“Goblins vs Gnomes”, the first expansion for Blizzard’s online card game Hearthstone, could go live as early as tonight.
The release in the USA is scheduled for today, the 8th of December. Tomorrow, the 9th of December, it will be available in Europe. It might be taken very literally with the 9th of December, activating it shortly after midnight.
In any case, Blizzard plans to release it in the USA in the “early afternoon” Pacific Time. This is likely to be around 3 or 4 PM, which means it will be midnight or 1 AM for us with a 9-hour time difference.
@NippleDragons Sometime in the early afternoon PST on the 8th, ideally.
— Zeriyah (@CM_Zeriyah) December 5, 2014
The release date for the USA is noted in this tweet. Details about the EU launch are still unclear, but Naxxramas also opened significantly earlier than initially thought. We at mein-mmo have already written a lot about the expansion: You can find an overview of the cards in this article, you can get a taste of the cards in the arena, and our Cortyn presents her favorite cards here.
Update 21:30: In the USA, the expansion is now live. Players receive three free packs at launch. Once it’s ensured that the expansion runs smoothly in North America, they will bring it to Europe. It should be available in early Tuesday morning.
.@danielcheshire EU is slated for early morning on the 9th (EU time). — Zeriyah (@CM_Zeriyah) December 8, 2014
We have already hatched on the American server and unpacked the three free packs … well, hopefully you have better luck tomorrow morning when Goblins vs Gnomes hits Europe.
Update 10:20: Short update – “Goblins vs Gnomes” is not yet live in Europe. This is due to problems with authentication and the shop that occurred in the USA last night. The technicians at Blizzard are on it.
Update 12:40: The latest official statement we found comes from this morning at 8:30 our time. It states that Hearthstone has only been released in North America so far. It should be coming to other regions, including Europe, within 24 hours. Here you can find the statement.
Update 16:15: At 15:53, it was tweeted from an official Blizzard channel that it will take “at least a few more hours” for Hearthstone to come to Europe.
It’ll be at least a few more hours before Goblins vs Gnomes is live in Europe. We’ll be sure to keep you posted! #GvG
— Hearthstone (@PlayHearthstone) December 9, 2014
Update 20:00: There is nothing new, except maybe this warning to be careful when purchasing new packs later.
http://youtu.be/cqub0OFlmqc
Update 20:50: A maintenance is now scheduled for 9 PM. The maintenance is expected to be completed in “a few” hours. After that, we will have Goblins vs Gnomes, according to Blizzard.
23:20: Hearthstone – Goblins vs Gnomes is live in Europe … but the servers are suffering under the influx and authentication problems. You may have to try several times to get onto the EU server, and even then it still seems quite laggy. Nonetheless: The three free packs are now available and Goblins vs Gnomes has launched in Europe as promised on December 9.
