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The update for Year 6, Season 1: Crimson Heist is live on the PC test server for Rainbow Six: Siege. Crimson Heist adds Flores as a brand-new attack operator, and implements several quality of life and balancing changes.

Depending on where you play, you’ll have very different download sizes. On Steam, the update is 6GB, while the update is 19GB on Uplay. In terms of content, most of the update is filled with bug fixes, as seen in the full patch notes.

In terms of balancing, the update addresses Nøkk’s utility against entrenched defenders. Now, when Nøkk’s unique gadget, the HEL Presence Reduction, is active, Nøkk will no longer trip any defender gadgets that are proximity-based. This means that Nøkk is now a direct counter to Ela’s Grzmot Mine, Melusi’s Banshee, and Kapkan’s Entry Denial Device, as well as secondary gadgets and environmental sensors like proximity alarm and metal detectors.

To explain this change, in the Year 6, Season 1 designer’s notes, Ubisoft writes, “Nøkk was initially designed as a counter-intel Operator, but not every intel tool is a camera. Devices triggered by proximity give very useful information as the activation’s sound cue provides information without requiring players to lower their weapon.”

The rest of the changes are listed in the patch notes, which are outlined below.

Rainbow Six Siege Y6S1 Update Patch Notes

Operator Balancing

• NØKK (Test Server Only)
• While Nøkk’s HEL Presence Reduction is active, Nøkk won’t activate proximity-based gadgets.
• Gadgets affected: Ela’s Grzmot Mine, Melusi’s Banshee, Kapkan’s Entry Denial Device, Proximity Alarms, and metal detectors.
• Nøkk’s glitch effect will cancel the proximity immunity, resulting in the activation of any gadget in range.
• The color of the HEL device on Nøkk’s hand will change colour when bypassing any proximity device.

Tweaks And Improvements

• Game Balancing
  • Improvement Lab
    • Defender electricity will no longer destroy ally devices (Test Server Only). This does not affect Custom Games or Situations. We are aware this is a substantial design change, so it will be released on the Test Server to gather feedback from players and the feature will be deactivated when the build goes live.
    • There are new playlist settings for Custom Games. The Preparation Phase Timer can now be set to 0, which allows teams to skip the Preparation Phase, and the Action Phase Timer can now be set to 1800 (30 mins).
    • The damage zone for reinforcements is now reduced to avoid having them overlap and destroy nearby gadgets.

Known Issues

• User remains zoomed in on Ubisoft Connect interface after pressing the Right Trigger on Xbox Series X before the interface finishes loading.

Gameplay

• FIXED – Various invite and matchmaking errors.
• FIXED – Various Deployable Shield issues.
• FIXED – The first situation “01 CQB Basics” is not available throughout the PlayGo .
• FIXED – Online Custom Game hosts are unable to create a second online match.
• FIXED – Various issues occur when the second to last player alive is eliminated right before the last player.
• FIXED – Operators in DBNO can move freely while being revived by the Finka’s Adrenal Surge or Stim Pistol.
• FIXED – Navigate secondary input doesn’t work to exit rappel.
• FIXED – Planting the Defuser on top of the round table located in 1F Lobby will destroys it.
• FIXED – Missing blue in-use light on cameras when an Attacker is standing in the Jammer effect radius.
• FIXED – The HUD counter does not always display the accurate number of opponent AI in Elimination.
• FIXED – Users can’t vault on shelves in 1F compressor room on Outback map.
• FIXED – During the EOR, the camera displays the inside of the player’s head for a fraction of second.
• FIXED – Newly deployed metal objects are not electrified right away when they are deployed in range of a disabled Electro Claw.
• FIXED – When all Attackers and their drones are eliminated after the defuser is planted, the spectator camera fixes on where they were eliminated, instead of the defuser.
• FIXED – The reactivation of Kaid’s Electro Claw is delayed after being disabled by Thatcher’s EMP Grenade.

Level Design

• FIXED – Various new iterations of LOD issues present on Consulate and Skyscraper map.
• FIXED – Various lighting issues on maps.
• FIXED – Multiple map asset destruction and collision issues.
• FIXED – Exploitable gaps in various map areas.
• FIXED – Hatches have inconsistent bullet penetration.
• FIXED – Various defuser planting and retrieval issues in specific areas on maps.
• FIXED – Certain deployable gadgets cannot be deployed on the blue carpet located at 2F Piano Room on Outback map.

