Battle.net

Online gaming platform past Blizzard Entertainment

Boxing.internet

Logo
Developer(s)	Blizzard Amusement
Initial release	Dec 31, 1996; 25 years ago  (1996-12-31)
Stable release	2.three.i.13029
Type	Content commitment Digital rights management Multiplayer online service Social networking Instant messaging VoIP
License	Proprietary
Website	www.blizzard.com/en-u.s./apps/boxing.net/desktop

Battle.net
is an Internet-based online game, social networking service, digital distribution, and digital rights management platform developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The service was launched on Dec 31, 1996, followed a few days later on with the release of Blizzard’south action-function-playing video game
Diablo
on Jan 3, 1997. Battle.net was officially renamed to “Blizzard Battle.net” in Baronial 2017, with the change being reverted in January 2021.^[1]

Boxing.internet was the commencement online gaming service incorporated directly into the games that brand use of it, in contrast to the external interfaces used by the other online services at the time. This feature, forth with ease of account creations and the absence of member fees, caused Battle.cyberspace to become popular among gamers and became a major selling point for
Diablo
and subsequent Blizzard games. Since the successful launch of Battle.net, many companies accept created online game services mimicking Blizzard’s service package and the user interface.

Blizzard Entertainment officially unveiled the revamped Battle.internet 2.0 on March 20, 2009.^[2]
It later revealed further details of the Battle.net revamped features at BlizzCon 2009 which supported
World of Warcraft,
StarCraft II, and
Diablo III. The original Battle.net was then renamed to Battle.internet Archetype.^[iii]
Boxing.net Classic games employ a unlike account system to the games on Boxing.net 2.0.

The platform currently supports storefront actions, social interactions, and matchmaking for all of Blizzard’s modern PC games including
Hearthstone,
Heroes of the Storm,
Overwatch, and
StarCraft: Remastered, besides as various
Phone call of Duty
games, and
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s Nigh Time
from corporate sibling of Blizzard Entertainment, Activision. The platform provides cross-game instant messaging and voice chat service.

In September 2017, Blizzard Entertainment released the Battle.net application for Android and iOS. The app includes the ability to chat with and add friends in addition to seeing what games they are currently playing.^[4]

History

[edit]

Battle.net Classic

[edit]

When the service initially launched on December 31, 1996 (the first game using the service being
Diablo
releasing a few days later on Jan 3, 1997), Battle.net offered simply a few basic services similar chatting and game listings. Players could connect to the service, talk with other gamers and join multiplayer games of
Diablo. Besides user account data, no game data was stored on the Battle.net servers. When a histrion connected to a game, they would exist connecting straight to the other players in the game. No information was sent through the Battle.net servers. While this fabricated the service quick and easy to utilize, it apace led to widespread cheating since players using cheats could change their game information locally. However, since in that location was an selection to create individual games, many players ended up playing with people they knew.

The release of
StarCraft
in 1998 increased usage of the Battle.net service significantly. Features such every bit ladder ranking and game filters were added to the service. Battle.net grew fifty-fifty larger afterward the release of the expansion pack
StarCraft: Brood War, with tens of thousands of players logged on at any given fourth dimension (even in the present 24-hour interval).
StarCraft
Battle.net was specially successful in South korea, where the number of players logged on was frequently many times that of the United States.

StarCraft
also brought with it a new copy protection scheme using CD keys. Under
Diablo, Boxing.net would allow any customer to connect to the service. With
StarCraft, only those players with a valid and unique CD fundamental – a generated 13-digit number distributed with each boxed game – were allowed onto the service. Only one person could connect to Battle.cyberspace using a specific CD primal at a time. CD-Keys could besides be muted (unable to chat in channels or whisper), voided (restricted to
The Void
channel), jailed (both muted and voided) or banned from Battle.net entirely. Every Blizzard game since
StarCraft
has used the CD primal system to connect to Battle.internet.
StarCraft: Brood State of war
used as its CD-key whatever CD-key was found on the original
StarCraft
on that computer, and was thus just installable if the original was already installed. With the release of the Gateway system in
Brood War
(selectable regional server clusters), two players can play at the same time, as long equally they are on different gateways. Given how the gateways are expectedly split from each other, each with their own games list and user accounts that are non shared across the other gateways, it is still maintained that they cannot play in the same game nor conversation with each other, etc.

