The iconic Battle.net is going away, Blizzard announced moments ago. The nearly 20 year old service has been the backbone behind all of Blizzard’s online games. Thankfully, while the name is changing, that seems to be about it, with the service remaining the same, and Blizzard simply altering the way new things will be named.
“We’re going to be transitioning away from using the Battle.net name for our gaming service and the functionality connected to it” reads Blizzard’s announcement. “Battle.net technology will continue to serve as the central nervous system for Blizzard games—nothing is changing in that regard. We’ll just be referring to it as Blizzard tech instead. You’ve already seen this recently with things like “Blizzard Streaming” and “Blizzard Voice,” and more changes are on the way.”
The Battle.net name apparently arose because when the service was in its infancy, few people actually understood what an online gaming network was. The name was an attempt at explaining to players what they were getting into. Blizzard explained, “Over time, though, we’ve seen that there’s been occasional confusion and inefficiencies related to having two separate identities under which everything falls—Blizzard and Battle.net. Given that built-in multiplayer support is a well-understood concept and more of a normal expectation these days, there isn’t as much of a need to maintain a separate identity for what is essentially our networking technology.”
The change isn’t going to happen immediately, so watch for small things over the next few months.
