This Thursday, Microsoft will be fulfilling one of its key promises from when it acquired Activision-Blizzard by bringing Diablo IV to Game Pass. It looks like it'll have an extra, unexpected wrinkle, however: PC Game Pass players will be required to install Activision-Blizzard's installer, Battle.net. They'll also be required to have a Battle.net account and connect it to their Microsoft account before they can play.

Ahead of the Thursday release, Microsoft released a short tutorial online to help guide users through the process, complete with a Diablo IV-style graphic that has every step explained in great detail.

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While it's perhaps not surprising that the battle.net launcher is still needed for Activision-Blizzard games, it is still a little frustrating. Now that Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard are one company, it seems even more cumbersome to need two separate accounts and two separate launchers to access their games.

Source

 

[Quore]

Damn, i thought they'd get rid of Battle.net for good, or at least make an integration of both stores

 

[Kitocco]

The first mistake was trying to play Diablo IV

But still. A little odd considering you can just link a Steam account to Battle.net & play OW without the launcher (even though you shouldn't)

 

[LanHikariDS]

Of course they do, after they just added Forced Arbitration to the Battle.net terms

 

[Kioku]

Just remember kids, some of you were convinced that more launchers was good for competition and the end user.

Yup, this is only good news. /s

 

[Reploid]

Ok, I'll go install it

 

[Xanthe]

In my mind this defeats the purpose of the game pass.

 

[ssjkakaroto]

Does anyone care for this game, at this point?

 

[Vorde]

Does anyone care for this game, at this point?

Casuals and Diablo Die-Hards.
The ARPG realm has much better games at this point (Path of Exile and Last Epoch to name my 2 favourite)

 

[raxadian]

Hopefully Microsoft wlll kill battle.net eventually.

 

[The Catboy]

Nah, game isn’t enough to give them my information.

 

[RedColoredStars]

Does anyone care for this game, at this point?

I've had it since launch and haven't played it yet so that says something. At some point I'll play through the main story then be done with it. There are just too many other (better) games I haven't played yet that get my priority.

 

[xdarkx]

Since barely anyone in this thread mention this...

 

[Metoroid0]

why the fuck tmdo they need all that shit if you payed for the game already and its not subscribtion?!

i pay, you give, leave me alone!

 

[eyeliner]

Well, probably they were unable to merge battle.net into gamepass.

I assume they'll make do with it eventually.

 

[The Catboy]

Just remember kids, some of you were convinced that more launchers was good for competition and the end user.

Yup, this is only good news. /s

Something something freer the market something something. I am honestly shocked anyone would be cool with going through launcher chains to play a game

 

[Kioku]

Something something freer the market something something. I am honestly shocked anyone would be cool with going through launcher chains to play a game

The weird logic always bothered me, but hey.. at least we have "choices"... Whatever that means.

 

[osaka35]

Since barely anyone in this thread mention this...

such a sad state consumer rights are in. company does illegal thing, knowing even if they're sued, it will only be a blip and quickly forgotten. and then they'll continue to do it. I don't really have much hope for things to get better. and it's things like this that make me perfectly fine with pirating.

But given all that, I wonder what their rationale is. Perhaps to save money and just not figure out how to incorporate the two into one? cheaper to just have the separate systems?

 

[17hitcombooo]

battle.net still a thing?

 

[xdarkx]

But given all that, I wonder what their rationale is. Perhaps to save money and just not figure out how to incorporate the two into one? cheaper to just have the separate systems?

My guess is it may take a lot of money, time and effort to merge the two systems, and it's a lot cheaper with this current set up. In other words, to maximize profit since Microsoft already spent billions of dollars with this acquisition.