Thu, Aug 06, 2009 | 08:05 BST

Kotick: New Battle.net will be “a service similar to Xbox Live”

Acti Blizz boss Bobby Kotick said tonight that the upcoming Battle.net relaunch will be comparable in scope to Xbox Live.

The service is now confirmed to be launching “early next year.”

“To put Battle.net into context, it will be a service similar to Xbox Live, and it will leverage the technologies, infrastructure and expertise that Blizzard has developed over the last decade in multiplayer play and social networking,” said the exec, speaking in the firm’s Q2 earnings call.

He added: “A true online destination platform, Battle.net will become the foundation for connecting the tens of millions of members of the Blizzard community in a social gaming network across all Blizzard’s future games.

“This will begin with World of Warcraft and StarCraft II.”

StarCraft II has now been delayed into 2010 to match the release of the new Battle.net.

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14 comments

Suikoden Fan
05/08/09, 9:53 pm

in that if evil activision had their way, they will charge to use it?

joshua nash
05/08/09, 10:35 pm

kotick should just shut the fucking hell up, every time he opens his mouth he seem to make activision look like even bigger tools then they already are, or atleast hire some fucking PR police which work wonders just look at Peter molyneux the PR police have helped him stop running off at the mouth

Patrick Garratt
05/08/09, 11:00 pm

Just updated this with the proper quotes.

Suikoden Fan
05/08/09, 11:11 pm

did he mention if it was free to use or not?

Patrick Garratt
05/08/09, 11:12 pm

Nope, nothing about money.

SunKing
05/08/09, 11:38 pm

I can imagine Kotick is already trying to figure out ways to make a buck out of Battle.net. It wouldn’t suprise me if they offered the fundamental parts of the service free, charging a premium for ladders, competitions, championship rankings, etc. In fact, I think this may have been mentioned somewhere before, now I think about it.

Also, there’s a typo: “myltiplayer”. (Unless that’s what the exec actually said.)

rainer
05/08/09, 11:39 pm

I suspect the cockroach Kotick has plans for battle.net otherwise he wouldn’t bother opening his mouth about it (if it was to remain exclusive to Blizzard game).

SunKing
06/08/09, 12:17 am

Theoretically, there’s no reason why they couldn’t integrate all their brands into Battle.net. This is all, of course, dependent on what they’re actually putting into the new service.

hitnrun
06/08/09, 3:18 am

I already have a substitute for Xbox Live on my PC. It’s called “the Internet.”

#10

Patrick Garratt
06/08/09, 8:05 am

Fixed that typo. Ta.

#11

Bulk Slash
06/08/09, 8:14 am

So they’re reinventing the wheel again for all those PC players already having to use Steam and Windows Live? Great work ActiBlizz.

#12

Suikoden Fan
06/08/09, 8:22 am

i’m just wondering, does anyone in the games industry actually like kotick?

#13

SticKboy
06/08/09, 10:30 am

I’m sure Bobby Kotick is highly regarded by his shareholders, and that’ll be all he really cares about. He certainly doesn’t care a fig about gamers or furthering the medium.

#14

sk4r
15/08/09, 6:08 pm

Great. Now we must contend with Battle.net Gold and Silver…