Diablo II
was released in 2000 to much fanfare. The main highlight of
Diablo 2
as information technology relates to Battle.net was that the game used the client–server model. The game was no longer simulated on each histrion’s figurer, but instead was run on Blizzard’due south server. This besides meant that all of the character information for the game was stored on the Battle.net servers. The game also has an open up character characteristic on Boxing.net which stored the player’southward grapheme on the client. This allowed players to play characters locally or on a LAN, and then use those same characters on Battle.net. However, whatsoever open games played on Boxing.net were non protected from cheating by other players since they could have modified their characters locally.
Diablo II
also had a unique feature that would testify the players in the Battle.net conversation room as avatars who looked like their characters did in the game. It as well used a dissimilar Battle.cyberspace interface than previous games, where previously there were mainly merely color differences. In that location was also expanded ladder support including a “Hardcore” ladder which listed players whose characters would exist removed permanently if they died in-game. Once more, with
Diablo 2
usage of Battle.net increased steadily, climbing even higher with the release of the expansion pack
Diablo II: Lord of Devastation
in 2001.

Warcraft 3: Reign of Anarchy
was released in 2002 and its expansion pack,
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, was released in 2003. The release of these two games brought with them a number of new features to the online service. The most significant feature to exist added was probably the concept of Bearding Matchmaking. This feature allowed a user who wanted to play a game to merely press a button and automatically be matched up with one or more other players who were similar in skill (based on ranking) and also wanted to play a game. This immune for people to get into games quickly and hands. It also reduced win-trading, where two people would purposely win and lose games to artificially raise their rank on the ladder. The matchmaking concept was likewise expanded to squad games in a characteristic called “Arranged Teams”. In an bundled team game, you could brand a team with 1 or more than friends, which was then anonymously matched upwardly with another team of the same size and rank. Nevertheless, a strategy was introduced on how to cheat the automated ‘fair’ matchups, called ‘Abusing’, but by someone losing the Bundled Squad Games intentionally with one ally and then that with another ally (who wants to gain wins easily) won’t discover it difficult because the automatic matchups would put the ii players up against relatively unskilled players. Automated tournaments were added in the expansion, where players would compete to be crowned tournament champion in a series of games played throughout the 24-hour interval. In addition to the new game styles, a slew of other features were added including selectable chatroom icons unlocked based on the player’s number of wins, a friends list, and clan support.

Boxing.net 2.0

[edit]

Boxing.cyberspace
was revamped by Blizzard Entertainment in 2009 and officially unveiled on March 20, 2009, information technology was further elaborated on during BlizzCon 2009. The new Boxing.internet contains iii unique sections. The first allows players to connect all Battle.net accounts, World of Warcraft characters and friends list together and integrate them into a unified unmarried Boxing.net business relationship. Players tin likewise unlock achievements in-game which would in plow unlock avatars and decals which would be shown on the player’s profile, the decals tin also be seen in-game on the role player’due south units.^[five]

The 2d section consists of making Battle.cyberspace into a competitive platform for players which involves a new improved matchmaking organisation, simplifying the process of players organizing games. The ladder organisation has also been revamped; the organization classifies players into sure leagues according to their level of competitiveness. Players would then compete against others who take a similar skill level to their own, albeit across leagues. In that location is likewise a special practice league to practice and strop skills, where game speed is reduced and maps are designed to create a slower pace of the game. The political party system works similar to that of
Globe of Warcraft
where players with friends would join together and enter games every bit a political party.^[v]

The terminal department involves the new chat arrangement which involves a new arrangement similar to instant messaging across games. Players may communicate with friends across games, servers, and characters.^[5]

Globe of Warcraft
initially did not support Battle.cyberspace, having separate accounts from
Battle.net
in one case until the revamp of Battle.net on March 20, 2009 which forced players to merge their
World of Warcraft
accounts with the new Battle.internet accounts. The features of Battle.internet utilized in
World of Warcraft
include assuasive players to engage in cantankerous-realm, cantankerous-faction and cross-game chat, which allows players to talk with their friends on their Real ID friends list, from other factions, other servers equally well as other games such every bit StarCraft 2
and
Diablo Iii.^{[
commendation needed
]}
On November eleven, 2009 Blizzard Entertainment fabricated Battle.net a mandatory feature for
World of Warcraft
players.^[vi]

