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Blizzard begins rolling out massive Battle.net 2.0 update

Blizzard's Battle.net client has been a staple for 25 years and now it's about to get one of its biggest updates.

Ozzie Mejia

January 14, 2021 2:00 PM

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The Battle.net client has been around for almost 25 years and has been one of Blizzard's longest-lasting legacies. It's hard to imagine it undergoing any sort of change. It's been 25 years, but on Thursday, Blizzard announced that Battle.net would receive its biggest front end update in years by making the jump to 2.0.

Blizzard is aiming for several quality-of-life improvements with Battle.net's 2.0 update. Look for a new layout that will allow users to arrange their games for easier access, a greater layout for news stories, and a revamped social pane that will make it easier to keep track of your friends. The new client will also have a handful of major accessibility improvements, including the ability to access with a keyboard, new screen reader support, and improved color contrast.

Looking at the interface, it has some similarities to other clients. The game library interface, in particular, looks close to what one would see from the NVIDIA GeForce Experience and the Epic Games Store. However, having the Friends List stickied on the right is a handy feature, as is the ability to search for active Chats and Groups. What's especially interesting is the top fo the game library where players can "Explore Blizzard Games" and "Explore Activision Games," potentially indicating that more games from the latter may be on the way. Or it could just be a dedicated Call of Duty tab, who knows?

Battle.net 2.0 is set to start rolling out in the weeks ahead, starting with North America and going from there. Blizzard states that they'll continue working on the client, rolling out improvements, bug fixes, and more over time. To learn more about Battle.net's changes and what players can expect to see, visit the Blizzard website. This is just the start of Blizzard's 2021, as BlizzConline is set to take place in four weeks.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?