As Blizzard preps a new competitive mode for digital card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Bethesda in its E3 2015 presentation announced that it is preparing a competitor.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends is an upcoming card game for the iPad and PC, Bethesda announced during its conference. Just like its rival, Legends will be free to play.
The hour is early and the details are sparse surrounding Legends. What is known is that Bethesda will implement The Elder Scrolls' Elves, Orcs, Ghouls and Nords factions, as players enter Tamriel through the card game.
Meanwhile, over at Blizzard, Hearthstone is about to start allowing what it is calling Tavern Brawls. Requiring at least a level 20 Hero, Tavern Brawls will be weekly events that involve special modifiers for decks and gameplay to heat up the competition in the card game.
"Each week, a different Tavern Brawl will pit you head to head versus another player using exciting and unique rules," said Blizzard. "One week might feature preset decks, while another week could have you crafting a brand new Tavern Brawl deck following specific guidelines, while others might offer buffs to specific minion types—who knows!"
Hearthstone's success, surging past the 25 million player mark earlier this year, helped propel parent Activision to achieve record earnings for Blizzard in 2014. The company's digital sales totaled $2.2 billion last year.
"We expanded our franchise portfolio by launching two of the industry's most successful new brands, Blizzard's Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and the biggest new IP launch in industry history, Destiny," said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision. "Combined, these franchises attracted over 40 million registered players worldwide and generated more than $850 million in revenue."
The success of Hearthstone wasn't lost on Bethesda, whose catalog and lore have deepened so much so that the company just held its first-ever E3 conference on Sunday. As a free-to-play game that is fit for mobile, The Elder Scrolls: Legend appears to be a low-cost venture for which the potential gains dwarf the overhead.
Below is the trailer for The Elder Scrolls: Legends:
