Blizzard aiming to appeal beyond World of Warcraft fans with Hearthstone

Despite being set in the Warcraft universe, Blizzard's digital card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is being aimed at a wider mainstream audience by offering a largely accessible version of the typically rule-riddled genre.

The team is boiling the concept of tradable card games down to "as simple a set as possible," lead artist Ben Thompson told Polygon, and staying away from the phases and turns that are typical of these games.

"That's how the audience can be even broader than World of Warcraft players or fans of the franchise," said Thompson. "We just have a foot already in the door with the franchise. Other games are struggling to make something fun as well as an entirely new IP."

The free-to-play Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is now in closed beta testing on Mac and Windows PC.