During the early morning hours of June 4th, MMO-Champion.com released an information dump pertaining to a new Battle.net desktop client, that will act as a replacement for the many launchers used by each of the Blizzard Entertainment games.
Here’s a summary of the current features:
- Replaces the launchers for all Blizzard games.
- Works similarly to conventional launchers, with background downloading, recovery tools, P2P download potential, etc
- Communicate with friends through Battle.net chat
Predicted features:
- –Blizzard store: purchase Blizzard games within the desktop client
- -Forums
- –Battle.net profiles
If the MMO-Champion leak isn’t enough to prove the client’s existence, the official US.Battle.Net has many support links regarding the Desktop application as well:
Uninstalling Battle.net Desktop app
You Are Not A Part of A Beta Test
All of this sounds fantastic, except for one small issue: based on the released screenshots it appears as though the client will be regional. Now, I’d be okay with this if the application still allows you to communicate with friends logged into another region, but if not this really goes against the whole “Global Play” that Blizzard has recently implemented.
Another thought is if Activision will be jumping on-board for the client. While this is very unlikely, it would definitely give the desktop application a much higher reach, potential cross-over and increased sales for both companies.
Here’s a mock-up image created by the guys at MMO-Champion:
