The joy of Single-Sign-On technology spreads to Blizzard Entertainment with their new Battlenet Desktop Application just exiting closed beta. You can download it now and enjoy the features early while dealing with little buggy issues like authentication errors and lagging connections. Or you can wait for the final release which should be bug & lag free. This gamer-chick is brave so she downloaded and installed the BattlenetApp to her Alienware Rig.
The BattlenetApp is a central portal for launching popular Blizzard titles like Starcraft II, Diablo III, the new Hearthstone ( for both Mac & PC) and of course, World of Warcraft. No more will you have to close one launcher to get the next and log back in again. Simply exit one game and bounce to the next for you are already authenticated to your Battlenet account. Say goodbye to the old system, and hello to a unified concept.
The idea is to authenticate into the network once (you will still need your Battlenet authentication code if you use that additional security feature) and stay logged in for up to 30 days at a time. Imagine getting updates and patches to your already installed games while you are at work! Your world will be fully ready for you when you sit at your desk to log on. No more lengthy patching sessions while you gather up snacks and drinks – so you better grab them before hand.
Some geeks, like yours truly, might already use launchers such as the Razor Game Booster to optimize gaming rigs for smoother play – or anything else that needs a seriously optimized machine (I use it for more than just gaming). Yes, the Razor will work with the BattlenetApp – just load Razor first, choose your Blizzard game, and the BattlenetApp will launch automatically with your configuration.
This is an interesting move by Blizzard to open the beta of the BattlenetApp right before the highly anticipated Siege of Orgrimmar patch being released on September 10th (next week Tuesday) – the PT was about 25GB! With a patch that big you will want to have it loading up while your slaving away at the office! So when you come home Tuesday evening, you’ll simply throw your briefcase on the couch, toss some food at the dog and cat, kick off the shoes, grab some vittles and settle down into some classic WoW-PvP to vent out your daily frustrations without having to queue up a gargantuan patch and stare at it until your catatonic drool drips onto your lovely, waterproofed keyboard. Add in a mix of 5.3 Hotfixes as well as some nifty-new artwork – you got yourself some good times in WoW for the rest of September.
So brave the unknown, fellow Alliance and Horde loyals! Go get your BattlenetApp by clicking the appropriate button on your standalone game launcher and leave behind the frustration of patching, multiple log-ins, and re-configuring your rig every time you swap a Blizzard title. I leave you with this… a preview of things to come in Azaroth… or is that Pandaria? Bah! It is the entire World… of Warcraft!
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