Lost Vikings developer Blizzard Entertainment announced today that it’s deep-sixing the 20-year-old “Battle.net” brand — though not the networking technology it represents — now that the notion of a dedicated multiplayer network for games seems quaint.
This is kind of a big deal because Blizzard built Battle.net roughly two decades ago to support online multiplayer for the original Diablo. At the time, dedicated services (like TEN and Heat.net) for playing games online were commonplace; now that they aren’t, Blizzard says it’s time to do away with the “Battle.net” name.
“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,” reads the aforementioned announcement. “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.”
It goes on to point out that the company has been slowly transitioning away from lumping all of its online services under the Battle.net moniker for some time, instead branding them things like “Blizzard Voice” or “Blizzard Streaming.” That naming convention seems likely to continue from here on out.