New Hearthstone patch adds touchscreen Windows 8 device support

By John Callaham
published

The highly popular free-to-play online collectible card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, from developer Blizzard, just added a welcome new feature that will please a ton of fans playing the game on Windows 8-based tablets and touchscreen-enabled notebooks. The new 1.1.0.6187 patch, released today, has added support for playing the game on touchscreen devices running on Microsoft's latest PC OS.

Yes, that means that devices such as the Surface Pro 3 can simply touch the screen to interact with Hearthstone, rather than using a keyboard and mouse. This should be a huge help to the many Windows 8 players of the game who have had touchscreens but have not been able to take advantage of them until now.

Hearthstone, as you might guess from the title, takes its content from the fictional Warcraft universe that Blizzard created many years ago as one of the first real time strategy games and later as the hugely popular massively multiplayer game World of Warcraft. Hearthstone is a turn-based game where players compete online with their virtual cards to fight each other with weapons, spells and minions. The game entered open beta testing in January and officially launched in March and currently has 10 million players for the PC, Mac and iPad.

What do you think about Hearthstone adding support for playing the game via touchscreens on Windows 8 products?

Source: Hearthstone on Facebook

John Callaham
John Callaham
55 Comments
  • Needs WP version, but the game is awesome!
  • I love hearthstone, and I'd rather see an optimized windows 8 store version for lower performing things than WP. The screens are far too small for me to envision enjoying it. Also: I want it on android!
  • Nope, android sucks bro.
  • I prefer windows phone, but my nexus 7 gets a ton of use. I have a Lumia 928 and a surface pro 1, but I don't think android sucks. It's nice not being a blind fan boy though - I can enjoy the best of anything I need. My nexus 7 will get replaced when I can get a similar quality 1080p screen and wacom stylus to motivate the upgrade running windows 8 around 8". Until then I see no reason to replace it and I'm eagerly waiting the (already announced by the way) android support.
  • Hear hear! IIRC it's already been announced for android and windows 8. It'll probably be after they're done releasing Naxx though.
  • What sucks is people discouraging others from playing games on the platforms of their choosing. :P
  • +920
  • RT VERSION !!!
  • I think, there is this app, kinoconsole, which lets you stream pc games to your phone. That should be a blast to play on it now! :D there was even a full article on it, just some time ago! ;D
  • Well, we shouldn't complain in the comments section, no company is reading that, I found a twitter initiative which rallies WP users to tweet to companies they want apps, the more people tweeting the higher the chance the developers start publishing!
    Follow @we_want_wp_apps and rt ofc! :D
  • No love for wp :/
  • Well, we shouldn't complain in the comments section, no company is reading that, I found a twitter initiative which rallies WP users to tweet to companies they want apps, the more people tweeting the higher the chance the developers start publishing!
    Follow @we_want_wp_apps and rt ofc!
  • It really needs a windows rt port.
  • I want an RT version
  • Forget it. Rt is doomed.
  • Dont be stupid, RT accounts for 80% of Surface sales (prior to SP3) Your hate does not translate to Microsofts roadmap. They have continually said this is the "Pure" version of Windows and will persist for many reasons, not least of which is that its an excellent OS free of legacy baggage.
  • If it gets a release in the Windows Store then there's probably support for RT too. Don't be so negative just because you don't like RT.
  • I'm confused. I've been doing this for months? O.o
  • ya, but now you don't need to hold on a card or worry about tapping the wrong areas to use the wrong cards like I have been this whole time. It really plays a hell of a lot better on an iPad. Time to break it out, get the update and see if its a lot easier to play now.
  • Oooh this makes sense. I'm excited now :D
  • You could already use the touch screen on the SP2 with Hearthstone. How does this change things?
  • Same here on my SP1..
  • Needs windows phone and rt support
  • What about Windows RT?
  • Really needs RT support... Come on, Blizz.
  • Well, we shouldn't complain in the comments section, no company is reading that, I found a twitter initiative which rallies WP users to tweet to companies they want apps, the more people tweeting the higher the chance the developers start publishing!
    Follow @we_want_wp_apps and rt ofc! :D :D
  • *goes back to Magic*
  • Magic is the best. Period.
  • Agreed, but this is free, and is still a fantastic TCG. Skyrim may be the best rpg (for example), but its not the only one you should ever play just because.
  • as far as i know it has always had touchscreen support, i've been playing this game on a samsung slate for the past month
  • Maybe it's just more optimized now
  • Dvp 8 here for months
  • I agree on it needing a Windows store version supporting 8/rt
  • It was already working pretty well with the stylus on the pro 2. I guess it is going to be even better now
  • I don't see the point of this update I have been playing it since beta on my t100.
     
  • well u'll be playing the game with a touch screen mentality, instead of what used to be mouse gestures using ur finger.. that's what's new in the patch :)
  • Playing on my sp3 this last week, had no issues with touch.  Only issue is if i were to use the pen, now hopefully that is fixed. 
  • I've had touch screen support since beta ?
  • I've been able to use the touchscreen on my laptop to play Hearthstone for literally months. So this is announcement is confusing.
  • played this on my Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet long time ago just fine without touch support. i guess this'll make it easier.
  • Never played it on Dell Latitude 10 with a mouse, it has always worked with the touch screen.
  • Nice update. Makes it easier to tap and check cards.
  • I was waiting for an update like this. Finally :D
    It's a nice cards game!
  • Now if they could just add it to the Xbox One.
  • Woho! Don't have surface anymore but this is great news. Love this game:) it basically means that W8 tablets got it before android. Yes I know you could install it before the patch on a Windows tablet. But now you can play it without a mouse, like a tablet. Posted via Windows Phone Central App
  • I don't know why the article is touting this as a new feature, but I have been playing hearthstone without a mouse on my Surface Pro (2 at the time, now 3) since the game released.
  • YES! I've been trying to get in to this game but I have to use a mouse to play it well! So stoked!    Now if only Hero Acadamy would do the same for the Steam version! Then I could play that!   FYI I have an ASUS Transformer Book 100 and I love it. It may not be top of the line, but it gets the job done at a VERY affordable price. 
  • This is great, I know some Surface-using Hearthstone players who have been waiting for this.
  • Well, that's cool. I don't have touch screen, but I feel like this would be the best type of game for it.
  • Been playing the game on touch screen long before this post was made.  Even if Blizzard made some changes for touch screen in the latest patch, it's not a new feature at all.  What IS new is the fact that I can play Hearthstone on my windows phone using the Kinoni app. xD
  • We need it on WP!!
  • Excellent!!
  • Will we ever see a store version, rt and pro share apps on the store so don't worry, but if apple can get it on their app store, why can't we? Its not like its a small indie business, its a massive corporation. They e been asking for an rt version on the forums, id love to see it come to windows, even if I had to pay I would love it.
  • I feel the article is a bit misleading, Hearthstone has always supported touch on Windows 8 tablets.  I have been playing this using touch since it first released.  They did optimize and improve the controls for touch though.
  • This article as well as the patch notes from blizzard on hearthstone are misleading. The game has already been working fine on Windows touch based devices (not RT). What they may have done is probably improved some stuff.