Earlier this year Blizzard made the decision to rebrand its Battle.net network under the name Blizzard App. The move was immediately disliked by fans of the company who not only grew to like the Battle.net nomenclature, but didn’t feel its replacement had a “ring” to it.
After some consideration, Blizzard has reversed this change. Going forward, the service will be referred to once again as Battle.net, effective immediately.
Confirmation was made in an official statement issued via blog post, as follows:
When we announced that we’d be transitioning away from the Battle.net name for our online-gaming service, we suspected that the shift would be challenging. We understood that Battle.net stood for something special—it represents years of shared history and enjoyment, community and friendship, for all of us and our players.
Battle.net is the central nervous system for Blizzard games and the connective tissue that has brought Blizzard players together since 1996. The technology was never going away, but after giving the branding change further consideration and also hearing your feedback, we’re in agreement that the name should stay as well. Take it from the developer formerly known as Silicon & Synapse, and Chaos Studios, names are important too.
Moving forward, to help offset some of the original concerns we listed back in September, we will be connecting “Blizzard” to “Battle.net” in our logo for the service and in general when we refer to it in print: Blizzard Battle.net.
We appreciate your feedback and look forward to many more years of bringing players together online.
Blizzard is currently positioning Battle.net to support third-party software, which will begin soon with the release of Destiny 2. Activision has partnered with Blizzard to bring the PC version of the title exclusively to Battle.net, skipping Steam and other options in the process.
Interestingly, this move was made on the same day as StarCraft: Remastered. StarCraft was the second title to utilize Battle.net (after Diablo), beginning in March 1998. Thus, the service will celebrate its 20 year anniversary next year.
