WoW Petopia Community

It’s the end of an era for Blizzard, as the company announced today plans to say farewell to the name Battle.net, which they’ve used to refer to their internet platform since 1996.

From a practical standpoint, nothing is changing, Blizzard says. But they’re ditching the name Battle.net, 20 years after the service launched. When Battle.net first went live alongside Diablo, it was revolutionary, offering in-game online features and services the likes of which we hadn’t seen until then.

There won’t be a new name for Blizzard’s platform, the company says—they’re just going to refer to it as “Blizzard tech.”

Here’s Blizzard’s full memo:

We’re going to be transitioning away from using the Battle.net name for our gaming service and the functionality connected to it. 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.

When we created Battle.net, the idea of including a tailored online-gaming service together with your game was more of a novel concept, so we put a lot of focus on explaining what the service was and how it worked, including giving it a distinct name. 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.

We just wanted to make sure everyone was aware as we moved forward with this change over the next several months; we’ll provide any relevant updates as the transition progresses.

Teigan wrote:Maybe it's cause I just woke up, but this doesn't seem to make much sense?

Lupen202 wrote:Seems kind of unnecessary to me, and will just bring confusion. I guess it's nothing but a name change but after being used to battle.net for nine, almost ten years myself it'll take some getting used to.

Wain wrote:It does make sense to re-brand it to Blizzard, and it would make things clearer to new users. Honestly my guess is that they originally chose Battle.net because it was generic and had wider implications and possibilities but in practice it's never really been needed.

Wain wrote:It does make sense to re-brand it to Blizzard, and it would make things clearer to new users. Honestly my guess is that they originally chose Battle.net because it was generic and had wider implications and possibilities but in practice it's never really been needed.

Rikaku wrote:Personally, as long as the actual service isn't changing format, I don't really care what they call it. As long as it functions the same, eh. No sweat off my back lol

See the realistic - adult in me agrees with this 100%.

But the weird "doesn't care for change" person in me shudders at it. I think because it's a unhealthy attachment to certain aspects of things. I know that sounds odd and I'm not sure how to explain it.

Really though I understand the change and the more I think on it agree with others. It's really a good idea.