Blizzard decide to retire Battle.Net. In name at least

Since the very beginning of Blizzard’s online services it has been called Battle.Net but that is about to change.

Battle.Net was created specifically for the original Diablo way back in 1996 and its come a long way since then offering all kinds of new functionality, most recently live streaming onto Facebook.

Blizzard is not keen on having a separate name for their online tech so the Battle.Net name is going to be retired. Apparently, their research suggests that having a separate name from the Blizzard is confusing for some gamers. With that in mind, the Battle.Net name is being retired.

The update regarding the name change reads as follows:

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.