Hello everyone. Guide Dev here.
After a year and a half of Hearthstone Access, I'm sad to announce that version 24.6 will be the last major version of Hearthstone I'll be able to support.
I'm hoping to release 24.6 later today so you'll still be able to play for a while longer. However, once the next major patch lands, I will no longer be updating Hearthstone Access to work with the newer version. I'm not entirely sure on when that'll be, but I'm assuming it'll happen on a Tuesday between now and December 6 as that's the planned release date for the new expansion.
I know a lot of players will be sad to hear this. Please know that I am sad too and that I do not make this decision lightly. I deeply appreciate the community built around Hearthstone Access and I hope you've enjoyed playing the game over these past 15 months as much as I've enjoyed watching everyone play it.
This was the first time I worked on anything accessibility-wise and I truly loved the process. Watching someone play and interact with a blind-accessible interface you've just designed for the first time as a sighted developer is immensely rewarding. I really hope Hearthstone Access serves as an example of how even complex, chaotic games such as Battlegrounds can be made blind-accessible - and fun - for many years to come.
Having said that, carrying Hearthstone Access on my back all this time has become increasingly difficult and the time has come for me to take a step back. I really, really hate to be doing this, but the last few months have been extremely busy and I've been seriously struggling to keep up with everything.
Hearthstone Access has been suffering with this as well as I simply don't have as much time as I once had to devote to it. With all the recent (and upcoming) changes, it's gotten to a point where I think Hearthstone Access is just getting worse with every patch (while Hearthstone itself is getting better). This was never the intention - and I'm really not happy with it.
I'll see if I can write a proper retrospective at some point. For now though, I just wanted to give everyone a heads up as I know a lot of players depend on me updating Hearthstone Access in order to play the game and I don't want people to be pre-purchasing content for the new expansion if they don't have other means of accessing it.
Thanks for all the support.
Guide Dev