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Blizzard introduces universal BattleTags to its titles
When Blizzard first rolled out Battle.net's Real ID feature, many players were timid (read: incensed) about using it due to the fact that it revealed players' real-life names to fellow gamers they added. These worries can be easily laid to rest with Blizzard's latest announcement: the addition of BattleTags. What's a BattleTag, you ask? Well, simply put, it's a screen name by which you are identifiable across all Blizzard games, only without the privacy concerns of Real ID. Real ID, however, will continue to exist along with BattleTags, so players can use whichever method they so desire. BattleTags are currently being tested in the Diablo III beta, and the feature will be available to Diablo III players when the game launches. The feature will also be rolled into World of Warcraft and StarCraft II, but the studio isn't ready to give solid dates on when that may take place. For the full details on BattleTags, including instructions on how to claim your own, head on over to WoW Insider and have a read.
Bungie.net gets facelift
Bungie Studios revamped their presence inside the series of tubes that are the internet. While the previous incarnation of Bungie.net was revolutionary for its time, that was 3 years ago, and the latest takes it to the next level. To commemorate this transformation, the boys (and princess) of Bnet posted an interview with Lead Web Developer, Chris Gossett and Tom Gloconda (aka Achronos) about the revitalized look and feel of the site as well as features that have been added in preparation or Halo 3's beta and retail release this fall. The interview ended with some fun stats about Halo 2 for us to ponder, like how 4.7 million Gamertags have played in over 670 million games, although they didn't tell us how many of those were from the one month trial cards. What do you think of the new design and interface?[Via HBO]
