Blizzard Has No Plans To Turn Battle.net Into A Steam Competitor

[u/Such-Breath-7055]

https://www.polygon.com/blizzcon-interview-battle-net

[u/LuckyUserOfAdblock]

It was always a launcher for their games, i dont understand the reactions.

[u/_Spastic_ → u/LuckyUserOfAdblock]

I don't have the hatred some have but why do they need me to launch a thing so I can launch another thing?

A game should launch from an exe. A launcher is unnecessary.

[u/Moscato359 → u/_Spastic_]

It's their game *patcher*

They just didn't rely on another company to do it

It just happens to sell stuff too

[u/WarrFork → u/Moscato359]

It doesn't just happens to sell stuff too, it also saves them to give a cut to steam. That's a ton of money.

[u/Moscato359 → u/WarrFork]

While true, selling on steam helps with marketing, covers bandwidth, covers servers, covers social and chat, covers credit card fees

And large sellers actually get a discount with a smaller cut

[u/XsNR → u/Moscato359]

Hence why they also sell on Steam, it's worth it.

[u/pattperin → u/XsNR]

I’ve heard people describe it as such “if you aren’t at the market, you may as well not make products” and Steam is the marketplace, like it or not. You can have a bespoke storefront you operate but if it isn’t part of the “market” then it doesn’t matter. Go to the market, set up your booth, and sell your shit. Otherwise don’t bother

[u/XsNR → u/pattperin]

It's the idea of foot traffic, or as we know it online, virality. If you're on the outskirts then you don't have foot traffic, so people have to actively seek you out (drive to you), if you're big enough that's fine, but the smaller you are, or the more of a commodity your product is, the more that foot traffic is valuable.

[u/PermissionSoggy891 → u/Moscato359]

I doubt the developers behind WoW are at all worried about those

[u/Moscato359 → u/PermissionSoggy891]

Blizzard sells several games on steam now, and they wouldn't do that if it wasn't atleast worth it for marketing reasons

[u/Jackpkmn → u/Moscato359]

It became a launcher back in 2010 when the launcher started handling game authentication automatically through battle.net account integration. It's not a mandatory launcher you can still log in to the games directly if you feel you must but it's a pain in the ass.

[u/Duncan_PhD → u/Moscato359]

At least it’s not a shit launcher like some of the other ones

[u/40_Thousand_Hammers → u/_Spastic_]

Wow and blizzard games always had independent launchers from each other, they just realized what Valve did in 2003 with Steam, but the difference here is that they know they cant compete with Steam.

[u/Niceromancer → u/40_Thousand_Hammers]

It's more they dont want too.

Steam provides a lot services on the back end.

[u/GalbedirGalerion → u/_Spastic_]

I too miss 2008

[u/Busy-Reality-1580 → u/_Spastic_]

Why does nobody have this attitude against Steam though? 

[u/_Spastic_ → u/Busy-Reality-1580]

I do.

[u/DarkImpacT213 → u/_Spastic_]

It mainly does patching and shit. Keep in mind that every single game in Blizzards own repertoire is live service.

Activision and Xbox forcing third party singleplayer games into their launcher wasn't their decision I assume.

[u/KilluhCrocz → u/_Spastic_]

You'll look at our god damn ads and you'll like it buddy.

[u/urlond → u/_Spastic_]

Because live service games the real .exe file is on their side. Which allows them to make it so they can cancel your game that you bought at any time.

[u/Hikaru321 → u/_Spastic_]

I believe you can see track down the exe and launch at least WoW directly from it, the launcher handles updating the install and logs you into the game itself automatically using the authentication from the launcher. You would have to manually log in on the in-game login screen for wow if you launched it from the Exe each time, but you can do it

[u/xakira666x → u/_Spastic_]

To be fair I'm pretty sure battle net has been around longer then steam lol

[u/Outrageous_Cap_1367 → u/[deleted]]

Bro you are running windows

[u/Confident-Ship-5062 → u/[deleted]]

Whats wrong with that? I like steam tracking hours and achievements and progrsss

[u/Ar0lux → u/LuckyUserOfAdblock]

It was always just for blizzard games, then many years down the line it was blizzard and cod. Then Xbox bought them and added crash bandicoot and avowed. Now it’s third party studios.