StarCraft II
was the start game to natively back up the new revamped Battle.net online interface. It was split into 3 installments: the base game with the subtitle
Wings of Liberty, expansion pack
Centre of the Swarm, stand up-alone expansion pack
Legacy of the Void
and downloadable content mission packs
Nova Covert Ops.^[7]

The new interface includes a chat service which is similar to that of instant messengers which allows players to interact beyond different games. The platform also supports VoIP for players.^{[8]
[nine]
[x]}

On May 5, 2010, Blizzard revealed that Battle.net 2.0 would be integrated with social networking site Facebook, “linking the world’southward premier online gaming platform with the world’s most popular social platform”.

Blizzard Boxing.net Desktop App

[edit]

In August 2013, Blizzard Entertainment released an open beta for the Battle.net Launcher.^[xi]
The launcher is a desktop application that allows players to purchase, install and patch their games, and provides access to the friends list and messaging. Information technology also provides access to some business relationship management and game services. Blizzard launches its own cross-game vocalization chat service in Oct 2016. Blizzard Vocalization is integrated into the Boxing.net application.^[12]

In February 2017, Blizzard introduced the power to obtain Blizzard storefront credit past trading in “WoW Tokens” from
World of Warcraft, bought through the utilize of in-game gold and initially used equally a means of trading credits betwixt players of
World of Warcraft. These credits could exist used to purchase other Blizzard games or content, such as card packs for
Hearthstone
or loot boxes for
Overwatch.^[13]

The Windows version of
Destiny 2, developed by Bungie and published by corporate sibling of Blizzard Entertainment, Activision, was exclusively sold and launched through the Battle.cyberspace on its Windows release on October 24, 2017 also every bit used to support the game’s matchmaking capabilities, making it the first non-Blizzard game supported past the launcher.^[14]
Blizzard affirmed that players tin can use gold farming in
World of Warcraft
to generate credit towards their Blizzard account that they tin can employ towards buy of
Destiny 2.^[15]
Blizzard said that they are also “potentially evaluating needs or opportunities for futurity Activision games” to exist supported by the Battle.net;^[14]
with
Phone call of Duty: Blackness Ops 4, scheduled for release in tardily 2022, equally its second title for the service.^[xvi]
Blizzard said it does non plan to extend similar support to other tertiary-parties, fearing it would weaken their quality command with the product.^[17]

Destiny ii
was removed from Battle.net on October 1, 2022, after Bungie and Activision amicably terminated the publishing deal, with Bungie transitioning players to use Steam instead after that date.^[18]

A major user interface update for Battle.net was issued in January 2021, aimed to provide meliorate visibility of news and a user’south friends listing, accessibility features, and navigation features.^[19]

Blizzard Battle.net Mobile App

[edit]

In September 2017, Blizzard Entertainment released Battle.internet application for Android and iOS. The app provides simple social networking features with a user’s friends on Boxing.net, including accepting and sending friend invitations and chatting with friends.^[20]

Rebranding

[edit]

In late 2016, Blizzard Amusement announced plans to rebrand Battle.net. According to CEO Mike Morhaime, the company found themselves in a position where they had ii competing brands – Blizzard and Boxing.net – creating confusion for players of where to observe data about their games, and wanted to consolidate the branding.^[21]
[22]
Their kickoff step was a plan to retire the “Battle.net” proper noun in favor of calling service “Blizzard Tech”, announced on September 21, 2016,^[23]
and renaming the customer as the “Blizzard App” by March 24, 2017.^[24]
Nonetheless, following this change, Blizzard realized that the “Battle.cyberspace” brand had likewise much legacy behind it to allow it go since dropping the brand created additional confusion for users.^[21]
This farther became an consequence when Blizzard sought to have
Destiny 2
apply the service, equally they wanted to be clear that the game was not developed by Blizzard simply used the Battle.net framework, but the “Blizzard App” branding would not provide that clarity.^{[21]
[25]
[26]}
By August 2017, Blizzard Amusement stepped back from the full rebranding, and announced that going forward, they would call the service and awarding “Blizzard Battle.net”, which Morhaime said was the best way they had found to combine both brands and minimize consumer defoliation.^[27]
[21]
By Feb 2021, Blizzard Entertainment released a new interface and rebranded the application “Boxing.net” to its original proper name.^[ane]

