While every Game Developer has their own way of managing and authenticating the hundreds of thousands of accounts that connect through their servers, Blizzard accomplishes it with Battle.net. As the company itself said in an official statement, Battle.net is "the connective tissue that has brought Blizzard players together since 1996."

Battle.net: Blizzard's one-stop line platform

Long-time Blizzard players know the name Battle.net so well that when the company releases an online component, players know that this platform is the place to go to try out the content.

That is why one can only imagine fans' and players' dismay when Blizzard announced last fall that they are doing away with the Battle.net name. The main reason the company stated is that they want to rebrand it.

Of course, it's not easy, not even for Blizzard, to just do away with a platform that has been ingrained in players' minds for decades. The references to Battle.net will never go away. Forum discussions will mention it, how-to guides can't all just suddenly change the name in their instructions, and legal documents and press releases will still use the name if Blizzard can't pull the rebranding smoothly.

Case in point: when game developer Bungie announced that "Destiny" will be partnering up with Blizzard, they mentioned that the game will be available on Battle.net.

Fortunately, Blizzard realized that such a drastic change is a mistake and might even hurt the brand instead of building it. In light of this, they decided to keep the old name, with the company name preceding it. And so, the platform will be henceforth known as Blizzard Battle.net.

Decades of game development expertise

Blizzard is one of the biggest and most successful video game companies and has been since the early '90s.

The release of Diablo and Starcraft cemented the brand name as a developer who knows how to keep games engaging and fun. This continued through the years, with the release of the Diablo and Starcraft sequels, the Warcraft franchise, Hearthstone, and Overwatch — games that are still played by millions today.

As with most developers, they started with a single-player experience, but when online gaming became a thing and internet speeds got to a point where servers can host and manage thousands of connected accounts in real-time, Blizzard branched out to create massively multiplayer online titles. "World of Warcraft" is the biggest of this bunch, being an RPG that is set in the lands and lore introduced in the Warcraft franchise.