Hearthstone was completely free, only charging players for additional content such as card packs and expansions. “When people asked how successful we’d be, I said, ‘I guarantee we’ll make dozens of dollars,’” said Dodds. The results blew everyone away. By the end of the month, the game had ten million registered users. Within the next few years it would reach one hundred million—more players than any game Blizzard had ever made—and would eventually generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue per year. This was Blizzard’s little skunkworks project, the company’s lowest priority, a game
...more

