Blizzard has teamed up with Facebook, whether you like it or not. Soon, your Battle.net account will be tied to your Facebook, allowing you to connect with friends through the social media platform. Overwatch, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm , Diablo 3 , even World of Warcraft will all be connected to your own Facebook account. Need a sixth member for your Overwatch team? See which one of your Facebook friends is a closeted Bastion main and invite him along.
Blizzard is also working with Facebook’s Live API to allow players to stream their games directly to Facebook. No longer will friends have the excuse of “I couldn’t find your stream online” since it will be right on their news feed. It’s not currently available, but Blizzard says they are working closely with Facebook to make it happen.
Streaming live video game play has become the new popular trend. Twitch.tv, the most popular videogame streaming site, has over 100 million viewers per month.
Facebook wants to be the center of everyone’s online experience. We watch friends post funny videos of cats falling over or memes of the dankest variety. It’s a constant barrage of information; Facebook wants to keep us hooked. When my girlfriend’s on Facebook, I can’t get her to stick her head up for five minutes.
Now with Blizzard, gamers don’t ever have to leave Facebook. Every company seems to want to push “social” as the next big thing. Riot, the creators of League of Legends , have been allowing players to connect their Facebook profiles to their accounts for over a year now .
I’m still not sure if the combination of Facebook and Blizzard is a good thing for the future of gaming. It’s a symbiotic system; Facebook wants more engaged users and Blizzard wants more players for their games. Together they are a force to be reckoned with, reaching over one billion people.
Here’s hoping that hooking up your Battle.net and Facebook accounts isn’t mandatory; I don’t care what people I went to high school with are still playing Diablo 3.