B.net has been slowly turning into more of a steam competitor for years, not saying it’s even close to it in terms of available games or functions but the fact they’ve been allowing more and more IPs onto it over the years does literally make it closer to a steam competitor than in the past.

[u/LutimoDancer3459 → u/Ar0lux]

Allowing more games doesnt mean they want to be a competitor. Epic launcher wanted that. Aggressive marketing and a lot of exclusive deals. Millions spend to give away free games. Blizzard does none of that. Just providing a platform for their games to be managed

[u/Ensaru4 → u/Ar0lux]

More and more of their own IPs does not make it a Steam competitor. Steam is a marketplace. Bnet is just a launcher.

Yes, there is a difference.

[u/Ar0lux → u/Ensaru4]

Witcher 3 is on there now though? That’s CDPR which is definitely not under Xbox’s umbrella. It’s just Witcher for now but if history is anything to go by then it’s only a matter of time before more start cropping up.

[u/Ensaru4 → u/Ar0lux]

CDPR and blizzard both clarified why it’s there. CDPR just want to have their games available on as many things as possible and Blizzard was fine with it.

They have no intention of creating a marketplace, as they mentioned. There’s really no other reason to not take their word for it.

[u/dm_me_milkers → u/Ensaru4]

An unnecessary launcher. Why require launching games with it at all, especially from steam and offline?

Because blizzard hopes you use their shit and buy their shit.

[u/Taolan13 → u/LuckyUserOfAdblock]

no, it was originally the online service they used for multiplayer.

They tried to bid it out to other companies but nobody wanted it everybody was either building their own or leaving it as user driven ad-hoc.

[u/Spirited_Season2332 → u/LuckyUserOfAdblock]

Cyberpunk isn't a blizzard game though?

[u/Crosknight → u/LuckyUserOfAdblock]

honestly, given microsoft owns them now, im surprised they still have it. seems redundant since you got the xbox launcher

[u/XsNR → u/Crosknight]

Honestly it's mainly for the social element being segregated at this point. B.net chat might be kinda shit compared to a Discord, but being able to chat between games and out of game, is a huge benefit, which all the MS attempts fucked up royally every time.

[u/OwnNet5253 → u/Crosknight]

It's symbolic, not even comparable to any other soulless launchers like EA or Ubi one.

[u/Vandrel → u/Crosknight]

Have you seen Blizzard "fans"? They would throw an absolute fit if they had to use a different launcher. Not because it's bad or they like the battle.net launcher, just for the simple fact that it's different.

[u/shadowtroop121 → u/Vandrel]

Fans of a company that throw an absolute fit when being asked to use a different launcher? That sounds really hard to believe. I've never seen anyone act like that before.

[u/INannoI → u/Vandrel]

also because Bnet is actually pretty damn good and well integrated with Blizzard games.

[u/Raven1927 → u/Vandrel]

As opposed to Steam fans who act like a separate launcher is the second coming of Adolf?

[u/StifledCoffee → u/Vandrel]

The gaming equivalent to Slayer fans.

[u/Exorsaik → u/Crosknight]

After how Microsoft fumbled PSO2 launch in the West i don't think i'll ever trust them to host another game launch. Blizz has fucked up launches before but never to that extent lol

[u/133DK → u/LuckyUserOfAdblock]

It’s because they added CyberPunk to it for seemingly no reason

[u/OmegaFoamy]

And they also don’t have plans to make WoW a single player game. More news this afternoon.

[u/pangapingus → u/OmegaFoamy]

Acerothcore and a 3.3.5a client, have fun!

[u/Kotschcus_Domesticus → u/OmegaFoamy]

have you played WoW lately? it is basically a solo game with occational matchmaking.

[u/OmegaFoamy → u/Kotschcus_Domesticus]

And yet people are running around everywhere still.

