Blizzard Doing Away With Battle.net Name

Battle.net, one of the most recognizable names in gaming, is going away. Blizzard announced today that it is starting the process of "transitioning away" from using that name for its gaming services. The name has been used for years, all the way back to the original Diablo.

Nothing is changing with the Battle.net services and functionality, but these will be henceforth known as "Blizzard [XXX]." Blizzard pointed out in a blog post that this has already started, as evidenced with things like Blizzard Streaming and Blizzard Voice. "More changes are on the way," it explained.

Blizzard is doing away with the Battle.net name because there has been "occasional confusion and inefficiencies" related to having a single name for something that represents multiple things.

"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," Blizzard said.

The transition away from the name Battle.net will take place over the next several months.

In other news about Battle.net, Blizzard has announced that it's now letting people change their BattleTag. You can change it once for free, but after that, it will cost $10 to do so.