Get the latest tech news
Blizzard could have turned Battle.net into an online games store years before Steam launched | Executives didn't like the idea
The revelation that Blizzard could have potentially taken Valve's position was revealed in the new book by renowned game journalist Jason Schreier, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall,...
Mike O'Brien, the engineer who pitched and built Battle.net as a free online multiplayer service for Blizzard titles, liked the idea, but the company's executives at the time weren't convinced and rejected the proposal. O'Brien, Wyatt, and programmer Jeff Strain left Blizzard in 2000 over a disagreement about the direction Warcraft 3 was heading to found ArenaNet, developer of Guild Wars. It's described as The Social Network for the video game industry, a riveting examination of Blizzard Entertainment's rise and shocking downfall.
Or read this on r/technology
