Hearthstone finally enters open beta in U.S.

After a brief delay, Hearthstone Beta, Blizzard's digital strategy card battling game, is finally live in North America. All you have to do is download the game and you can begin playing for free, with no fears of having your progress wiped.

"We have no plans to perform any more wipes of Hearthstone, so feel free to amass your collection and play against your friends!" Blizzard promised in the announcement today. With that being said, the developer did warn that this is still a beta phase and as such, they will be "closely monitoring many aspects of the game to ensure a positive play experience for everyone."

"Please be aware that if smoke starts curling out of our servers due to unexpectedly high demand to play Hearthstone, we may have to temporarily disable open beta account activations for a time until we’re ready to take on more players," Blizzard said.

Currently, Hearthstone Beta is only available in North America, but Blizzard does have plans to open it up to all of the other regions within the next few days. We'll be sure to let you know when that happens.