Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft beta 'not months away,' Blizzard says

Blizzard Entertainment's free-to-play collectible card game, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, is inching closer to the release of its playable beta, according to an update from the developer, who says, "we're not days away from launching the beta, but we're not months away either."

Hearthstone production director Jason Chayes wrote on the game's official website that the development team "hit an important milestone last week when we finished implementation of all features planned for the release of the beta." Currently, the team is focused on fixing bugs, improving Hearthstone's infrastructure and "pulling out all the stops" to ensure a summer release for the beta.

The beta will roll out in North America first, Chayes said, with dedicated and localized builds of the beta planned for Europe, Korea and Taiwan afterward.

"Although our top priority is getting the beta out for Windows and Mac, we haven't taken our sights off the iPad," Chayes wrote. "In fact, the team hit an awesome milestone with our iPad development not too long ago with our first end-to-end test of cross-platform play."

Blizzard announced Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft at PAX East in March, promising to release the card game in 2013.