Launched by Blizzard in 1997, this service provides a solid foundation to Blizzard's franchises such as the Diablo, StarCraft , and WarCraft series. It is a constantly evolving experience experience, and the next iteration is planned to launch with Starcraft 2 sometime in 2010.
Battle.net is an online service by Blizzard Entertainment. It's a free service that let's people chat and play against other people online.
Interface
The interface of many of the Battle.net games go by starting you off in a chat room. you're able to communicate in this chat room with other people asking to play games or talk about other things. You're also able to make your own chat rooms which will let you talk with certain people. There's private chat sending where you can send messages to certain people in private.
You can select which game you want to play in or you can create your own game. There is a password system which lets you make a password for a game so you'll only play with people who have that password. For
During gameplay, you're able to send messages via text to your teammates or all players. This is a key feature which lets you strategize your game in secrecy.
There is no voice chat in Battle.net.
Games
Diablo
In 1997, Battle.net officially launched on the game Diablo (previously released in 1996). At first, Battle.net was at it's basic form, where it has a P2P system and a lack of saving features. Due to the lack of server system in the game, there was a lot of cheaters and pirates roaming around in the servers. This lead to Blizzard taking action by adding anti-cheating software and CD keys for their future games. Starcraft
In 1998, Starcraft was released. It came with Battle.net. To prevent having the servers turn into the disaster that was Diablo, Blizzard added a CD key to their game, which is required for all Blizzard PC games now. Now only people who had the game and has the 13-digit CD Key is allowed to play on Battle.net.Starcraft was a huge success in Battle.net. This game and its expansion pack, Brood War, is one of the most successful online games to date. This game gained a huge cult following from RTS players, including the gamers from South Korea (which this game is now its national sport). Millions of players are still playing today and has been going strong for the past 10 years.
Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition
A remake of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (originally released in 1995) was released and Battle.net support was made to create Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition.Diablo II
Diablo II was released in 2000 with Battle.net built right in it. This is the first Battle.net game that was completely running off Blizzard's servers. With this, players were finally able to store their characters on the servers, keeping all of their stats. There is even a point where if you die when you have high stats, your character will be deleted.Thanks to the game running completely off Blizzard's servers, they have control of their own game, being able to ban cheaters and hackers off the servers.
Battle.net was added to the expansion pack, Lord of Destruction, in 2001
Warcraft III
In 2002, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos was released. This game added tons of new features to Battle.net, like the Annonymous Matchmaking, which let's you play against people at your skill level, Arrange teams, which let's the computer set up you teams, tournaments, win counts, friend lists, and clan support.
The expansion pack, The Frozen Throne, was released in 2003.
The Future of Battle.net
World of Warcraft
Blizzard stares that they will merge World of Warcraft servers with Battle.net servers.Battle.net 2.0
Back during the Leipzig 2008 Gaming Convention, Blizzard has announced Battle.net 2.0, a new expansion to the Battle.net servers. They'll add the following features 
- Automatic/Anonymous Matchmaking Support
- Excellent Ping Support
- Avatar/Icons to represent yourself
- Achievements
- In-Game Voice Chat
- Hack-Free Security
- Clan Support
- Automated Tournaments
- Friends/Ignore Lists
- eSport Support
As you can see, there is an added community function with the new Battle.net, trying to compete with other PC online services like Steam. Battle.net 2.0 will be available for Starcraft II and Diablo III, but no specific information has been released for online at this time.
Popularity
The popularity of Battle.net is nothing more than spectacular. When Battle.net first launched, there were millions of games being played throughout all of their games. Many of the games are still being played today after 10 years of being released. Starcraft is the most popular Battle.net game to date.
List of games with Battle.net
Current Games
- Diablo (1997)
- Starcraft (1998)
- Starcraft Brood War (1998)
- Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition (1999)
- Diablo II (2000)
- Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (2001)
- Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002)
- Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (2003)
Future Titles
- World of Warcraft (2004) (combining with Battle.net servers)
- World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (2007) (Combining with Battle.net servers)
- World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (2008) (Combining with Battle.net servers)
- Starcraft II (2009) (Battle.net 2.0)
- Diablo III (TBA) (Battle.net 2.0)
Major Account Deletions
In November 2008, Blizzard has deleted over 300000 Battle.net accounts due to them being suspected of using cheating software.
| Name | Platforms | Developer | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm |
MAC, PC | Blizzard Entertainment |
|
|
Diablo III |
MAC, PC | Blizzard Entertainment |
|
|
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty |
MAC, PC | Blizzard Entertainment |
|
|
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King released on Nov. 13, 2008 |
PC, MAC | Blizzard Entertainment |
|
|
World of Warcraft: Battle Chest released on Oct. 30, 2007 |
PC, MAC | Blizzard Entertainment |
|
|
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade released on Jan. 16, 2007 |
PC, MAC | Blizzard Entertainment |
|
|
World of Warcraft released on Nov. 23, 2004 |
PC, MAC | Blizzard Entertainment |
|
|
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne released on July 1, 2003 |
PC, MAC | Blizzard Entertainment |
|
|
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos released on July 3, 2002 |
PC, MAC | Blizzard Entertainment |
|
|
Diablo Battle Chest released on Sept. 25, 2001 |
MAC, PC | Blizzard Entertainment |
| Concept Name: | Battle.net |
| Appears in: | 20 games |
| First appearance: | Diablo |
| Aliases |