Development

[edit]

Security

[edit]

To aid users protect their Battle.internet accounts, Blizzard Entertainment implemented a ii-gene authentication option for the service. Launched in 2008, this was initially through a split up device that could be purchased from Blizzard, encoded with the user’due south credentials. The device fit on a keychain and would generate pseudorandom numbers linked to the player’s account, which they would enter when logging into Boxing.cyberspace to assert their identity.^[28]
Later, Blizzard introduced the Battle.cyberspace mobile application for iOS and Android platforms in 2009, replicating the same functionality.^[29]
An update during June 2016 simplified the process, allowing the user, when logging into their Battle.net business relationship from a reckoner, to simply press a unmarried button on their connected mobile device to affirm their actuality.^[30]
Though not required to employ Battle.net, some game aspects crave the user to enable two-factor authentication through either the device or mobile app.^[31]

Growth history

[edit]

Past November 1997, Blizzard Amusement claimed that
Boxing.net
had 2.2 one thousand thousand games played, ane.25 one thousand thousand different users, and averaged three,500 new users each day.^[32]
By April 1999, information technology was reported that Battle.net had two.3 million
active
users, and more than l,000 concurrent users.^[33]
By September 2002, their active user count had jumped to 11 1000000.^{[
citation needed
]}
Past September 2004, their active user count was up to near 12 million, spending more than 2.one meg hours online each day, and they had an average of 200,000 concurrent users, with a peak concurrent user count of 400,000.^[34]
In 2006, Blizzard claimed that Battle.net, when combined with the
World of Warcraft
subscriber base, was a leader of online gaming, noting that “even Xbox Live is not fifty-fifty close to usa”.^[35]

Community content

[edit]

A customs of developers has arisen around Battle.cyberspace. Many unofficial clients are available for Battle.internet, and most of the protocol used past Battle.internet-enabled games has been contrary-engineered and published by volunteers.

As well, several communication tools accept been made, like a “whisper” tool, then that a role player could talk to their friends even if they are in a game.

Custom games (using maps that were not made by Blizzard Entertainment) have helped build the community, and now are a substantial portion of the games played. Among the most popular of these games in
Warcraft Three
are tower defense maps and “hero solo” maps (such as
Defense of the Ancients, and arena maps) or pure RTS games like “Civilization Wars”, where the player develops their economic system, tech, and unit diverseness but the histrion has no control of their units.

Controversy

[edit]

bnetd

[edit]

A group of gamers contrary engineered the network protocol used by Battle.net and Blizzard games, and released a gratis (under the GNU GPL) Battle.net emulation package chosen bnetd. With bnetd, a gamer is not required to use the official Battle.net servers to play Blizzard games.

In February 2002, lawyers retained by Blizzard Amusement threatened legal activity nether the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) against the developers of bnetd. Blizzard games are designed to operate online exclusively with a fix of Blizzard-controlled servers collectively known as “Battle.cyberspace”. Battle.internet servers include a CD central check equally a means of preventing software piracy.

Despite offers from the bnetd developers to integrate Blizzard’s CD fundamental checking organization into bnetd, Blizzard claims that the public availability of any such software parcel facilitates piracy, and moved to have the bnetd project shut downwardly under provisions of the DMCA.^[36]
Every bit this case is i of the showtime major examination cases for the DMCA, the Electronic Frontier Foundation became involved. For a while negotiations were ongoing to resolve the example without a trial. However, the negotiations failed and Blizzard won the case on all counts: the defendants were ruled to accept breached both StarCraft’south Stop User License Agreement (EULA) and the Terms of Utilize of Battle.net.^[37]
This decision was appealed to the Eighth Circuit Courtroom of Appeals, which also ruled in favor of Blizzard Entertainment/Vivendi on September one, 2005.^[38]

Privacy and Real ID

[edit]

On July 6, 2010, Blizzard Entertainment announced that they planned to change the way their forums worked to require that users identify themselves with their real proper noun.^[39]
The reaction from the customs was overwhelmingly negative with multiple game magazines calling the change “foolhardy”^[40]
and an “Epic Neglect”.^[41]
Information technology likewise resulted in the largest user response ever on the Blizzard forums.^{[42]
[43]
[44]
[45]}
This included personal details of a Blizzard employee who gave his real proper noun “to show it wasn’t a big deal”.^[46]
Shortly after revealing his existent name, personal information was posted that included his telephone number, picture, historic period, home accost, and other details.^[42]

