News

By: Jarno Kokko Jul 18, 2008

Blizzard Account - Single Login For Blizzard Games?

One interesting tidbit caught my eye while reading the Wrath of the Lich King Beta FAQ. Apparently to log in to the Beta, you need a "Temporary Blizzard Account". A Blizzard Account is already being used at the new Blizzard online store, and you can tie the CD-keys of older Blizzard games to the account - allowing you to re-download old games and ensure you can't lose CD-keys any more. Until now, the new Blizzard Account had nothing to do with World of Warcraft, but that's about to change...

Temporary Blizzard Account FAQ

What is the purpose of a Blizzard Account, and how is it different from a World of Warcraft account?

The Blizzard Account is a new way to manage your Blizzard Entertainment products and make purchases from the Blizzard Store. You can use the Blizzard Account to download and play Blizzard Entertainment games that you have registered online. The Blizzard Account will also keep track of your entire order and billing history, and save multiple addresses and payment methods for easy access. This is just the beginning of what the Blizzard Account offers, and it will expand as we continue to add more features and functions in the future. To learn more about the Blizzard Account, please read our Blizzard Account FAQ. Please note that the normal functions of a Blizzard Account are unavailable in the temporary Blizzard Account you create to log in to the Wrath of the Lich King beta.

Does this mean we'll be logging in to World of Warcraft with a regular Blizzard Account in the future?

We plan to make the Blizzard Account the standard login for World of Warcraft beginning with Wrath of the Lich King.

If they are truly integrating Blizzard Account to World of Warcraft, it's obvious that it will also be used with the new Battle.Net which is coming with Starcraft 2. From there it's just one small step to a Steam-style single log-in for all Blizzard offerings - and since Blizzard Account is tied to the Blizzard Store, you can see where it's leading to...

Add the Blizzard Authenticator and the announcement of achievements in World of Warcraft to the mix, and you have a gamerscore-like system (most likely applying to Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 as well), secure single sign-on for all Blizzard's upcoming games, all tied to the Blizzard online store. I'm sure Blizzard will keep distributing game boxes, but it's all slowly inching towards a Steam-like system.

Once again, Blizzard doesn't actually innovate and is usually slow to react, but once something is proven to be a good idea, Blizzard grabs it and does it themselves, polishing everything to the usual Blizzard standards.

Update: According to Blizzard, the FAQ portion about Temporary Blizzard Account for the Wrath of the Lich King Beta does not currently apply to EU beta servers. EU players invited to the beta will have their own procedures, and currently they do not include the creation of a temporary Blizzard Account.