Operators

• FIXED – Weapons customized during the Planning Phase are not visually updated in Operators section.
• FIXED – Mira’s Black Mirror can be deployed on the wrong side of a reinforced wall.
• FIXED – Various visual fixes and clipping issues for Operators and their gadgets.
• FIXED – Mozzie’s Pest Launcher loses its functionality after it is shot on top of Gridlock’s Trax Stingers.
• FIXED – When fired at a barricade that is then removed, Hibana’s X-Kairos pellets float in mid-air.
• FIXED – Forced unlean and various minor animation issues.
• FIXED – Oryx’s Remah Dash can hit Attackers behind reinforced walls
• FIXED – Minor overlay animation issues for operators and their gadgets.
• FIXED – Multiple clipping issues for Operator weapons, headgear, and uniforms.
• FIXED – Twitch’s Shock Drone cannot fire through debris.
• FIXED – Thatcher’s EMP Grenade will not disable Clash’s CCE Shield when activating the shield at the same time as the EMP explosion.
• FIXED – Mira’s Black Mirror has a bigger hitbox when held.
• FIXED – Multiple issues while using Aruni’s Surya Gate.
• FIXED – Invisible phone in the animation that occurs when IQ selects Observation Tools.
• FIXED – Kali’s CSRX 300 shows a damage value of 97 instead of 122.
• FIXED – VFX for Mute is missing in certain circumstances.
• FIXED – Frost’s Welcome Mat will not deploy on some elevated surfaces.
• FIXED – When Alibi’s Prisma is thrown and hit midair by Thatcher’s EMP Grenade, the opening animation still occurs.
• FIXED – Friendly Fire penalty occurs when an ally destroys Hibana’s X-Kairos pellets on a reinforced hatch.
• FIXED – Aruni’s melee cannot destroy Gridlock’s Trax Stingers when Aruni is played by the host in a Local Custom Game.
• FIXED – Pest warning is displayed when the player uses Observation Tools after capturing a drone as Mozzie.
• FIXED – Zero’s Argus Launcher has a green highlight when ADS is activated in end of round replay.
• FIXED – Inconsistent deployment prompt for Kapkan’s Entry Denial Device.
• FIXED – Deploying Mute’s Signal Disruptor while Observation Tools are in use by Attackers prevents them from being jammed.
• FIXED – Disabled effects remain on Wamai’s Mag-NET when it self-destructs.
• FIXED – Alibi’s Prisma doesn’t redeploy after falling through a hatch.
• FIXED – White light on Clash’s CCE Shield does not turn off when the shield is disabled by Thatcher’s EMP Grenade.
• FIXED – The disabled state for Echo’s Yokai does not appear for players who join a game in progress

User Experience

• FIXED – Various performance issues on PS5.
• FIXED – A black screen appears when the game is booted on Xbox One X.
• FIXED – Various issues with Ubisoft notifications and Rewards.
• FIXED – Friendly fire prompt does not appear when match cancellation prompt is active.
• FIXED – Bundles don’t appear as owned when buying a larger bundle that contains them.
• FIXED – Multiple UI improvements and fixes.
• FIXED – Minor voice over and audio issues.
• FIXED – Minor cosmetic and shop fixes.
• FIXED – Various issues with chat accessibility features.
• FIXED – Various localization issues throughout the game.
• FIXED – Defenders can prevent a match cancellation by prematurely ending the round.
• FIXED – Getting shot by Maestro’s Evil Eye causes the game to crash.
• FIXED – Switching from one monitor to another removes the first monitor’s resolution presets.

All I’m gonna say is this, Marvel just started meeting with writers on FANTASTIC FOUR, there is no script and it will be awhile before this film starts shooting

— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) February 21, 2021

Developer Team Cherry has released a new update for Hollow Knight on PC, the first that the game has gotten since 2018. The update has been released in beta while Team Cherry monitors the effects of the changes, so none of the bug fixes are permanent yet.

