The official reveal was made by Blizzard eSports Manager Kim Phan

Feb 18, 2014 12:46 GMT  ·  By

Blizzard has confirmed that a spectator mode allowing players to watch other people's play sessions is currently in development for Hearthstone.

The confirmation came via BlizzPro, during an interview with Blizzard eSports Manager Kim Phan regarding future plans for the Blizzard trading card game and the eSports scene.

Although originally designed to be a more casual card game, Hearthstone has seen quite the success in tournament play at BlizzCon, and the perception of the game's future has shifted for many team members.

Phan stated that "there is a lot more room to be creative with Hearthstone," comparing it to how traditional highly-competitive and very intensive eSports are regarded, and said that no definitive plans have been made yet, as they are still waiting to see what the community will do with Hearthstone and how it will evolve.

The eSports team is meeting with the Hearthstone development team weekly, keeping them updated on what kind of features they should work on and providing them with critical feedback from players.

This allows the developers to stay up to date with what is happening in the community and the way tournaments are going, and a list of features to be added to the game has already been created, among which the highly requested spectator mode ranks at the top.

Although the feature won't be implemented in time for the official launch, it will be added to the game shortly after the game is out, Phan assured.

Hearthstone is currently in open beta, available for everyone with an active Battle.net account, and the developers have assured that there will be no more wipes from now on, meaning that players will be able to keep their cards and achievements when the final version launches.