What's up with Blizzard using the Battle.net name again?

It was only a few months ago that we said farewell to the name Battle.net, but it looks like we spoke too soon. During yesterday’s Destiny 2 gameplay premiere stream, Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Morhaime stopped by to announce that the game’s PC version would be available exclusively on the company’s online gaming service, which he called ... Battle.net.

Morhaime didn’t misspeak — considering this was a pre-taped portion of a scripted event, he definitely said Battle.net on purpose. We reached out to a Blizzard representative, who told us that the company “made an exception” to use the launcher’s old name again for the Destiny event.

“It's still Blizzard Launcher,” a Blizzard rep said of the online service. “We made an exception for this announcement.”

That appears to be true in all current information about Destiny 2’s online service exclusivity. An accompanying news release about Destiny 2 on PC again refers to the launcher as Battle.net several times throughout.

“Being on Battle.net will allow Destiny 2 to plug in to our existing global network, freeing up the developers at Bungie to focus their energy and resources on making the best and most fun game they possibly can,” reads the post, called “Destiny 2 coming to Battle.net!”

The company began to phase out its games launcher’s iconic branding in March, after announcing that it would move away from the Battle.net identity in favor of the more broadly recognizable Blizzard name. It’s never been apparent as to what to call the launcher now, though; the updated desktop application is simply named the Blizzard App and uses the recognizable Blizzard logo.

With Blizzard’s confirmation that the service is called Blizzard Launcher, we have an end to the widespread confusion, created in part by yesterday’s announcement. It’s easy to theorize as to why Blizzard went with Battle.net for the Destiny announcement — that’s still the most recognizable name for the service, especially to non-Blizzard fans who will use the service for the first time for Destiny 2.

Battle.net is still used by Blizzard’s user forums, and longtime players continue to refer to the service by that name. Adamant as the company was to reassert a fresh new identity for its expanded modern audience, after almost 21 years, Battle.net is proving a difficult name to shake.