Awesome update. Finally we got new info. I like that old packs are in store, but would be nice if we get also old kismet's packs to store. And immortal fight night =)

For the mondays where devs are playing games, would it be possible for the devs to stream while playing? that might be good to revitalize the community imo.

Cory, thank you for not giving up on the game and finally coming out and talking to us. This was really needed.

And YES! If we ever get the hex relaunch, its fantastic to see that its focus will be on PvE. The previous focus on PvP was the wrong way to go imo, as all TCGs are PvP focused. Making Hex PvE focused is what will set it apart from all other competitors.

Also glad i was patient and kept my collection, some people who sold their collections and want to come back for the relaunch are gonna be salty they sold cards at such low prices! Heres hoping we can get the eventual relaunch/sequel!

Thank you Cory for those words.

I know that it hasn't been easy for you and the whole team and I appreciate some honest (and very personal) words.

Many of us in the playerbase had many ideas on how to do things differently in the past but we are were we are now.

While I can't honestly say that I think there is a decent chance the game will make a comeback of sorts I can also equaly honestly say that I admire your optimism and dedication.
And I mean that...resilience is possibly the most important thing in any business.

If it is any help: To this day I still from the bottom of my heart believe that hex was/is the best card game I ever played. I loved the gameplay and everything around the game. Just because something is not a commercial success does not mean that it is any less good.

Well, the momentum might be lost for Hex, a lot of the community (me included) is gone, and clearly MTGA took the spot as the digital TCG and there's no realistic way to fight against it (although to be fair, I don't really like MTGA as a game model, is just boring and expensive). That being said, the fact that the game still survived and that it could take what's needed to at least keep the servers going and pay the remaining tournaments' prizes talks that something might actually be done. Eventually, a good game is a good game, and Hex is a good one.

The fact that you're willing to be more active (and hopefully) more transparent about how things are going, and the fact that Merry Melee is finally free, makes me wanna download the game again and open it.

I know it's natural to dream big, we all do in our personal projects. But to be fair, maybe Hex is in a spot where it could just aim to be a self-sustainable game. Not the biggest one, but enough to keep everything going, and having enough players to keep the queues going and money to develop new stuff. Maybe that's the goal, it's not the fanciest one, I know, but it's one that keeps you wanting to develop the game, and keeps us wanting to open it and play it

Finally, and sorry for the harsh words: Get your sh*t together Cory, you had/have a great game and a great vision, that's more than a lot of current tcgs with 10x more money than HXE. There's value here and there was value in the community we had. There's no point in crying over the spilled milk, what's done is done. If the game survived over here, it actually can't get any worst. Try to rebuild the community, and relay on it. There're a lot of things that can be tried with what's currently in game.

Yes, it's refreshing to hear that Cory is still around and that they have used this time to think about the new direction for the game. I have some questions that I hope Cory will entertain:

1: You spoke about this concept of a "HEX 2". Why would you need for there to be a HEX 2? You have previously spoken about unimplemented content so why not work to bring that content to this game? There's nothing wrong with keeps, crafting, raids, clans, etc.

2: Why the decision to go completely silent? You had a great product that was something to be proud of. I would be really skeptical now about backing any game that you put out because you could simply just disappear without warning. Going dark is the worst thing anyone can do and I hope that this was the biggest lesson you'e learned over the last couple of years.

3: You said that in this new game, everyone will have their current collections transferred in some way, shape, or form to this new game. Are you no longer envisioning a collectible card game?

I rarely publicly air criticism but I've felt really let down. HEX was billed as the biggest party of the 21st century and it crashed really hard.

Thank you Cory for finally be open with what is going on, and also telling us what might waiting for us in the future. Nice to finally see that you accepted that pve was the way to go with hex and i hope hex2 is a success and i am looking forward to maybe see that in the future and enjoy it. Hex really was the best card game i ever played and now with the merry melee to be free i might install hex again and sometimes play it. Good luck to the remaining hex team.