In the full patch notes, Team Cherry writes that the update’s main purpose is to improve the Unity version of Hollow Knight. However, the update implements several bug fixes as well, which are listed below.

Hollow Knight v1.5.58.11762 Patch Notes

• Added “Borderless” option to fullscreen in video options
• Fixed uncollected Grubfather rewards being miss-able
• Enabled controller rumble (only supported for certain configurations, e.g. Xbox One controller on Windows)
• Fixed the Soul Tyrant battle in pantheons getting stuck after being defeated sometimes
• Fixed death loop if moving too high during Absolute Radiance phase 2
• 64-bit is now required for Windows
• Vulkan is now the default graphics API for Linux
• Other minor fixes

Team Cherry does not mention when these changes will be implemented permanently, but adds that when they are, the developer will “make sure to leave the current version [of Hollow Knight] on it’s own beta branch for those who need the 32-bit version.”

If you’re itching to access these changes for yourself, log into your Steam account, right-click on Hollow Knight in your Library, and click “Properties” and then “Betas.” The option to opt into Hollow Knight’s available betas should then pop up–you want to select “public-beta.”

Team Cherry is still in the midst of developing Hollow Knight: Silksong, a follow-up to the original game that sees you play as Hollow Knight’s secondary protagonist, Hornet, who has become trapped in the deepest levels of Pharloom, a kingdom of silk and song. In order to escape, she must journey upwards towards freedom, utilizing her speed, agility, and fighting prowess to overcome deadly bugs and arachnids. Hollow Knight: Silksong is set to launch for PC and Switch.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ Mario update arrives on February 25, and it introduces a line of Mushroom Kingdom furniture and clothing to the Switch life sim. Perhaps the most intriguing addition is the warp pipe, which lets you travel quickly between two points around your island, and Nintendo has now shared some more details on how this works.

As the company first revealed during the February 2021 Nintendo Direct, you can purchase a pair of warp pipes from Nook Shopping once the Mushroom Kingdom items go on sale and place them at two different points around your island. Once the two pipes are set, you can hop into one to travel between the two locations quickly. This works even if one of the warp pipes is placed inside your house.

If you have more than two pipes placed around your island, your warp location will be chosen randomly. Nintendo says you’ll also need to ensure that the pipes have enough landing space around them before you can use them.

Although Animal Crossing’s Mario update arrives this week, the warp pipes and other Mushroom Kingdom items won’t actually go on sale in the game until March 1. However, you’ll be able to get one Mario item early. Once you’ve installed the latest update, you’ll receive a Mario-themed wallpaper in your mailbox.

That’s not all this week’s update will bring to the game. In addition to the Mario furniture and clothing, the update will add a handful of new seasonal items to the game celebrating March holidays like Shamrock Day, Pi Day, and the Hinamatsuri festival. These items will be available to order from Nook Shopping at various points in March.

If you missed out on pre-ordering Analogue’s Pocket gaming handheld, good news: Additional pre-orders are coming, and Analogue says it’s implementing bot and scalper protections to help ward off resellers.

In a new post, Analogue laid out their plans for 2021 pre-orders.

Analogue says they’re implementing “robust” bot protection, and all orders placed using bots will be cancelled and inventory will be reallocated to real customers. For human scalpers, Analogue says they’ll be working with eBay to monitor for accounts selling access to a pre-order, which is against eBay’s terms of service, and cancel them.

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“The current global state of affairs has resulted in consequences that have affected the worldwide supply chain and this has temporarily slowed our ability to keep many of our products in stock (Super Nt, Mega Sg) and reduced production capacity for Pocket,” Analogue stated. “We are aware that many users are frustrated that Pocket pre-orders sold out quickly and both Super Nt and Mega Sg are currently unavailable.”

Analogue says it’s also taking measures to avoid experiencing shipping calculator errors, which delayed some shipments and prevented some people from completing orders.

You can sign up for pre-order notifications on Analogue’s site.

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The Analogue Pocket is effectively a modern reimagining of the Nintendo Game Boy. Featuring a sleek, minimalist design (like a Game Boy as envisioned by a PS4 designer), the Pocket is compatible with 2,780 Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges. It also works with cartridge adaptors for Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, Atari Lynx, and others. Though it has 10 times the resolution of a Game Boy screen, the Pocket can also utilize an “Original Display Mode” to replicate the original game’s look. As if that weren’t enough, the Pocket also features its own music creation and game design software. You can read our full preview here.

