Will Battle.net be retired after the Activision Blizzard and Microsoft merger?

With the massive news of Xbox being set to acquire Activision Blizzard, there’s an understandable abundance of questions about what the move means for existing games and services. Folks are wondering if Diablo games or Call of Duty games will be coming to Game Pass. Or if Hearthstone is about to become an Xbox exclusive. But what about Battle.net, the first-party launcher that currently houses all those series on PC?

While there’s no official announcement about Battle.net’s status at this time, the short answer is that it’s unlikely that the launcher will disappear completely. The main factor here is World of Warcraft, an MMO with a subscription model that is intrinsically tied into the launcher. We likely won’t see WoW on Game Pass for that reason, and it needs to live somewhere of course.

If anything, we may just see Battle.net’s role diminished to some degree. The Game Pass PC app serves as a launcher, one that could easily replace Battle.net with some tweaking. Phil Spencer wants to see “as many Activision Blizzard games” as possible on Game Pass, so the intent to move titles over has already been declared. Should anything prove too convoluted or unprofitable to convert, the game in question will likely remain on Battle.net.

In any case, the news is sure to spark even more interest in Game Pass overall. As part of the acquisition announcement, Microsoft also revealed that the service has passed 25 million subscribers. Adding Activision Blizzard games to the catalog is just more reason for that number to keep growing.