Battle.net Is Getting A Name Change To “Blizzard Tech”

Well it looks like Battle.net is going into retirement. Blizzard is not taking the service away, just changing the name. Battle.net will now be known as “Blizzard Tech”. Blizzard said they are making the change because of “occasional confusion” between the two separate identities Blizzard and Battle.net.

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.

If you didn’t know Battle.net was originally launched with Diablo on November 30, 1996. It was the first service that incorporated the game that used it, while at that time it was popular to use external interfaces. Battle.net 2.0 was launched on March 20, 2009. And now the next revolution is “Blizzard Tech”.

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