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Blizzard announces digital downloads, now you never have to leave the house photo

My major point of excitement when I heard the news that Blizzard had launched their digital distribution store had nothing whatsoever to do with their time gobbling MMO, World of Warcraft. No, what I was thinking of was all the times I had misplaced or lost my Diablo 2 or Lord of Destruction expansion keys and in desperation had driven to Target or Wal-Mart late in the night, desperate to find a copy of the Battle Chest so I could replay the glory of stabbing hundreds of thousands of little enemies over and over. Sound familiar, anyone?

Although the store only launched with three titles (the StarCraft Anthology, Warcraft III, and the WarCraft III Frozen Throne expansion), the beloved old dungeon crawler is sure to soon follow. In the meantime, you can register your CD keys on the site and add selected titles to your library at anytime for free. I've stared at many an empty case wondering where the game made off to, so this ought to be handy for those of you that tend to lose things as well.

In addition to the new store, a beta lottery program has been added which auto-adds registered users to a drawing for beta access. This would be exciting if there were any games open for beta right now, but there aren't...although fans awaiting Starcraft II will likely be able to get a chance at a beta slot this way when the game is ready for that.

Check out the full list of titles that can be registered and/or downloaded after the jump.

[Via Shacknews -- Thanks, Jonathan]

 

  • Diablo II*
  • Diablo II: Lord of Destruction*
  • Diablo II Battlechest*
  • StarCraft
  • StarCraft Battlechest
  • StarCraft Anthology
  • Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
  • Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Expansion Pack
    *digital download coming soon

Continue: More World of Warcraft stories





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19 comments | showing # 1 to 19

animateria's Avatar
animateria at 05/06/2008 22:22
Those can be easily be found on retail stores. And I own most of them so its nothing much for me I guess.

But I like the idea of CD key registration. Steam had helped me replay HL2 without my physical CDs afterall.
nats's Avatar
nats at 05/06/2008 22:29
YES. This makes my life. Whenever I get the urge to play any of my old Blizzard games, I can never find anything but empty CD cases because my brothers are idiots and don't know how to put things away (I really should hide my games). We probably have 6 different copies of Diablo II lost in our house.
Wexx's Avatar
Wexx at 05/06/2008 22:29
Digital Distribution is amazing. No more do I have to search through countless shoeboxes and tupperware containers of old CD jewel cases scouring for CD keys, only to realize that it was thrown away ages ago because the case was destroyed.
bluexy's Avatar
bluexy at 05/06/2008 22:35
Hauntingly familiar experience here. Blizzard CDs always seem to get lost much more easily than other discs.

I'm registering my keys ASAP!
killatia's Avatar
killatia at 05/06/2008 22:40
looks like steam will get some competition soon.
Nessie's Avatar
Nessie at 05/06/2008 22:45
OH GOD YES <3 I can NEVER find the CDs i want when i need them!
Satsumomo's Avatar
Satsumomo at 05/06/2008 22:45
GOD FINALLY!

Now I don't have to safe-keep those damn Starcraft Keys anymore in special locations.
fuzzbunny's Avatar
fuzzbunny at 05/06/2008 23:08
This news leaves me slightly perturbed, why does blizzard feel that they need their own digital distribution store? Why couldn't they buckle under, and distribute their wares on steam? Epic and id software have swallowed their pride, why cant blizzard? This sort of attitude isn't helping to save the sinking ship that is PC gaming.
mistic's Avatar
mistic at 05/07/2008 00:21
great idea :-)
Yashoki's Avatar
Yashoki at 05/07/2008 00:54
They're still too expensive. 40 bucks for a game thats around 10 years old is ridiculous.
Jetsetlemming's Avatar
Jetsetlemming at 05/07/2008 01:16
I guess I'll register my copies of Diablo 2 and Starcraft. Because the D2 battlechest packaging is shit and the discs are all in loose paper sleeves (fuck you blizzard >:\) they're really easy to lose. Took me a week to find my Lords of Destruction disc last time I reinstalled to play with some friends.
Mabec's Avatar
Mabec at 05/07/2008 02:45
wtf, i i i...also hinted on this :(
Sharmsie's Avatar
Sharmsie at 05/07/2008 05:10
Boy i'm glad I didn't through out those empty cases
Harknett's Avatar
Harknett at 05/07/2008 05:17
Add me to the list of people who actual have their cases for all the blizzard games but between moves and siblings I'm missing over half the discs. Good work, Bliz.
Kaikara's Avatar
Kaikara at 05/07/2008 07:01
OMG! This is perfect, I own the cases for most of my Blizzard games, but have lost the discs thanks to constant switching between friends and brothers (Blizzard make the best LAN multiplayer games). The worst thing was when you lost ONE disc of Diablo 2 and spent the whole day looking for it when you could have been LAN questing xD . This just reaffirms my love for Blizzard.
Char Aznable's Avatar
Char Aznable at 05/07/2008 07:31
My StarCraft:Brood War CD hasn't been taken out of my computer in about 3 years, so thankfully I won't have to fork over $20.

I got the Diablo Battle Chest super cheap a few years ago but, sadly, never played it. I just couldn't get into it, for whatever reason.
Demtor's Avatar
Demtor at 05/07/2008 08:41
Ahhhh, Blizzard. I had such massive amounts of respect for them until World of Warcraft came out. My collectors edition of WoW still mocks me to this day as I play through the great games I missed over the year and a half of life that game took from me.

This is a pretty awesome way to catch up on old Blizzard games though. Instead of borrowing your friend's discs of various games. I think every group of gaming friends had that one whore copy of Starcraft/Warcraft that was passed around like a dirty tramp.
Holyetheline's Avatar
Holyetheline at 05/07/2008 09:03
This is something my girlfriend would like. She loses a lot of stuff.
Morrius's Avatar
Morrius at 05/07/2008 18:54
Go go gadget retail discy lose
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