Battlenet, StarCraft 2 Preview

[Ruxor]

Battle.net is about to undergo the greatest update in its long and storied history as one of the world's most successful online gaming services.

• Always Connected Battle.net and StarCraft II are seamlessly interwoven into one experience with persistent characters and features.
• Competitive Arena Matchmaking and online multiplayer modes that are more intelligent and more accessible for a wider audience.
• Social Set up your Blizzard Entertainment social network with better friend management functionality and other social gaming components.
• Mod Support Full support for community-created mods that will constantly evolve the StarCraft II online experience.

Fully integrated, user-friendly, and fast, the all-new Battle.net makes it easy to find and play games, opening the world of online gaming to generations of players. In the 14 years since the original Battle.net’s launch, the service has seen tremendous growth both in terms of features and active players. Currently, there are more than 12 million active accounts on Battle.net worldwide.
This raises an interesting question. If the original Battle.net was so successful, why change it? Updating a service like Battle.net is a hugely complex undertaking. Are there really that many new features that Blizzard Entertainment could offer that would deliver a world-class online gaming experience to its community?
In one word: Yes.
The list of past innovations integrated into the legacy Battle.net service is long and varied -- the introduction of competitive ladders, server-hosted games, online-stored characters, automated matchmaking, and more. But with the release of StarCraft II, Battle.net will evolve into an even more powerful and advanced online game service that will power all Blizzard Entertainment titles moving forward.
The final metamorphosis has only just begun....

StarCraft II

[CoffeeShark]

i wouldn't say the original Battle.net was SO successful. early on it was dismal.

[jdeegz]

gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

its so cloooooooooossssseee

[ArmadonRK]

Battle.net only became "successrful", really, when they forced Warcraft players to merge their accounts into it back in November. At that point they went from several dozen users to several million.

Currently, there are more than 12 million active accounts on Battle.net worldwide.

I laughed at this because it just goes to show that nobody was using Battle.net before the WoW merge.

But yeah, it's a press release, so objectivity isn't really the point I suppose.

They do have one point though. Since the original Battle.net sucked, and in its current form it's entirely pointless, it needs an overhaul before anyone will start to give a damn.

[henry]

i hate it when they force you to tie one account to another

[wootini]

So will B.net deliver us Blizzard titles now?

[bacon_x]

So will B.net deliver us Blizzard titles now?

what do you mean?

if you are asking can you download their games from the website, the answer is yes. At least with wow, I havent really looked at d2 or starcraft

[DJ_Wheels]

You could do that when they first switched over to the new battle.net a while ago. I put in my old D2 cd key and was able to download the installer.

[wootini]

I just hope they continue the trend for Diablo 3 and the new StarCraft... hell, for all future games for that matter. I really want the world to be on Steam but that will never happen.

[bacon_x]

battlenet will be like that just only for blizzard games you can create an account and check it out