The first wave of Analogue Pocket handhelds is due to start shipping in May 2021.

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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/game boy for IGN.

Pokemon Go‘s next season of content kicks off on March 1, developer Niantic has announced. This season is dubbed the Season of Legends, and it introduces new Legendary Pokemon, as well as new Mega Evolutions, Special Research, and more.

During the Season of Legends, the Therian forms of Landorus, Tornadus, and Thundurus will make their debut in Pokemon Go, making this the first time these forms will be available in the mobile game. Niantic also teases that “some other Legendary faces” will also arrive in Pokemon Go during the new season.

Additionally, new Mega-Evolved Pokemon will debut in the game during the season. Niantic has not yet announced which Pokemon these will be, but they’ll be appearing “over the course of the season.” The studio also says that different Mega-Evolved Pokemon will be available in Mega Raids when the season kicks off on March 1.

On top of that, players will be able to hatch new kinds of Pokemon from eggs. Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip, Budew, and others will be hatching from 2 km eggs; Drowzee, Azurill, and Munna will hatch from 5 km eggs; and Nincada, Alomomola, and other rare monsters will hatch from 10 km eggs.

Different Pokemon will also be appearing in the wild during the Season of Legends, some of which will vary depending on your hemisphere. You can see all of the Pokemon that will be exclusive to the northern and southern hemispheres below:

Northern Hemisphere Exclusives

• Tangela
• Combee
• Croagunk
• Ducklett
• Spring Form Deerling
• Scyther
• Dratini
• Cottonee
• Turtwig
• Chimchar
• Piplup

Southern Hemisphere Exclusives

• Mankey
• Yanma
• Buizel
• Woobat
• Pineco
• Bagon
• Ferroseed
• Autumn Form Deerling
• Snivy
• Tepig
• Oshawott

Beyond the new Pokemon, Niantic will roll out a new Special Research shortly after the Season of Legends begins. This research will revolve around the Therian forms of Landorus, Thundurus, and Tornadus, and you’ll earn Candy for each of the Legendaries along with other rewards for completing the research.

Niantic is also increasing the amount of XP players will earn from five-star Raids for this season, as well as giving away free Remote Raid Passes “at certain times.” You can read more about the Season of Legends on the official Pokemon Go blog.

In other Pokemon Go news, the game’s Kanto Celebration event is underway until February 27, and a Kanto Raid Day is set for February 28. March’s Community Day, meanwhile, takes place on March 6. The featured Pokemon this time will be Fletchling, and players will have a chance to evolve it into a Talonflame that knows Incinerate.

Blizzard has reiterated publicly that it will not repeat the mistake of Warcraft 3: Reforged with Diablo 2: Resurrected, meaning that the remaster will not replace Diablo 2 in any way, shape, or form. Lead designer Rob Gallerani said that Resurrected will “absolutely not” overwrite existing Diablo 2 installs. Blizzard previously told GameSpot this information during BlizzCon.

“Everything you have about D2 currently will stay D2,” Gallerani said, per Eurogamer. “This is a separate product, separate game. You can play them both at the same time if you want.”

As any hardcore Blizzard fan will tell you, this is a necessary step for the developer to take because of the controversy surrounding the studio’s ill-fated Warcraft 3 remaster. Warcraft 3: Reforged replaced the original Warcraft 3 client entirely, which surprised many of the game’s longtime fans.

Though the remaster gave players the option to trigger the original visuals, several features key to the original game were missing from the remaster, such as custom campaign support, meaning that players no longer had access to them. Needless to say, this triggered a flurry of fan complaints.

Diablo 2: Resurrected was announced at BlizzCon 2021, and it’s coming out later this year. The game will feature a playable alpha where Blizzard can collect fan feedback to avoid another Warcraft 3 situation. Regarding Reforged, Blizzard has committed to restoring all the game’s cut online features in a future update. Tony Hawk 1 + 2 developer Vicarious Visions was folded into Blizzard to help support the Diablo 2 remake.

