Hearthstone delayed on iPhone and Android smartphones until 2015

Blizzard has revealed that both the iPhone and Android smartphone versions of Hearthstone won’t now arrive this side of Christmas.

The card battler is already available on iPad but was due to hit other mobile platforms this summer. Instead, while the Android tablet version is still due out before year end, other SKUs have slipped to 2015.

The team has been hard at work to bring Hearthstone to that platform, and is making great progress,” the studio said. We’re taking things one step at a time and we’ve got our sights set on a release for Android tablets, our next new platform, before the end of the year; we’ve just got a few more mana crystals to polish and some Angry Chickens to chase down.

We’re also close to having Hearthstone out to our iPhone and Android phone users, but it’s become clear that we need a little more time to get that version right. While we have a build up and running internally, it needs a bit more work, and we don’t feel like we’ll be ready to share it with you until early next year.

It’s very important to us that the phone experience for Hearthstone is just as accessible as the tablet and PC versions. One of the biggest challenges with that is revamping the user interface so it feels intuitive and offers the same quality Hearthstone experience, but this time from the palm of your hand.

Releasing Hearthstone on iPhone and Android phones is something we’re incredibly excited about, but ultimately we’d rather take the extra time to make Hearthstone’s user interface on the phone customized to feel great for the platform, rather than a port that doesn’t take into account the limitations of a smaller screen.”

Blizzard has also revealed that the game has now been played by over 20m people.