Skip to main content

After nearly two decades, Blizzard will no longer use the ‘Battle.net’ name

blizzard ending battlenet overwatch ana guide screenshot
Blizzard’s Battle.net service has been around for nearly two decades, giving players the opportunity to quickly start their favorite games and communicate with other players, but all good things must come to an end. Though Blizzard isn’t abandoning the technology, the “Battle.net” name is getting phased out.

“When we created Battle.net, the idea of including a tailored online-gaming service together with your game was more 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,” Blizzard says in the official announcement. “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.”

Related Videos

In place of the Battle.net name, different services will instead be branded with “Blizzard.” The announcement points out that this has already been done with the both “Blizzard Streaming” and “Blizzard Voice,” and that other services will adopt similar names in the future.

“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,” Blizzard adds.

The announcement comes just days after the company began offering one-time free name changes  — subsequent changes cost $10 — for users’ “BattleTags,” an identification tool that players can carry across games and use to interact with their friends. Given the move away from anything with the word “Battle” in it, we wouldn’t be surprised if the BattleTag name itself was phased out in favor of something more Blizzard-centric.

Blizzard says that the transition will take place over the “next several months,” and more information will be provided at a later time.

Editors' Recommendations

Blizzard decides to keep the old Battle.net name after all
Pharah kneeling in blue armor.

In March 2017, Blizzard began the process of rebranding its long-standing online gaming platform Battle.net. Fans have grown very accustomed to the service over the last couple of decades, so many were quite upset — and now the company has confirmed that it's changing course as a result.

Yesterday, the studio behind World of Warcraft and Overwatch published a blog post laying out its revised plans for its online hub. Rather than transitioning away from the Battle.net moniker entirely, from next month it will be referred to as Blizzard Battle.net in order to bring it closer to the company's broader branding efforts.

Read more
Prepare for 'Destiny 2' by linking your Battle.net account and Bungie profile
Destiny 2 beginner's guide

One of the biggest changes between Destiny 2 and its predecessor is the fact the sequel is going to be available on PC -- and given Activision owns both Bungie and Blizzard, the game is set to take advantage of the latter studio's well-established Battle.net service.

Players who want to make sure they're ready and raring to go when Destiny 2 hits can now link their Bungie.net profile with their Blizzard account, according to a report from Engadget. The PC version of the game is scheduled to launch a few weeks after its console release, but all players will have the chance to take part in an open beta over the course of the summer.

Read more
Farewell, old friend: Blizzard retires Battle.net name after 21 years
blizzard battle net blizzardservice

Blizzard has made the decision to rebrand its long-standing Battle.net service. Moving forward, it will simply be known as the Blizzard online service. While not all users have reported seeing the change, especially in the U.S., British users have begun reporting it.

"We're going to be transitioning away from using the Battle.net name for our gaming service and the functionality connected to it," Blizzard said on its blog. "You've already seen this recently with things like "Blizzard Streaming," and "Blizzard Voice" and more changes are on the way."

Read more