Logging Off: Blizzard Dropping The Battle.net Name

After twenty years, Blizzard plan to step away from the name Battle.net for their online platform and services. The Diablords and Warcrafteers today announced that they'll be "transitioning away" from the name Battle.net, which they've been using since the first Diablo way back in 1996. No, Blizzard now want to name elements boring things like Blizzard Streaming and Blizzard Voice. Ah, the end of an era. Another icon falls.

Look, let's be honest: names which are also domain names had become daggy by ooh we'll generously say 1999. But don't you see, Blizzard? A '90s revival is going on - for the first time in yonks, the name Battle.net currently sounds cool.

Entirely missing that point, Blizzard said in their announcement:

"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."

Instead, Blizzard will be individually naming components Blizzard This and Blizzard That. They say they're making the change over the next few months. As if everyone won't call it Battle.net anyway.