Blizzard’s Warcraft-themed card-based battle game Hearthstone has launched on iPad in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. There’s no word yet on exactly when it will be available in other territories, but we do know that the game’s functionality is the same as on PC - with the addition of touch controls, obviously. In fact, existing players will simply log-in with their Battle.net account and have instant access to their cards, decks and friends list. The game's online play is cross-platform as well, with no discernible difference between playing someone on iPad versus Mac or PC. “Hearthstone’s player base has already grown to more than 10 million accounts registered following the official Windows and Mac release, but we saw that a few people online were holding out for the iPad version,” Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment said in a statement. “Instead of calling those folks up individually, we figured we might as well let everyone know that the global iPad rollout for Hearthstone has begun, and pretty soon it’ll be available everywhere. The game is a natural fit for tablets - we encourage everyone to check it out on their couch, in their backyard, in a coffee shop... or anywhere else they take their iPads." Almost all iPads are supported: iPad 2, iPad (3rd generation and 4th generation), iPad Air, iPad mini and iPad mini with Retina. Hearthstone will also be coming to Windows 8 tablets, iOS phones and Android devices later this year. We’ll have impressions of how the touch controls feel and how the game performs shortly. For now, you can check out what we thought of the PC version below, and get info on cards, classes and more at IGN's Hearthstone wiki

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Cam Shea is senior editor at IGN Australia and a hardcore Hearthstone fan. Why not follow him on Twitter and come hang out with the whole IGN Australia team on Facebook