Blizzard
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.
- 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.
