Developer Insight: Hearthsteel Virtual Currency and Housing in Midnight

Hello, everyone! We want to take a moment to discuss some of our philosophies around the shop, Hearthsteel, and our plans around Housing items acquisition.

Before diving too far in, it's important to define what Hearthsteel is. Hearthsteel is a new virtual currency for World of Warcraft being added in the Midnight expansion. It's purchased with real money using your Battle.net balance and used in turn to buy Housing items from the Battle.net shop and in-game shop.

Philosophy and Guiding Principles

At the top level, our main priority is making Housing fun and player-friendly, something that can be enjoyed by players of all kinds. To that end, here are a number of our guiding principles:

• The VAST majority of Housing items are (and will continue to be) earnable in-game. Only a small fraction is available for purchase from the shop. Comparing this number against collectibles such as mounts is a good metric here, with more than a thousand mounts earnable in-game and only a few dozen from the shop.
• Housing items tied to core fantasies of a player's race or class, or that already exist in Azeroth, won't be sold in the shop. Thematically important decor that players know and love will also not appear in the shop.
• All Housing items in the shop will be available for individual purchase. While we'll sometimes offer sales on bundles of items for a limited time, you shouldn't feel like you have to spend money NOW or risk missing something you want.
• Costs in the shop are clearly defined. The ratios of Hearthsteel to real money are fixed and easily understood at a glance. You should be able to obtain an amount that makes sense for the purchases you want to make.
• Similarly, the costs of items are designed to align with Hearthsteel offer amounts in a player-friendly way. Buying Hearthsteel at the amount you want lets you purchase the items you want without requiring you to think about which packs should be added together to minimize leftovers.
• The shop User Interface (UI) is straight-forward and easy to understand.
• Hearthsteel should integrate cleanly into the existing Battle.net economy. This means not just being able to purchase it in-game, on the web, or in the launcher, but it should also be compatible with the normal flow of the WoW Token, letting you earn gold in game and then use that gold to ultimately purchase Hearthsteel via the WoW Token.
• Hearthsteel is for Housing. We currently have no plans to use it for the Trading Post, mounts, transmogs, or pets.

Why a Virtual Currency?

This was one of the first things we heard the community discussing. Why bother when we already have a Battle.net balance? It's important to note that when dealing in transactions involving real money, a more deliberate and cautious process needs to be implemented to provide appropriate financial protections for both parties. This can be an inefficient, inconvenient, and often tedious process when a player wants to purchase multiple items.

Smaller Housing items in the shop are often low cost and players will want to purchase multiples of them to complete a set. As an example, you may want a full set of chairs to place around a dining table, multiple place settings for your invited guests, or even many candles to help decorate the room for a complete look. Using an in-game currency can help make the process of obtaining many of these types of inexpensive items more efficient.

Housing Catalog

You may have already seen hints of this on the alpha or Public Test Realm (PTR), but we're adding a Housing Catalog to the Housing UI, which allows players to view all potential Housing decor (earnable, purchasable, special promotions, and so on). It lets you not only preview it in the UI but also place a temporary version in your home as well, so you can see how it fits in before deciding if you want to spend time tracking it down or purchasing it from the shop.

Wrapping Up

We've said it before and we'll keep saying it, but please keep your feedback coming. We're so excited to continue to share more about the future of Housing in the coming weeks and months.