During an official Twitch stream, the creative director of Doom Eternal said that adding a female protagonist to the series was something that the developers at id Software had discussed. However, Hugo Martin said that the studio decided that they’d like to do it in a way that would have an actual effect on gameplay, rather than simply reskinning the game’s Doom Slayer protagonist to be a woman.

“Tonally, when it comes to designing the action, you think about, ‘if The Slayer is a Ferrari, then what would a female Slayer be? What would a Medieval slayer be?’” Martin said, according to VGC. “How would that affect things and what sort of analogies would you draw from that to allow it to influence the experience? It definitely would be cool.”

While a controllable female character would be a new feature in the Doom series, it wouldn’t be a first for id Software’s games. Pioneering multiplayer shooter Quake 3 allowed players to control a variety of women characters, including Crash, a female marine that trained the Doom Marine back in his military days.

In other Doom Eternal news, the game’s second DLC pack still hasn’t been released, but hints from id seem to suggest that it should be coming out in the next few weeks. The game’s first DLC pack, Ancient Gods Part 1, released back in October 2020 to mostly positive reviews, with our reviewer Andrew King saying that it exhibits the “best and worst” of Eternal’s traits. A recent patch added a new master level to the game.

Blizzard has big plans for Hearthstone in 2021. The Year of the Gryphon will introduce three new expansions, each with its own mini-expansion, formulating a year-long narrative starring an all-new cast of characters. The underlying structure of the game will undergo a massive shift too, with the introduction of the Core set and new spell schools. And sometime later this year, a new Mercenaries mode will turn the familiar card game into a roguelike RPG.

Fresh off the presentation at BlizzConline, we spoke with senior game designer Alec Dawson and associate game designer Cora Georgiou about the plans for the coming year and lessons learned from past expansions. For more on Hearthstone and the Year of the Gryphon, check out everything we know about Hearthstone’s 2021 plans.

The Core Set is a pretty significant change. So I want to start by asking for some background on how you reached the decision to make such a foundational-level change to the game.

Dawson: Yeah. It was one of the things that we’ve been talking about for quite some time. I’ve been on the team for about three and a half years now and ever since I joined, it’s been a topic of conversation where I’d say, “When can we do it? How can we do it? What’s it going to take?” And the team’s really grown a lot of over that time as well. So we’re just in a really good place in terms of our team size to be able to take on a big project like this.

So I think we’ve been talking about this for quite some time. We realized we just want to make the first time player experience, you come in and you unlock cards, just much easier. I think for us, one of the biggest things over the past few years is that new players are coming into Hearthstone [wondering], “Where do I start, how do I begin, and what am I up against?” What sort of experience, what sort of collection are we putting them up against? And we want them to be able to build these decks a lot more easily and have decks that are more competitive too. So those are two of the biggest things driving this is just, we want players to be on a much higher starting block than they were before.

In interviews I’ve done in recent years, the key phrase that I kept hearing was “class identity,” a lot of which was based on the Basic and Classic sets. How did you tackle the Core set idea without compromising class identity?

Georgiou: It was actually a really good opportunity for us to make sure that the Core set aligns with what Hearthstone’s class identities are today. And I do think there have been changes to class identities over time, with the usual rotations to Hall of Fame and things of that sort. For instance, Priest used to be able to draw a lot of cards and we’ve cut down on that a bit in recent times. Shaman used to be able to generate a lot of cards. We’ve cut down on that also. So it was just a really good opportunity for us to, again, strongly reaffirm that these are the individual identities of our classes. These are their strengths, these are their weaknesses, and to make sure that that is reflected in the core set.

Dawson: And not only in terms of what’s been taken away, but also what’s been added, right? If you get Rogue, you might see a Burgle piece as that’s something they’ve been doing over the past few years, or you might see a bit more self-sacrificing Warlock. So some of the archetypes now define those classes and players have been gravitating towards over the past few years–we’re going to see a little bit of that in their base identity as well.

And this way you don’t have to re-introduce a Burgle mechanic every two years to make sure it stays a part of the identity.

Georgiou: Yeah. I mean, we’ve gotten questions over the years, certainly about functional reprints, other card games do those from time to time. And it’s not something that we’ve done yet. But with the Core set, if we want to explore Mechs for a year, we have a bunch of Mech cases from the past–maybe we bring back Mechwarper. Who knows? If we want to do dragons again, maybe we have some of those staple pieces that we can bring into the Core set for that year. That opens up more design space for us within the expansions.

