Peep Hearthstone's Planned Year Of The Raptor Content, The Arena Rework, And A Banger Music Video

We're off and running on the Hearthstone side of Activision Blizzard. Next week will see a deep dive into the card game's first of three expansions coming in 2025. Until then, the team is showing off a high-level view of all the plans this year. In a return to reveals of the past, Blizzard decided to drop a new cinematic trailer for the "Year of the Raptor," and it includes a real bop complete with vocals. It's below so you can jam while you read.

The content drop plan stays par for the course as the year will see three expansions, multiple mini-sets, and a few Battlegrounds seasons released. The expansions will take players to the Emerald Dream, the Shrouded City, and mess with time via some help from Chromie. While we knew that from previous Blizzard reveals, now it's confirmed that the pre-release Tavern Brawl will return with all three expansions, and the timing of expansions and mini-sets will be a tad earlier than usual as the team shifts to a content cadence more in line with development.

The Arena revamp is fnally coming, too. This will be a little later in the Year of the Raptor, coming in patch 32.2, but all the changes Blizzard has been teasing will finally be unveiled and the devs hope this not only brings back one of the classic formats, but that it also brings new Arena players into the mix.

Having previously pulled their games from China, Blizzard's renewal of a deal with NetEase brings the game back to China and that also heralds in a new focus on esports. The competitive season will revolve around around two Seasonal Championships and a World Championship. Expect full rules and details soon.

The full release order (minus dates, of course) and the details on core set changes and some card changes is up right now if you want to get a knowledge head start.