Blizzard commented last year that it would slowly but steadily begin parting ways with its iconic "Battle.net" branding that has defined the online component of its games (which, these days, is an integral part of nearly every one of its games) for nearly 20 years. Until just recently, however, player-facing results of this shift had been minimal. That is, until a very noticeable changed cropped up last night.
As noticed by posters on NeoGAF and reddit, (and likely by anyone who decides to take a look this morning), the Battle.net client now simply reads "Blizzard" at the top, adjusting its name to the fitting but far more ho-hum "Blizzard app." Of course, the change does make sense – beyond nostalgia value for longtime players, the Battle.net brand offers little distinction from Blizzard itself now that nearly all Blizzard games utilize online play as an integral portion (if not the entire game). Still, for longtime fans the change is glaring and will take some getting used to.
This shift will presumably carry over to real-life branding, so don't expect to see any remnants of Battle.net at this year's BlizzCon either. The show is scheduled for November 3-4 in Anaheim, California and tickets are still available (in fact, they go on sale April 5th), so if you can get past the change, it might be worth looking into. As usual, GameRevolution will be onsite to cover the event; in the meantime you can check out our coverage of last year's show.