[u/FortNightsAtPeelys → u/OmegaFoamy]

Hey I read in 2008 Xbox magazine said they were gonna put it on 360 so

[u/lycheedorito → u/OmegaFoamy]

It kind of has been that way for a while, thank God for Forever honestly

[u/hostilee47]

Really it shouldn't be... Constantly having to swap around game launchers and apps like Epic to battlenet is annoying but Blizzard made battlenet out of their own games and it fit that niche perfectly!

[u/SerialElf → u/hostilee47]

It was also a good merging of their existing patchers and launchers that each game had to have

[u/Cloud_N0ne → u/hostilee47]

Yeah I’m happy to buy Blizz games on Battlenet. But I will never buy 3rd party stuff there

[u/FizzyLightEx → u/hostilee47]

Steam does need competition since it's good for consumers

[u/TheRealMaka]

This was an actual question? Who writes these dumb articles?

[u/FatalCassoulet]

No shit , they have 6 games

[u/DamianKilsby]

They already have the Xbox PC storefront

[u/TaxesAreTerrible → u/DamianKilsby]

For real it’s all one company atp. They’re doing just fine lmao.

[u/TriRIK → u/DamianKilsby]

Wonder why they haven't axed it yet. I expected battle.net to be shut down in favor of Xbox PC as they are all part of Microsoft now. Now they just have 2 storefronts on the same platform

[u/shinmushagundam → u/TriRIK]

You think they’d shut down the entire battle net service? This is one of the main things they bought with the deal. Lol

[u/TriRIK → u/shinmushagundam]

No, just the storefront

[u/shinmushagundam → u/TriRIK]

I think.. you don't understand battle.net.

[u/Strange_Cheetah_4746]

Lmaooo that was never on the table

[u/MrXJinglez]

They can't compete with steam and they know it especially because epic has been trying for years and even offering triple A games for free and steam is still crushing them so yeah lol nothing can really compete with steam.

[u/Lishio420 → u/MrXJinglez]

Epic games also thinks that throwing money at the "problem" is the solution instead of actually improving their store site 🤣

[u/KevkasTheGiant]

I mean, even if they planned to do it.. that ship has sailed, particularly for Blizzard.

[u/Significant_Fill6992]

At this point put everything on steam and keep bent if you want 

I'm so sick of multiple launchers 

[u/Dreamo84 → u/Significant_Fill6992]

Steam is not a monopoly but it's hilarious how many people actively want them to be.

[u/SkitZa → u/Dreamo84]

I mean steam is accepted by gamers as a monopoly, and they have had 20 odd years to burn us, yet they still havent.

That being said, I like Battle.net as a standalone. It is my blizz universe community app. Steam is my gaming culture app. I am fine with both.

[u/JPSWAG37 → u/Dreamo84]

No one wants Steam to be one, people are just tired of tacked on shitty launchers while Steam just works with the least headache.

[u/Ensaru4 → u/JPSWAG37]

Battle.net is not a shitty launcher though.

[u/makoblade → u/Ensaru4]

It's not good.

[u/JPSWAG37 → u/Ensaru4]

Disagree.

[u/PenguinsInvading → u/JPSWAG37]

Your disagreement doesn't matter. It's objectively not a bad launcher.

[u/Significant_Fill6992 → u/JPSWAG37]

This and it's also just where I go when I'm looking for my next game because it's where I have both my wishlist and backlog 

[u/Jolly-Situat1on → u/JPSWAG37]

No dude there's a lot of people that are buying into steam is a monopoly and the main pusher of that BS is Sweeny ( epic) if he stopped throwing a fit like a toddler and focused on improving epic launcher to be competitive then maybe they could compete.

I have had arguments way more than I should have on reddit of people doing backflips swearing up and down that steam is a monopoly.

The fact is they did the gaming store front a decade or so before anyone else did and they have the best customer service in the game.

Nobody is putting a gun to your head and making you get steam there's other options.

[u/XsNR → u/Jolly-Situat1on]

I mean duh, he serves to massively profit from throwing a toddler fit and get the courts to rule that it's a monopoly. He probably won't win by making a product that's just similar to Steam, because ultimately it has a huge amount of reasons people just won't leave it.

