Different? Yes. Nicer? That's up to you to decide.

Chances are, if you have played a Blizzard or Activision title in the past few years, you have done so through the Battle.net launcher game client of theirs. This hub for all things Blizzard has been more or less the same for about the past eight or so years now. However, that all is starting to change today with the launch of Battle.net 2.0.

It is a fairly drastic change for the client, especially if you have gotten used to the old layout. The games that you own or may one day own are now located at the top of the client window instead of on the left hand side. The friends' list is now also a permanent feature of the client without having the need for a secondary window. You can easily see what your friends are up to without the need for any additional button presses. Also, it's now super easy to remove games from appearing on your games list at the top of the screen, leaving only those that you play or care about in just a few short presses.

A comparison of the clients can be found below. The new client is on the left while the old client look is on the right (or below depending on screen resolution).


As it stands, Battle.net 2.0 is available only for select users in North America. If you would rather skip the wait and see it for yourself right now, you can opt-in to the Battle.net beta client. To do this, simply open up the Battle.net client, go to Settings, go to the Beta section, and then click to join the beta on the only button that's in that section. It's that easy. In no time, the new client will download and you will get an early look at Battle.net 2.0. Otherwise, you are free to wait for the final rollout to hit your client via the normal update process.