Joystiq reports that our worst fears have been hinted at. When asked, “Will Battle.Net remain free?” at the Diablo III gameplay panel at BlizzCon 2008, Blizzard’s Julian Wilson gave Blizzard fans a startling answer: “We are looking to monetize Battle.Net so that we get to keep making these games and updating features, we kind of have to.”
This news comes especially dark seeing as how Blizzard recently announced it is breaking Starcraft II into a trilogy.
While gamers are used to paying for previously free services (eg. Windows Live monetizing online PC gaming) and with the current state of the economy and the high cost to develop games, it is still a little bit disheartening to hear that gamers will have to dig further into their pockets.
Battle.net is Blizzard’s (formerly) free online service that allowed players of Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo play with or against one another. The service was highly praised for Blizzard’s strong focus on the community, offering up tournaments, holding a Map of the Week showing for user created maps, and of course, heavily patching and maintenance to insure a smooth experience (even though there were plenty of bumps thanks to dial-up). Even today, the service is still heavily used for all three games.
While nothing is yet official, how much more money are you guys willing to give Blizzard? Is paying for Battle.Net the drawing point? Let us know your reactions in the comment section below.
Read [Joystiq]
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