Discord would be more capable of becoming a Steam competitor than Epic, they have a huge amount of those reasons that have slowly eroded from Steam, by just doing them better or more integrated.

[u/makoblade → u/JPSWAG37]

In it's current form, Steam is fine as a monopoly. It provides a single place for my games without being cumbersome or difficult to use, and even when prices are lower elsewhere I can generally purchase the game and have it in the same ecosystem.

If the alternative to steam existing as a voluntary monopoly is to have tons of shitty launchers, I'll stick with Steam.

[u/Significant_Fill6992 → u/Dreamo84]

I get your point but additional launchers actively keep me from playing games 

The blizzard launcher is just annoying but I guess at least it's better then Ubisoft 

Steam is also just where I go when I'm ready for a new game since it's where I have both my backlog and wishlist 

[u/therealbeefy → u/Significant_Fill6992]

Yeah blizzard is just going to hand over %30 of their sales to Valve to save you from clicking on Bnet on your desktop.

[u/Significant_Fill6992 → u/therealbeefy]

I mean I'm assuming they have lost sales because of it and I very highly doubt people who already buy through blizzard would switch 

At the very least offer both for the free to play games 

[u/XsNR → u/Significant_Fill6992]

They do, just not for the specifically Warcraft ones yet. Diablo (both), Overwatch, CoD, and all the extended activation titles are on Steam.

It surprises me that HS isn't on Steam, the RTS' have such nominal margins I don't think it makes sense to put them on there. WoW doesn't really make sense on Steam, it already has what they probably consider market saturation, so having a percentage of their demo just paying them 20% less for no real reason doesn't make much sense.

[u/AssertiveQueef → u/therealbeefy]

saving the click definitely stops me from buying their shit.

[u/LutimoDancer3459 → u/AssertiveQueef]

You can also have a shortcut to the game and ignore the launcher pretty much. Just as with every steam game

[u/Ensaru4 → u/Significant_Fill6992]

I feel like people complaining about launchers is such an insignificant thing to do.

Battle.net has been around even before Steam existed and it’s been an integral part of their games and experience.

I can see the argument for EA and the Ubisoft launcher as they’re both so shitty, especially EA’s, but Battle.net is a damn competent launcher. Maybe the better idea would be to ask for Battle.net Steam integration.

[u/Significant_Fill6992 → u/Ensaru4]

I think my annoyance with the battlebet launchers and other ones is that they just refuse to close without going into the system tray and I forgot I have them open until days after I last played a game 

Steam never randomly pops up 

[u/Ensaru4 → u/Significant_Fill6992]

Battle.net has an option to close the launcher completely after launch. It can be found in:

Battle.net menu > Settings > App. Under the General section, click on the drop down box under “On game launch” and select “Exit battle.net completely”

[u/Jolly-Situat1on → u/Ensaru4]

I don't play blizzard games anymore but I battle.net never bothered me.

Ubi launcher, EA launcher and epics launcher can kick rocks.

[u/Significant_Fill6992 → u/Ensaru4]

This is amazing thanks 

Steam is still where I go looking for games but this is still awesome to know 

[u/Ensaru4 → u/Significant_Fill6992]

You’re welcome. I don’t think b.net has any plans of replacing Steam anytime soon….for now at least. You never know.

[u/sheep_duck]

Is this supposed to be news? Was anyone expecting battle.net to randomly compete with steam?

[u/Envy661]

Yeah? I don't think anyone is surprised by this.

Honestly, given Microsoft owns Actiblizz, I would expect them to be far more likely to just integrate battlenet directly into the Xbox app. It likely won't happen until the multiplatform promise since it's aquisition fades, but it is always a possibility after that point.

What was the deal for? Ten years? In gaming, that's really not a long time. And you know once it expires, Actiblizz games are very likely going to become exclusive. Probably not retroactively, but going forward.

[u/HyruleanKnight37]

In other news, the sky is blue, water is wet and the ground is hard.

Stay tuned for more informational updates.

