Hearthstone Price Hikes in Many Regions Following Patch 25.4 – Runestone Prices Increased by up to 600% In Certain Countries

Patch 25.4 dropped yesterday, with many positive features and the mini-set, but also an unexpected downside. Less than 24h before the patch was released, Blizzard informed about price hikes in multiple regions across the world. And saying “informed” is very generous – the only information was a single post on the official forums, in Spanish, with nothing about it on the official social media accounts. If not for the fact that people started sharing it online, many wouldn’t even realize that something like that happened. Even then, the period between the announcement and the price changes going live was so short that the warning was completely useless. I’m sure that some players would like to at least stock up on some packs with old prices, but they couldn’t do it since it was already too late.

Here’s the original message:

Durante la próxima semana, junto con la actualización 25.4, aumentará el precio de varios artículos del juego de Hearthstone para algunos países y regiones, como Argentina, Brasil, Chile, México, Australia, Nueva Zelanda, Reino Unido, Georgia, Turquía, Kazajistán, Ucrania, Corea del Sur, Taiwán y Japón. Estos ajustes tendrán lugar en todas las plataformas y tiendas. Cualquier disparidad inicial en los precios de distintas plataformas se resolverá poco después del lanzamiento del parche 25.4.

Source

And here’s the translation:

Over the next week, along with update 25.4, the price of several Hearthstone in-game items will increase for some countries and regions, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Georgia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. These adjustments will take place across all platforms and stores. Any initial disparity in pricing across platforms will be resolved shortly after the release of patch 25.4.

Of course, price hikes are nothing out of ordinary – between inflation, currency exchange fluctuations etc. it’s quite common for companies to increase prices in some regions. The price hike was modest in some countries – for example in Japan or New Zealand, Runestone prices went up by only a few %. It starts getting worse when you look at Mexico and Kazakhstan at roughly 25-30% price increase. That’s a lot and people from those countries might certainly feel it, but it’s still within the limits of what I would expect. However, this hike was way, way bigger than I could ever imagine in other places.

For example, in Brazil, the prices have increased by ~120%, while in Argentina they went up by a whooping ~600%. The new prices are often completely out of reach of people living in those countries. For example, players in Argentina now have to pay half of their minimum monthly salary for the Mega Pre-Purchase Bundle. To make a comparison – imagine someone living in California state in the United States having to pay around $1200 for the same bundle (which currently costs $80). Those purchases were already expensive before the increase, now most of the people from those regions have no other option than going completely F2P or quitting the game.

Not to mention the optics of increasing prices in Turkey or Ukraine given what happens in those countries right now – it just doesn’t look good and Blizzard definitely could have excluded those countries from the list or at least waited.

Many players are rightfully angry with Blizzard for this move. Regional prices exist for a reason and this change virtually got rid of them, making everyone pay roughly the same as people from the US while often earning many times less money. It’s not fair, but sadly I don’t think there’s anything that can be done about it. Hearthstone had price hikes in certain regions many times before, and even though people from those regions protested, I can’t remember a single time they were reverted.

If I had to give an explanation for such steep price increases, the only thing that comes to my mind is people from other, more rich countries buying packs for regional prices in those poorer countries instead of paying full price in their own currency. That’s often the reason cited for companies who get rid of regional pricing or at least make them closer to what people in the US pay. I know that it was a popular method of purchasing games for much cheaper, but many companies (like Valve) have implemented countermeasures while still keeping the lower regional prices. If that’s the reason for this price hike, I really think that Blizzard should try to prevent people from buying stuff outside of their country instead of punishing the people actually living there.