Wow, not the update I expected, but one that is full of hope.

It might just be time for me to dust off the servers and come back online. I've kept collecting all the data during that downtime, and there might be quite a backlog to process, hopefully it won't take more than a few weeks to crunch the numbers.

Now your update is the best news I've heard in some time

I see there's over 30 people who logged in following that letter release. I hope Cory understands that there's still dozens of us at least who love this game and care to come back.

(This is simply an informed guess but I am not privy to any private technical information)

I would speculate that it's because the code base for the original HEX is a mess. What little insights I've had into it, it's not gracious. The original reason why the alpha got delayed by several months way back in 2013 was because the code that they received from some third party contractor was very bad, and they had to rewrite some of it, but I suspect that a lot of that old legacy code is still tangled up in there, and at some point it becomes better for the long term to scrap everything and re-write HEX 2 from scratch than to try to keep maintaining the legacy code.

Sorry, one more question, why not just send this open letter to the Hex newsletter? So at least people know what's going on. Not everyone is lurking the sites or the forums.

Fair enough, thanks for the thoughts on that. It's just the way the letter was written it sounded like they want to make a completely different kind of game and were saying "we'll give you something comparable".

One of the things that always baffled me was how the VIP program was neglected so much. This should have been a major focus imo, it should have been so enticing that EVERY person, even those that spent hundreds or thousands on KS would still feel the desire to spend more $ (every month!) when they really didn't need to.

I mentioned this years ago, but a selective VIP system is/was the way to go... PVE tier, PVP tier etc (target the different types of players)
Get a reoccurring $5 or more per month from each player (can buy all VIP tiers if you want them) and then with enough players (surely we had enough at one point) that should have helped a lot.

Sadly, you guys put it out and then seemingly never looked at it again. Not to mention the absolute failure of even alerting players to its existence (among other things) in client (tucked away in the store).

In conclusion, if you ever get something rolling again, please be sure to make a proper VIP system with lots of enticing goodies (you were good at doing this for the KS) and then INCREASE VISIBILITY/AWARENESS within the game itself or the things you are trying to sell!

P.S - I still love HEX and really miss playing it. All other card games are shit in my eyes (not to mention most don't even allow trading) and if you (Cory) are serious about trying to re-launch Hex, well I have many ideas and I'm still willing to lend my time to help out in any way I can.

Thank you for finally communicating again Cory. I wish, mostly for your own sake, that you said something, anything, earlier, as a lot of people have lost faith because of the prolonged silence.

I will chime in and say that HEX is my favorite card game of all time. I loved the gameplay and I'm also one of the people who loved to play the auction house game as well.

I also think you should stream your drafting on Mondays, I really miss watching hex on twitch.

Finally I would like to suggest that you mix up the draft formats, maybe change the draft sets once a month. I would definitely log in to play draft from the earlier sets, as i wasn't very active back then.

Glad to have you back!

Well that was a long time coming. I’m interested in if the “endless dungeon” ideas of making Keeps something other than gold sinks might come with 2.0 ... player generated content is infinite content

I'm still here - and still interested in Hex. I haven't been on the servers for a while, but would absolutely come back and play again - especially if PvE content is the focus.

Flashback events would be great tho the current set is live way too long now.

Ps. Hex is by far the best "real" tcg out there and I would give hex2 a real try!

Another thing, when the merry melee will be free? Just logged in and it's still at 100p.

It's nice to hear something again. I've always remained on the Optimistic side of hex and have been popping in to get cosmic each season and gradually try to finish my collection (at this point i'm only missing 5 pieces of equipment and have all cards but about 40 AA's extended), While it was obvious less than ideal choices were made at times the passion was just as obvious to me and I always doubted that the game would just be left to die.

If hex 2 becomes a reality i'll be ready play it and probably even get back to working on the wiki assuming someone would be prepared to host it for me.