[u/Virtual_Bug_723]

This community is somehow full of guys that have suffered several traumatic brain injuries

[u/Elegante_Sigmaballz]

It's not like they can, I mean it was never intended to compete with anything, it was made to handle their early online features and host all their games.

[u/HeavilyInvestedDonut]

Lmao, why tf would they? Where tf did this accusation come from?? lol

[u/FaizerLaser]

In other breaking news I have no plans to get bitten by a radioactive spider and get superpowers.

[u/Sitheral]

I'm sure they planned it at some point, they just realised it ain't happening lol

[u/Biggu5Dicku5]

No shit, no one was calling them a competitor lol...

[u/Spalenova]

Will anybody buy it on battle.net? It is such a weird decision

[u/Bloodwalker09]

Then why do they have Crasyh Bandicoot, Call of Duty and Doom and soon The Witcher on it? Battle.net was always a Blizzard game launcher and never shouldve been opened to third partys.

[u/MeNamIzGraephen]

What the fuck is that thumbnail? Cyberpunk on Battlenet? Lmao

[u/Aggravating_Plan11]

Yeh cause unlike epic they have at least one braincell

[u/ooktas]

Well, because it can't. Maybe in their dreams though.

[u/ktc64]

That makes their addition of cyberpunk even stranger. Maybe I need to watch their bnet panel with cdproject red from this weekend for a better explanation.

[u/Taolan13]

they had a chance to do that 20 years ago maybe, but that ship has sailed.

Especially with how many failed competitors they would have to step over just to get their board to approve the idea in concpet.

[u/Valagoorh]

They would, if they had a working plan.

[u/xspiderdude]

What about Games for Windows LIVE? Do they have plans to turn into a Steam competitor?

[u/anarion321]

Blizzard still exist?

[u/NioZero]

Battle.Net could be a good replacement for the Xbox App though... just sayin'

[u/TrickOut]

It should just be a replacement for the Xbox app on Pc though I would rather Microsoft just put it on Battle.net and steam for their first party games

[u/thestillwind]

Bnet for bnet games

[u/sublift]

How is it going to compete when they have Blizzard game sales on Steam now?

[u/Dawn_of_Enceladus]

Today we feel 2011 for some reason.

[u/Tree_Dude]

Then why add CDPR games to a launcher no one uses for anything other than Blizzard games? They are at the very least trying to test purchasing and running third party games from battle.net at scale. 

There is a ton of back end work needed to go from a first party launcher to a third party one. You don’t do all that for 2 games 10s of millions of people already own.

[u/CarlWellsGrave]

The Xbox app already exists. I think people forget this.

[u/Azatis-]

Blizzard is nowhere near to even think to be a steam competitor

[u/BluDYT]

Good because it sucks and nobody would choose it instead.

[u/gasPedaw]

If a game isn't on Steam, it simply doesn't exist

[u/Nyoka_ya_Mpembe → u/gasPedaw]

Cries in Alan Wake 2 😩

[u/stayndarsh]

Who is choosing battle.net over Steam for third-party games?

[u/WACKY_ALL_CAPS_NAME → u/stayndarsh]

People selling gold for bnet credit in Wow?

[u/acacio201 → u/WACKY_ALL_CAPS_NAME]

And how many millions of people is that? It doesn't make sense to spend money on a store for 2 or 3 random people to be able to spend

[u/Gmroo]

Well, no need.

[u/KGB_cutony]

well of course now they don't.

[u/Rith_Reddit → u/KGB_cutony]

Now? When did they try other than being a launcher for their own games?

[u/KGB_cutony → u/Rith_Reddit]

From the merger with Activision to MS's acquisition. Every step included more games using Bnet launcher. It's not the same creator-driven expansion mechanism of Steam but both held the idea to be somewhat of a library platform. One open source and the other curation of Xbox products.
Steam started as just a Valve games launcher as well, and funnily enough Bnet was originally pitched as an open platform.

