Hearthstone: Eye Of Azshara Expansion May Be Announced At BlizzCon 2014

Next week's BlizzCon 2014 could bring a big announcement for Hearthstone players. New evidence suggests that Blizzard will reveal the game's next expansion pack during the convention.

Many community members recently received an email from Blizzard featuring blueprints of mechanical devices from the Warcraft universe such as the demolisher, repair bot and poultryizer (a weapon that turns people into chickens).

"Making plans for BlizzCon - I hope you like my invention!" says the note accompanying the blueprints.

Michele Morrow and Geoff Keighley tweeted two of these pictures while touring Blizzard's office. They're co-hosting Nerdist's broadcast of BlizzCon 2014 - a fact that again suggests a reveal at the convention.

Hearthpwn notes that an October patch included a card back called "Goblin." The card back has a metal texture and is adorned with pipes and gauges. Goblins, along with Gnomes, are the inventors of the Warcraft universe. The card back seems like a celebration, then, of some kind of mechanically-themed expansion pack:

The final interesting clue released this week was a trademark filing. Blizzard has supposedly moved to trademark the phrase "Eye of Azshara" in Europe. This fits with the other evidence revealed thus far. Azshara is a region in World of Warcraft where the Goblins resettled following the destruction of their home island.

Hearthstone has received one expansion since its launch. Curse of Naxxramas challenged players to beat several A.I. bosses and earn 30 new cards in the process. Lead designer Eric Dodds said in December that the next expansion will have over three times as many cards:

"It’s going to be over 100 cards and it’s certainly going to be very different from Naxxramas, which was designed to put a smaller number of cards into play, because we don’t want to create this large number of cards, not overwhelm players, but at the same time, with this new expansion, we want to provide a large number of cards with additional options for the hardcore," Dodds told MMORPG.com. "So, exactly what those cards are and exactly what those ratios are, partially we’re still working on ‘em, and partially we’ll be talking about that in the future."

Senior game designer Mike Donais told Value Town that these new cards will be available through a new type of booster pack. When you go to the in-game shop, you can choose between this type or the original booster packs. Players can spend either gold or real-world money on them.

BlizzCon 2014 will be held November 7th and 8th at the Anaheim Convention Center in Los Angeles. Gamers who can't attend the convention in person can watch it online with the $39.99 Virtual Ticket.