Some engineering media outlets suggested the change was a adept idea and would benefit both Battle.internet and the Blizzard community.^[47]
Others worried that Blizzard would open their fans up to real-life dangers^[48]
such every bit stalking, sexual predators, and employment problems, since a simple Google search by a user’due south employer would reveal their online activities.^{[42]
[49]
[50]
[51]}
There was also business organization that this would lead to real-life harassment and safety concerns, especially for women and transgender gamers who are already harassed quite often in-game.^{[52]
[53]
[54]
[51]
[55]
[56]}

Blizzard Amusement initially responded to some of the concerns by saying that the changes would not exist retroactive to previous posts, that parents could fix the arrangement so that minors cannot mail, and that posting to the forums is optional.^{[
citation needed
]}
However, due to the huge negative response, Blizzard President Michael Morhaime issued a statement rescinding the plan to use real names on Blizzard’s forums for the time beingness.^[57]
[58]

2012 hacking

[edit]

During 2012, Blizzard Entertainment suffered a number of incidents related to security. In May 2012, shortly after
Diablo Three
‘south launch, they discovered a number of accounts that had been hacked using traditional means through password knowledge, with affected game characters being stripped of in-game possessions that could be sold for coin. Blizzard noted at this time that those accounts affected did not apply their hallmark pick, and made changes to try to improve security, such equally the in a higher place hallmark requirement for the game’south Auction House.^[59]
A few months later on August 4, 2012, Blizzard reported that their Battle.cyberspace servers had been hacked into, with the perpetrators gaining access to some personal data, including user eastward-mail addresses, answers to security questions, and scrambled passwords, simply not plenty for user accounts to be compromised, co-ordinate to Blizzard.^[lx]
[61]
Blizzard Entertainment required all players on Battle.net in N America to change their countersign and suggested all users modify their security questions.^[62]

These security breaches led to a grade-action lawsuit confronting Blizzard Entertainment in November 2012, claiming that the company was making a turn a profit from the auction of Authenticator devices rather than using the money to enhance the security of their own servers, and that they failed to notify affected users virtually the August data breach in a timely way.^[63]
Virtually of the claims in the suit were summarily dismissed in favor of Blizzard Entertainment in July 2013, primarily as the plaintiffs could not show whatever damage they suffered from these breaches, and the remaining claims related to Boxing.net Authenticator promotional claims were resolved through arbitration. The example was ultimately closed in Feb 2014.^[64]

Games by Battle.internet version

[edit]

Boxing.net Classic

• Diablo
• Diablo II (Lord of Devastation)
• StarCraft (Brood State of war)
• Warcraft II: Boxing.net Edition
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (The Frozen Throne)

Restricted chat functionality

[edit]

• Diablo Shareware
• Diablo Spawn
• Diablo
• StarCraft Shareware
• StarCraft Spawn
• Japanese StarCraft
  (public beta of a Japanese version of
  StarCraft)
• Japanese StarCraft Spawn

Battle.net two.0

[edit]

• World of Warcraft (The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Calamity, Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, Legion, Battle for Azeroth,
  and
  Shadowlands)
• Warcraft Three: Reforged
• StarCraft II: Wings of Freedom (Heart of the Swarm,
  and
  Legacy of the Void)
• StarCraft: Remastered
• Diablo IV
• Diablo Immortal
• Diablo III (Reaper of Souls)
• Diablo Two: Resurrected
• Hearthstone
• Heroes of the Storm
• Overwatch
• Blizzard Arcade Drove (The Lost Vikings, Rock northward’ Roll Racing,
  and
  Blackthorne)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
  ^[sixteen]
• Phone call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Warzone)
  ^[65]
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare ii Campaign Remastered
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
• Telephone call of Duty: Vanguard
• Crash Bandicoot four: It’s Near Fourth dimension

No longer available

[edit]

• Destiny two
  ^[66]

See besides

[edit]

• PvPGN

References

[edit]

External links

[edit]

• 
  Official website