound like a Hearthstone VR is in the cards (see what we did there?) Blizzard is clearly busy trying to keep up with the demand for more Hearthstone content. 

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014.