How much variation can we expect in those yearly Core rotations?

Dawson: I think we haven’t hit the number exactly yet–we want to see how players react to the Core set and see what they like and what the usage rate is, things like that. Going forward, we’re probably thinking around, ballpark, somewhere between 30 and 35 percent. I think from year to year that could change, but I would expect a good base of it to stay the same from year to year.

Another big addition that surprised me was Spell Schools–basically spells as a tribe-like designation. That seems like it has a lot of design versatility. Were you trying to tackle a particular design obstacle?

Georgiou: Not necessarily an obstacle, but it was something that we’d thought about for a while and it just seemed like it was a really good time to do it. And it certainly does open up a lot of design space for us. Being able to create holy archetypes for priests, being able to create frost and fire archetypes and arcane archetypes from Mage and Shaman, and nature archetypes for Druid. It’s just a design space that we hadn’t explored before. And now that we’ve got these Spell Schools, we have the opportunity to do that. So you’re certainly going to see some of that in Forged in the Barrens.

It seems like it also lets you limit things so that they don’t get out of hand. Like, you already have Bru’kan, who has Nature Spell Damage +3. If you printed a general card that said, “Spell damage +3,” you could see that combo getting wacky real fast. But this way, it seems like you have finer control.

Georgiou: Exactly. We get to decide which spells are nature spells. We get to decide the exact reach of those spells, but it’s still certainly a very powerful card. I think in the materials you saw, that Lightning Storm has been typed as a nature spell. So lightning storm was spell damage plus three for four extra mana. That’s pretty good.

The new Frenzy keyword reminds me of Spellburst. Frenzy seems a little harder to trigger, without Warrior-like Enrage effects.

Dawson: I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s harder to trigger. I think there’s still going to be ways you can do that. If you really want to get your Frenzy out, you might use Animated Broomstick, a card like that. Warrior will have ways, much easier ways I think, than some other classes of trading their Frenzy minions and getting all of their effects.

We just wanted to bring some of the focus back to board combat. Now you have to really think about, “Am I evaluating this trade differently because of the Frenzy ability?” versus just going face or taking what could be seen as the most optimal trade. You’re definitely going to consider the Frenzy ability a lot more now in terms of those board’s interactions.

Each expansion is planning to get its own mini-expansion. How do you make the selection of which cards go into the main expansion and then which ones you bring out in the mini-expansion?

Georgiou: That’s something that we internally have been trying to figure out. We know how to make a 135 card expansion, but making another 35 extra cards at the same time that are a slightly different theme is something that we haven’t done a ton of in the past. So we’ve experimented with a couple of different ways to do it, having one or two people break off to sort of tackle the mini-set while other designers are still working on the main expansion. We’ve considered doing both at the same time and we just have them separated in our spreadsheet that we keep track of our cards on. We’re just trying to figure out what works, what’s the best process for it. It’s still something that I think we’re looking to improve, but internally it’s been going really well and the reception for Darkmoon Races was really phenomenal. So we’re definitely excited to keep doing them.

Dawson: I think there’s something interesting about the mini sets in particular, where you get to introduce these mechanics in earlier expansions. Then in the mini expansion, you can make them a bit more complex than you would normally, because there’s a familiarity there. That’s something I think you may see going forward throughout the year.

How set are the cards when you release an expansion? Do you watch how the meta develops and tweak things to shake it up?

Dawson: We definitely do evaluate the meta for a little bit. After a few weeks, we’ll take a look at it; for example, saying, “Hey, so how’s Darkmoon Faire doing? What’s doing well?” Then we’ll take a look at the mini-expansion and say, “All right, are there any adjustments here that we want to make considering what’s live?” So we usually do that during our normal expansions as well. We’ll come back pretty late into the process and make little changes, push some levers up and others down a little bit. And yeah, we do that for the mini expansions as well.

The Tavern Pass got some pushback from fans. And the studio leadership said, “Hey, we messed up. We’ll do better.” What feedback did you take to heart from that and are we going to see anything different from the Tavern Pass going forward, aside from the general rebalancing that already happened?

