Blizzard Drops the Name Battle.net, Nothing Else Changes

[Lizzy Finnegan]

Blizzard Drops the Name Battle.net, Nothing Else Changes

Blizzard has announced plans to kill Battle.net - but just the name.

Blizzard announced today [https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/20297652/battlenet-update-9-21-2016] that the company will be dropping the name Battle.net name for its gaming service, along with "the functionality connected to it." However, everything else will be operating business as usual.

The service will not technically be renamed, and will be referred to simply as "Blizzard tech" moving forward.

You can read Blizzard's statement [https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/20297652/battlenet-update-9-21-2016] on the matter in its entirety below:

"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."

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[NLS]

Wow, can't wait to login and play with some friends at Blizzard Tech, after a few rounds of CS on Valve Tech and a bit of Battlefield on EA Tech, oh and some The Divison on Ubisoft Tech.
Edit: Rockstar Tech and Microsoft Tech

 

[FalloutJack]

Good thing they didn't call it Battle Tech. That would've ruffled some feathers there.

 

[Karadalis]

Good thing they didn't call it Battle Tech. That would've ruffled some feathers there.

A battletech game made by blizzard... now theres an interesting thought.

Honestly thought i dont quite get it... was something wrong with the old name? Is this another attempt at "broadening the audience" since "battle".net sounds to unfriendly or something?

 

[FalloutJack]

Good thing they didn't call it Battle Tech. That would've ruffled some feathers there.

A battletech game made by blizzard... now theres an interesting thought.

Honestly thought i dont quite get it... was something wrong with the old name? Is this another attempt at "broadening the audience" since "battle".net sounds to unfriendly or something?

Maybe somebody thought it was just too general.

 

[RJ 17]

Good thing they didn't call it Battle Tech. That would've ruffled some feathers there.

A battletech game made by blizzard... now theres an interesting thought.

Honestly thought i dont quite get it... was something wrong with the old name? Is this another attempt at "broadening the audience" since "battle".net sounds to unfriendly or something?

From the way their statement reads, it sounds like there's apparently a large group of people (at least substantial enough to warrant a name change) that are unaware that battle.net is owned and operated by Blizzard.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Aww. I liked the name. Another mild nostalgic holdover gone...

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

They can call it whatever they want.

The way I see it, I and many others will always refer to it as "Battle.net."

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Good thing they didn't call it Battle Tech. That would've ruffled some feathers there.

A battletech game made by blizzard... now theres an interesting thought.

Honestly thought i dont quite get it... was something wrong with the old name? Is this another attempt at "broadening the audience" since "battle".net sounds to unfriendly or something?

That's what I assumed before reading the article. I figured Blizzard was pulling an internet and saying Battle.net was too aggressive and triggering.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Good thing they didn't call it Battle Tech. That would've ruffled some feathers there.

I wish they had done just so we could all see Pirahna Games legal team cower in fear.

I am still annoyed about what they did to Living Legends.

 

[Kotoriii]

And today, the most unnecessary name change ever... Like, who was confused by it? Everybody will still call it Battle.net

 

[Jadak]

I prefer the name Battle.net over Blizzard tech though...

Why can't they call it something cool? Like "Snow" or "Glacier"? Play off the 'Blizzard' name a bit more.

The point is more that they aren't calling it anything at all. There's no need to separately label something that, to the user, is just "multiplayer for the game I'm playing, which is part of the game and that I'll never know outside the context of the game"

'Blizzard tech' is nothing more than an acknowledgment that they have tech that happens to exist and may need to reference it, not really a new label.

 

[Kinitawowi]

I prefer the name Battle.net over Blizzard tech though...

Why can't they call it something cool? Like "Snow" or "Glacier"? Play off the 'Blizzard' name a bit more.

The point is more that they aren't calling it anything at all. There's no need to separately label something that, to the user, is just "multiplayer for the game I'm playing, which is part of the game and that I'll never know outside the context of the game"

'Blizzard tech' is nothing more than an acknowledgment that they have tech that happens to exist and may need to reference it, not really a new label.

Battle.net is still the name of the launcher they use to start up games though - presumably that'll change too and I'll be running some other stupidly named and completely unnecessary piece of software instead.

 

[Makabriel]

I prefer the name Battle.net over Blizzard tech though...

Why can't they call it something cool? Like "Snow" or "Glacier"? Play off the 'Blizzard' name a bit more.

The point is more that they aren't calling it anything at all. There's no need to separately label something that, to the user, is just "multiplayer for the game I'm playing, which is part of the game and that I'll never know outside the context of the game"

'Blizzard tech' is nothing more than an acknowledgment that they have tech that happens to exist and may need to reference it, not really a new label.

Battle.net is still the name of the launcher they use to start up games though - presumably that'll change too and I'll be running some other stupidly named and completely unnecessary piece of software instead.

It's also the name of the account manager website...

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

They can call it whatever they want.

The way I see it, I and many others will always refer to it as "Battle.net."

that's the hilarious thing about it, for decades it will still be called battle.net, until either blizzard dies or the millennial generation does.

 

[Fappy]

Someone in their marketing department probably busted his nut when the higher-ups finally agreed to the rebranding.

 

[Bobular]

Surely Blizzard.Net would have been a better way to go?

 

[hermes]

Good thing they didn't call it Battle Tech. That would've ruffled some feathers there.

A battletech game made by blizzard... now theres an interesting thought.

Honestly thought i dont quite get it... was something wrong with the old name? Is this another attempt at "broadening the audience" since "battle".net sounds to unfriendly or something?

I am guessing they were not happy with the ".net" in the name, evocative, hip and cool in a time where Internet was not so massive, but now only generating confusion with certain WWW domain, or certain MS framework; however, they couldn't fully remove it without keeping the totally generic and non descriptive first part of the name. So they decided "to hell with it", and just call it "Blizzard".

 

[Dyf91]

Honestly I think this is kinda pointless. I mean was ANYONE really getting confused when logging on to or downloading battle.net? Pretty sure everybody either knows that it's Blizzard, or is smart enough to put it together. At the end of the day though, unless they change how the website and launcher look (which I really hope they don't) this won't matter much at all.