There has been an exponential growth in the development of gaming platforms. These gaming platforms are now known for offering sophisticated games which have elevated the level of gaming. Battle.net is one such platform. It is a well-known internet-based online gaming and social networking platform.
It was developed by Blizzard Entertainment in 1996. Ever since its launch, it has amazed the audience with creative and unique games. As a platform, it has evolved itself over the period of time to become India’s leading online gaming service.
How did it begin?
Blizzard introduced a series of games to the gamers in the era when they couldn’t go beyond the games like monopoly. It had launched a series of warcraft. This game was very successful in garnering a large and a much stronger customer base for Blizzard. It then proceeded ahead to introduce the first action-role playing video game known as Diablo.
Apart from offering gaming services, it offered limited chatting services between the players too in addition to offering provisions for game listing. It limited the transfer of data from one player to another. It improvised its gaming visuals only to launch Starcraft in 1998. New users started getting associated with Blizzards .It allowed the users to filter and rank the games.
Until now Blizzards operated on a closed network with limited access to the history and the data of the players. But with the launch of Diablo II, it began its operations on a client-server model. Blizzard’s servers were activated to store the data of the players. It allowed the players to pick avatars for themselves and play these characters over the platform.
It went ahead to release games like Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and the Frozen Throne in 2001 and 2003 respectively. Blizzard now allowed the players to undertake anonymous matchmaking. Every player who was looking forward to playing a certain game could now easily press a button and he was paired against another player with similar sets of skills and preferences.
Blizzard Entertainment continued to launch new games in different concepts and unlocked many features for the players. Based on their overall rankings, the players could now easily unlock new chatrooms, clan support and discover a new friends’ list altogether. Arranged team games had gained popularity over the time amongst the interested players.
The First Phase of Evolution
Finally in 2009, Blizzard Entertainment unleashed its potential by revamping Battle.net. This renewed version used to comprise three sections. The first section allowed the players to play with the already existing accounts on Battle.net. Battle.net effectively linked the active World of Warcraft accounts and unified the friends list for the players.
The second section allows the players to collaborate with each other through improved and competitive matchmaking. The players are grouped together in leagues depending on their level of competitiveness. Players enter into challenges on the basis of their previous gaming history and the available skills. Battle.net even provided a practice league session for the players to continuosly hone and improve the gaming skills.
The third section allowed the players to communicate with each other with the help of the online instant chattig platform. Players could now chat via their Real IDs. The players could now indulge in cross-gaming and cross-faction chats. It increased the interaction among the players to support a better association in the game throughout.
The introduction of Open Beta
Battle.net came up with a new open beta platform in 2013. It had launched its own app for the desktop. Players could now purchase and install the games on the platform. Players can easily patch their games. It has been followed by the launch of a cross-platform voice chat room support service for the ease of the players.
Finally in 2017, Blizzard cracked its biggest breakthrough. It unravelled its ability to trade in its own currency. These were known other than WoW tokens imported all the way from World of Warcraft. Since the Battle.net and World of Warcraft accounts were linked together with each other, it is possible for a player of Battle.net to exchange the in-store gold with these tokens and use the same at Battle.net. This in store trade of tokens allowed the players to purchase add ons.
Battle.net launched yet another game titled Destiny 2. Blizzard Entertainment had now linked itself to other gaming platforms and dedicated Battle.net to launch non-Blizzard games as well. Battle.net was evolving at an unprecedented rate. It went ahead to introduce the element of gold farming with the help of which the players could earn tokens and gold and exchange the same for purchasing games.
Blizzard Entertainment infused compatibility to Battle.net so as to enable it to support other games such as Call of Duty and Black Ops. However soon by the end of October, 2019, it delisted the non-Blizzard games in an effort to relaunch a renewed version of blizzard games on Battle.net.
How did Blizzard entertainment turn into Battle. Net?
Blizzard Entertainment and Battle.net have been two streaming brands which created confusion among the players. They intersect each other tremendously and diverted the user base and traffic. The developers wanted to rebrand the entire platform into a unified whole. Initially, it went ahead with Blizzard. Tech but soon gave up upon its name to launch Blizzard Battle.net. This was considered to be the best unification of the brands. However, in February 2021, Battle.net was relaunched and ever since it has gained popularity.
The Scope and Ambit of Battle.net
Battle.net has classically expanded its performance. It operated on its classic mode initially and supported limited games with limited features. These included Diablo, StarCraft, Warcraft: Reign of Thrones and Frozen. However, the chat functionality was highly restricted in these games.
Later in time, Battle.net 2.0 gained popularity with many new launches of games and additional features. Battle.net 2.0 introduced games like Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal. Heroes of the storm, overwatch 2 and Call of duty were the games that had gained a lot of popularity over the time. Crash Bandicoot enjoyed the largest user base.
Starcraft, World of Warcraft and Warcraft II continue to be the most authentic games retained on the server. These games are actively played by 11 million users. Battle.net has clearly emerged as a leading gaming platform with a total of 2.3 million games listed on its platform.
Conclusion
Battle.net has become a household name. There has been a boost in its brand value and user base. With time, there has been an increase in the collaborations to make Battle.net a more amazing platform. That is why it continues to amaze the players with additional games and features.