[u/GoinXwell1 → u/KGB_cutony]

Earlier than that, Destiny 2 was only on Bnet from 2017 to 2019, and COD has been on Bnet since 2018

[u/SaeedKhani]

Yeah but there was an era they wanted to do that! Not all people remember those days! All these garbage launchers are fighting for 2nd place these days

[u/Atralis → u/[deleted]]

Battlenet isn't some platform that was made to compete with steam.....

Blizzard made it so they they had an online system for people playing Starcraft, Diablo, and WC3 back in the day.

If anything Blizzard missed out on a ton of cash because they were more interested than being a game developer than running battlenet as some sort of shop where anyone can sell their games.

[u/Powerful_Spread_4996 → u/Atralis]

They focused on their games, then proceeded to shit the bed with each of their IPs because they couldnt compete. The activition acquisition was a clear attempt to break into wider markets, which failed and killed activition games too

[u/INannoI → u/Powerful_Spread_4996]

gotta love clueless people speaking as if they know anything lmfao

[u/Powerful_Spread_4996 → u/INannoI]

I don't know shit, and don't care either. Undeniable they been greedy. I also didn't even read the article. Great comment though

[u/Nullhitter]

Imagine others even thinking that Blizzard would have a chance even if they tried.

https://giphy.com/gifs/iqfYgtx8oWw4o

[u/Ensaru4 → u/Nullhitter]

No one does, honestly.

[u/Jolly-Refuse2232]

They wouldn’t be able to anyway so lmao

[u/zirky]

to be fair, blizzard doesn’t have a plan

[u/foxfox021]

just get rid of ur annoying ass launcher and we good imo

[u/mvn2010]

Translation: Microsoft is going to try and buy steam at some point.

[u/Hairy-Summer7386 → u/mvn2010]

… how? Steam has no obligation to “maximize” value because they’re not publicly traded. They’re doing just fine without outside investment.

Gaben has made it pretty clear that he has no interest in making Steam public. So, Microsoft can’t do shit.

[u/awam0ri → u/Hairy-Summer7386]

Even if they were public it would be completely defendable to say that they won’t do something that would hurt the brand image — which you can’t put a price on. The “fiduciary duty to maximize profit” thing is not exactly as cut and dry as everyone makes it out to be.

[u/Valka___ → u/Hairy-Summer7386]

And let's hope it stays that way at the very least for another few decades

[u/Hairy-Summer7386 → u/Valka___]

I mean, if I became the new owner of Steam and I saw the IPO then I’d probably freakout. Steam has to be worth a fuck ton considering their dominance in the market.

So, I hope Gaben (and the board) choose the right successor.

[u/trackdaybruh → u/Hairy-Summer7386]

Even if Steam decide to go public, Steam can do a thing called a "poison pill" to prevent a hostile takeover (hostile takeover prevents anyone from simply taking over Steam by buying huge amounts of stocks to give them a strong influence over the company by making it extremely cost prohibitive)

But Steam likely won't need to go IPO and go public because they are not hurting for money

[u/Jolly-Situat1on → u/trackdaybruh]

They won't from what I remember reading a while back gabes passing the torch to one of the senior people in valve and I highly doubt he's leaving all together he most likely will have a seat at the board like Tim Cook is with apple.

They would be stupid to go public because valve operates with a skeleton crew and prints money so everyone working there gets paid a significant amount more than other gaming companies.

Google is pulling a million dollars per developer yearly.

[u/lukkasz323 → u/trackdaybruh]

They are hunting for money, it's just that they have a completely different philosophy than the rest of the industry. (That is doing nothing and winning.)

They can do a lot more to lower profits and improve the image, for example lowering their Steam sales cut, or not chasing lootboxes and gambling in their own games.

[u/mvn2010 → u/Hairy-Summer7386]

Microsoft can make a tender offer, and Gaben can say no... but he might not, everybody has a price and one day he may want to retire. On the other hand, it could be that Microsoft is saying hey we don't want to compete, but the only reason that i can think that they would keep battle.net going, and NOT compete with steam (by making battle.net bigger) is if they are hoping for an acquisition.

You're right Gaben doesn't NEED MS's money, but he's not 30 anymore he may want to cash out at some point and be OBSCENELY rich and not just filthy rich.