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Joystiq

Blizzard offers updated look at the new Battle.Net

by Griffin McElroy on Feb 10th 2010 11:15AM

Let's be honest. Between Diablo III, Stacraft II and the new World of Warcraft expansion, we're all going to be pretty heavily embroiled in Blizzard's games over the next couple of years. That's why we were thrilled to see this recent update on the new Battle.Net, which has been renovated by Blizzard from the ground up to offer a Steam-esque cross-game platform for players of all Blizzard's titles.

A recent post on the StarCraft II blog reveals the three pillars of the service: Achievements for in-game deeds (which, in turn, unlock avatars and emblems for your profile); a beefy competitive ranking bracket and auto-matchmaking functionality; and social networking features available for everyone playing one of Blizzard's games online. It looks predictably slick -- check out some screenshots and a video of the interface on Blizzard's official blog.

Source

Tags: battle.net, blizzard, diablo, diablo-3, platform, rpg, stacraft, starcraft-2, strategy, world-of-warcraft, world-of-warcraft-cataclysm

Reader Comments (22)

It does look pretty sweet. Nothing all that new from what we heard at BlizzCon last year. The biggest piece of information I saw in there was server-hosted games. But I'm betting that will be a premium service.

Also, why does this article need 4 links all to the same page?

@eswat

Well there was a Starcraft Ghost that lingered in development for like half a decade before being officially canned. That could at least explain the FPS rumors.

Maybe they're trying to increase starcraft's page rank?

But what of the rumors of Bnet becoming pay2play?

Because if D3 and SC2 are pay2play online, I think you can count me out of those sales. Especially with no LAN support.

The reason why World of Warcraft is pay2play is because it requires a massive server infrastructure and people to support that. Blizzard hired thousands of new employees just for WoW. StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3 won't be pay2play for online multiplayer. However, there may be premium services that will have a small fee such as having your own dedicated server or something.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/11/blizzards-wilson-some-battle-net-features-to-be-monetized/
http://www.geek.com/articles/games/battlenet-to-become-pay-service-with-the-blizzivision-merger-20081016/

You speak as if you know these things to be fact. Do you have some source that I dont?

I think the press have been stretching those allusions of a monthly fee from the developers a bit. Not surprising since the press and gamers seem to get into romantic fantasizing when it comes to Blizzard's games (StarCraft FPS rumours way back, StarCraft MMO rumours before SCII, and now a Pay2Play Battle.net).

It was clarified at BlizzCon '09 that the Battle.Net service will remain free, though they are entertaining the idea of micro-transactions for additional content (special maps, avatars, etc)

Wasn't the whole Starcraft FPS thing WAAAAY more than just rumors? Isn't that Starcraft: Ghost? If so I'd say those rumors were pretty well founded...

I watched gameplay videos of Starcraft Ghost a long time ago, that was way more than rumors.

eswat,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVsTrLW_04U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aMCqfU8Bz8

It wasn't rumor. It was being developed by an outside developed, with Blizzard's input. Eventually it switched developers, then Blizzard bought the second developer, and work continued on it. Eventually it was scrapped as it wasn't going well, and had been in development for years. They say it's on "indefinate hold", but it's cancelled. There's even a grave for the main character in World of WarCraft.

@R
Yeah, those links you posted describe those premium services I said.

Looks good, but visuals don't mean a thing when it comes to online services. I'll reserve judgment until we get our hands on it. Still, the original Bnet was great, so I have some confidence in Blizzard.

I keep hearing that PC gaming is dying? Nope.

Funny that it is always the PC gamers that bring that up.

Insecure about your platform much?

Not at all. It's articles like these that prove we are CORRECT.

I'm assuming there isn't any announcement that the LAN gaming has been put back in, has it?

I much prefer playing on a LAN with friends instead of going over to Battle.net. Lag was a big letdown when trying to go against others.

And, it was a lot of fun bringing my computer over to a friend's house, hook up the PCs to the network and just spend hours on several maps in Starcraft.

Lan In Starcraft MADE Starcraft! Imo. Nothing like hooking up 8 or so computers and going at it with buds. Still do it TO THIS DAY! Oh well, guess we have to do it this way from now on. I'm mostly worried about the lag, I mean sometimes we would get 6-7-8 people with 150-200 unit count of their food cap. Whats lag going to be like when we have it all happening connected to BNET. Hope it works out. I have faith in blizzard.

Also hope they have a nice easy way to join friends and invite friends to private games.

Developer*

the UI is not doing it for me. By now i'd figure it would be a lot less static , more depth? i dunno, something cooler looking. This just looks like a spiffier version of the original battle.net.

Don't change whats not broken.

by your logic starcraft would still be 2D sprites then...

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Breaking News

Blizzard offers updated look at the new Battle.Net

Reader Comments (22)

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 11:24AM Kyrra said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 12:30PM StormX said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 1:14PM Ghen said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 11:37AM R Planteer said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 11:40AM einhanderkiller said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 11:42AM R Planteer said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 12:15PM eswat said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 12:23PM Arturis said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 12:29PM Vcize said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 1:25PM R Planteer said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 2:48PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 6:43PM einhanderkiller said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 11:44AM The Blank Mage Returns said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 1:29PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 1:38PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 1:39PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 1:41PM octoberasian said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 2:37PM ferrikstar said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 2:50PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 2:57PM acme64 said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 3:21PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 10th 2010 3:29PM acme64 said

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