Blizzard Says Meet the New Battle.net – Same as the Old Battle.net, But Not
Blizzard Says Meet the New Battle.net – Same as the Old Battle.net, But Not
Posted 03/20/2009 at 2:32am
| by Nathan Grayson
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Like a down-and-out, washed-up action movie star, Blizzard’s Battle.net service – once a pimp-my-wagon pioneer of online gaming service form and function – is beginning to look a little silly in a world where relative youngsters like Steam and Xbox Live give the Internet the buddy cop treatment. However, instead of stinking up a beloved franchise or wrestling California into submission, Battle.net’s hopping back into the ring with an all-new image.
Most notably, Battle.net’s new groove (or possibly, the proactive reclamation of its old groove) brings with it a single online identity, which will consolidate all of your Blizzard game accounts into one mega-handle. Currently, merging accounts is optional, but you’ll eventually be forced to Brady Bunch your accounts together and experience convenient organization and other such terrifying prospects.
"As we continue to build additional functionality into the new Battle.net, we will eventually require all active World of Warcraft accounts to migrate over to Battle.net Accounts in order to continue playing," read the official Battle.net site.
The new Battle.net also allows you to manage purchases in Blizzard’s online store, which leads us to wonder if the service might eventually try to compete with Steam. After all, World of Warcraft means Battle.net comes equipped with 11 million users right out of the box. The potential’s certainly there.
And yes, for the be-dongled among you, the Blizzard Authenticator plays quite nicely with its new sibling.
Give Blizzard’s rejuvenated service a try here, and then tell us what you think. Or don’t. It’s not like we troll these comments obsessively, hanging on your every word or anything.
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Khaled
March 22, 2009 at 3:09pm
No love for European WoW players (or people on EU realms...)
Coming Soon!
The World of Warcraft account merge process is not yet available in your region.
ghot
March 20, 2009 at 7:40pm
The "old Blizzard" created wonderful addictive games that were 100% completely free to play. No monthly subscription, no in game sales of "premium service" aka "what you already payed for" Now THAT was a good company. The new Blizzard reminds me of crack addicts and dealers down on 16th and Mission.
The fact that 11 million idiots pay to play WoW....means nothing. Hell, 24 million people downloaded Firefox 3 in a 24 hour time span.
Sure I understand that its not economically feasible to offer free to play....but they did it! I guess they musta killed all the people that knew HOW they did it. I still play Diablo II LoD....not because my computer can't handle the new games, but because I can't handle the new games. They mere shadows of what Diablo II was and still is, for that matter. Yes please sign me up for yet another WWII FPS.....NOT! Yes I will play Diablo III.....NOT!
The new Blizzard is a worm eaten corpse of what the old Blizzard was, and it's a true shame.
Take an OS, and edit out all the efficiency, and what you have left is a post-XP Microsoft operating system :)
Pillslanger
March 24, 2009 at 5:55pm
What is all of this about the new/old blizzard? this post was about a new battle.net...
You can whine all you want about how great games were in the good old days, but please don't bash other people because they like the new ones. I've loved blizzard games since warcraft I, they are all still well balanced and fun to play. Of course, I could go play Diablo II again if I wanted to get ganked by all the morons who sit on there waiting to MPK you. I played WoW for about a year, I had a lot of fun, and now I am done. Does that make me stupid for choosing to play a game and pay a bit extra per month? If you want to play blizzard games for free you've still got warcraft 2, warcraft 3, diablo 1 (idk if this is true), diablo 2, and starcraft (with or without broodwar, your choice). Diablo III is otw as is Starcraft 2, both are looking to be incredibly fun, but blizzard is making sure to put their regular polish on both before releasing.
So in the end I fail to see why you are complaining about blizzard. They have one game which requires you to pay after buying. Their games are original, what is with the WWII FPS analogy? Yes, they are making games in the same universes that they created, but each one is vastly different than the one preceding.
/rant
Rob86
March 20, 2009 at 7:12pm
Gotta say, so far i like it.
good idea blizz...... ;)
but for real it is cool and i think it has potential, plus its blizzard they dont usualy royaly f*ck things up.
I Jedi
March 20, 2009 at 5:05am
I love how articles from MxPC can be really funny and interesting to read sometimes. As goes for a Steam competitor. In your dreams.
Vegan
March 20, 2009 at 6:14am
What's so hard to believe to believe? All they have to do is offer the same thing at competitive prices. And Steam doesn't have every title under the sun. If anyone could pull off something that competes with Steam, it would a smart, powerful company like Blizzard.
I Jedi
March 20, 2009 at 7:23am
As fas as I know, they only offer Blizzard entertainment games. Steam offers a wide variety of games from diff. publishers. That is how I know they will never compete on a grand scale with Steam. Unless, of course, they changed up their store to compete with Steam. If I had to place my money on anyone, it would be Direct2Drive.
AntiHero
March 20, 2009 at 8:04am
I remember a time when steam only offered Valve games, so it could happen, them buying out other companies, and taking their games and selling them.
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