Blizzard has shared why their card game, Hearthstone, which is based on the Warcraft universe, hasn’t made its way to game consoles yet, even though it’s been out for 12 years. While you can play it on phones and tablets, it hasn’t been released on devices like the Nintendo Switch or the Steam Deck. Blizzard mentioned that now that they are part of Microsoft and Xbox, bringing Hearthstone to these gaming machines is becoming a bigger focus.

Nathan Lyons-Smith, the executive producer for Hearthstone, explained that making the game work well on consoles requires a significant effort. “There’s a level of investment that we need to make to make that happen,” he said in a recent interview. He pointed out that they need to adjust how the game looks and feels, especially the controls, to make playing a card game on these devices feel natural. He recalled that a game called Duels of the Planeswalkers for Magic: The Gathering worked great with a controller many years ago, so he knows it’s possible.

Lyons-Smith also noted that they need to be sure there are enough players who want to play Hearthstone on consoles, beyond those who already use their phones or tablets. “It’s been so exciting seeing that segment of the market grow such that we can then say, yeah, actually, let’s go and do this,” he added, suggesting that the growing popularity of these platforms makes it a more attractive option.

He mentioned that Hearthstone was quickly put on mobile devices back in 2015, just a year after it first came out. This was because Blizzard saw a chance to reach more players and acted fast. “We ported that thing to get fast to market and a whole lot more players showed and so it was the right strategic choice at that time,” Lyons-Smith stated. However, he also pointed out that the game’s original code is quite old now, and the standards for games on consoles and handhelds are very high.

Lyons-Smith shared that an engineer who has worked on the project for a long time estimates the game’s code is about 16 years old. Back then, the team was much smaller, only 15 people. “And so there’s more of an effort to go: ‘I want to make sure when we go that it’s awesome.’ That it doesn’t just feel like, yeah, they ported it here and you can play… I want to make sure that when we go, we’re going to go and it’s going to feel awesome for players that love that form factor, whether they’re leaning back on the couch or sitting on the couch with their handheld,” he explained, emphasizing the desire for a high-quality experience.

Game director Tyler Bielman agreed, saying that if they decide to bring Hearthstone to a big screen on a console, they want to make sure the entire experience is perfectly suited for that way of playing. “If we’re going to bring it specifically to that living room big screen platform, we would want to make sure that the full experience is optimised for that mode that you’re in,” Bielman said.

Lyons-Smith concluded this point by saying, “So let’s get there and let’s do it right and we’ll find the right time to do it.”

When asked a follow-up question about Microsoft’s influence, Lyons-Smith mentioned that their new owner is very keen on getting games onto as many different devices as possible. “In the future as we explore console and handheld, we’d probably go as wide as we could,” he stated. “Certainly we have a different owner now than we did three years ago and they’re more invested in Xbox and ‘anything’s an Xbox’. Their high-level goal [being] games playable anywhere.”

This idea of playing games anywhere is a big part of Microsoft’s strategy as they shift Xbox from just a console to a broader gaming service that works on many devices. The goal is that you buy a game once and can play it on different platforms that support the Xbox system. Devices like the Asus Rog Ally X, a handheld computer released last year, are a good example of this approach.

Blizzard recently announced a new expansion for Hearthstone called Cataclysm, which is set to be released on March 17th. This update will introduce a new story to the game, bring back powerful cards that take up a lot of space on the game board, and add new game mechanics and features. Blizzard is also hinting at a major announcement for Hearthstone at their BlizzCon event in 2026, but it has been confirmed that this will not be Hearthstone 2.