There are many gamers happy about the StarCraft II beta going live today. Integral to the StarCraft II experience, however, is the revamped Battle.Net, Blizzard's proprietary equivalent to Xbox Live, to be incorporated in all Blizzard games. While talking with Blizzard co-founder and senior VP Frank Pearce at DICE 2010 right around the time the StarCraft II beta was going live (it happened while we were talking), I asked him what Blizzard's ambitions are for the future. Where is Blizzard in five, 10 years?
Pearce is an ambitious man.
"For me, I think about the web 2.0 experience and all the people that are connecting with each other around the world on sites like Facebook," he said, "and I would like Blizzard's Battle.Net to be the equivalent in the gaming space. But that's pretty ambitious."
If Battle.Net doesn't make it that far, he does have a backup plan he'd be happy with, though.
"I would be very, very satisfied if Battle.Net was that just for Blizzard games and the Blizzard community," he said. "The Blizzard community is really what's most important to us, anyway."
Stay tuned for much more from Pearce and other gaming luminaries from DICE this week and next. For a comprehensive look at G4's DICE 2010 coverage, make sure to check this page. And for more on the Starcraft II beta and Battle.Net launch, check out our exclusive videos.
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