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Blizzard Is Ditching the Battle.net Name

Blizzard has finally decided to do away with the name Battle.net for their online platform. Instead, it’ll simply be referred to as “Blizzard Tech.” Don’t freak out, folks, the Battle.net tech will still be the “central nervous system,” for Blizzard games; it just won’t have that name anymore. Why move away from the name after 20 years? The company believes that having a different identity for their online platform was causing unnecessary confusion.

Here’s part of Blizzard’s statement:

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.

Opting to get rid of the Battle.net branding makes a whole lot of sense in 2016, when online gaming is so prevalent. This was most definitely not the case when it the platform originally launched alongside Diablo. But I know some hardcore gamers will be upset about this news, if you’re one of those people, just remember that nothing is really changing about Blizzard’s online services.

Blizzard has also pointed out that the re-branding has already started happening, with a lot of their services being called “Blizzard X,” just like Blizzard Streaming. Bear in mind, Blizzard said there are more changes on the way. We don’t know how big they are, or whether they will affect your play, but we’ll keep you updated once we learn more. There’s also no date given for when the name change is happening.

Are you feeling nostalgic about the name? Does this change even matter in the grand scheme of things? Were you ever confused by the different identity to the online platform? Do you hope there are other changes to Blizzard’s services? Let us know in the comments section below!

Image: Blizzard

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