The head of Blizzard’s Battle.net service didn’t rule out the multiplayer service hosting other games from its publishing partner Activision.
Battle.net has always been one of PC gaming’s best free arenas for online gaming but it’s been restricted to Blizzard’s own titles. With the latest update to Battle.net “2.0” host all of the games played in StarCraft 2, and the excellent matchmaking that game employs, it only makes sense for Activision games to be hosted there as well. Battle.net project director Greg Canessa said that that it wasn’t out of the question but that his focus was on making it work for Diablo III.
“Someday, maybe we’ll add other titles in there, who knows,” Canessa said. “When we really feel like we’ve delivered that great set of experiences for Blizzard games, and we feel that we’ve grown the team… when I’ve got that sustainability, when we really feel like we’ve got that dialed in and nailed down, who knows what the future holds.”
Canessa sees wisdom in focusing on baby steps. “Today, [the team is concentrating on] Blizzard games, and making sure Diablo III is a kick-ass online experience, and making sure we evolve and add features of StarCraft II, make sure that WoW kicks ass for Cataclysm and beyond,” he said.
“We’ve got so many opportunities in front of us, I think the mistake we could make as a company – and I don’t think we will make the mistake because we are aware of it – is to get spread too thin and go into too many different directions,” said Canessa.
It seems like Blizzard’s head is in the right place with Battle.net. Making sure that it works 100 percent with its in-house titles is super important and only after the team is completely comfortable with how the service operates will we see them experiment with hosting, say, Call of Duty matchmaking.
But, man, wouldn’t it be sweet if it did?
Source: Gamasutra