Dawson: Yeah. Obviously, there was a lot of valuable feedback and we definitely took it to heart. I think from that starting point, it did need to get better. And that’s what you saw throughout the course of expansion. I think if we look at the entire expansion now, players can say, “Oh, wow, I really am gaining a lot of gold.” And I think going into Forged in the Barrens, you’ll see how much you did get during the Darkmoon Faire reward tracks. So I think that’s really great.

We’re also continuously trying to improve it as well. Right now, , we’ve been talking as a team about how we can add more things for you to have in Hearthstone. Our players talk about cosmetics of different sorts all the time. And we want to be able to add those too. So I think the reward structure should feel more varied and have just more for you to collect overall.

Georgiou: Yeah, we’ve got such talented artists on our team. Cosmetics are always something that we wanted to be able to pursue, but we just didn’t have a really great method to get them to our players before this. So this was always something that we had planned on continuing to develop and adding more worth for our players too. So we have some exciting stuff coming.

The disconnect from the fans seemed to be calculating the gold output without these planned special events, which were going to award extra experience. Did you wish people had stuck it out to see how that worked? Are you still planning to reintroduce special events?

Georgiou: We don’t know exactly what happened, but if we didn’t make it clear that this was going to be a better value for our players, then that’s on us. Our players shouldn’t have to do a bunch of complex math to realize that they’re not getting as much as they got before, especially when our intent with the rewards track was to noticeably give them more and was to make their quality of life easier. So absolutely, there was some miscommunication and some failures on our part there, for sure.

But we’ve learned from it and we’ve taken it to heart. And now going forward, clearly we have made improvements and we intend to continue to make improvements. Chinese New Year is going on right now and we’ve got some pack rewards there. And as we continue on throughout the year as well, yeah, we have plans for that.

Mercenaries seems like an exciting concept, but I’m having trouble picturing in my head what it actually looks like. Are you able to describe what happens in a Mercenaries match?

Dawson: We’re obviously going to be talking about it a bit later in the year, but you’ll be collecting a group of Hearthstone characters that you may know and love and leveling them up and taking them through different combats. I think they’d scroll through the map in the [trailer], so each time you go through one of those scenarios, it’s going to be different. So there are some roguelike elements there as well. It’s really focused on collecting and leveling up this team and then taking them through fights. That is your main core gameplay for that stretch. I think for us, when we look at Battlegrounds, look at Mercenaries, it’s still going to be pretty familiar to what Hearthstone gameplay is but there’s something almost in a different shell than you’ve seen before.

How deep do the RPG hooks go in Mercenaries?

Dawson: I think it’s a game mode that appeals to players that are going to find themselves diving into it in particular. It’s going to be something where you are going to see a ton of progression. It’s very progression-focused in that sense. Much more so than things in normal Hearthstone.

We showed the art pieces in the video, and they’ll be in ceremonies that are leveling up. So that scene sounds cool. It’s like, “Oh yeah, I can go from my level one Ragnaros, my little baby Ragnaros.” And then in the last stage, and then when you level that Ragnaros all the way up, it’s going to be giant and massive and have a lot more different abilities than it did when it started out. So stuff like that, I think is going to be really cool to see.

You’re introducing a year-long storyline with these Mercenaries characters, similar to Year of the Dragon. So what feedback did you take from Year of the Dragon? What prompted you to do the year-long story again?

Georgiou: Year-long narratives are something that we really like being able to tell because it can be somewhat difficult and somewhat limiting to tell stories within a card game. You only have so much space on a card to show an image and showing progression over time can thus be a little bit difficult. So with a year-long narrative, we have more ability to be able to follow that story over time and just show that progression. And that’s really what this year is entirely about. It’s about the progression of our Mercenaries. It’s about showing their growth and showing their stories. And so you will be following our five Horde Mercenaries and our five Alliance Mercenaries throughout the year across all three expansions.

And this is just sort of where they get their start, how they come together, what their backgrounds really are. And it was something that our players seemed to really enjoy with the Year of the Dragon. So we thought, “Hey, this would be a great opportunity to really stretch our narrative muscles and see what we can do with 10 entirely brand-new characters.”