gtotheunit91 said:
Prior to becoming a launcher, Battle.net was an in-game online service. So instead of clicking on “multiplayer” on the main menu, you would click on “battle.net” login to the account you created, and it was everything you would figure would be in a multiplayer menu. Text chat, voice chat, friends list, etc. Steam didn't start to become the defacto way of getting and playing PC games till the late 2000s, so studios had to create their own online services. I used to play a lot of Age of Empires back in the day and the studio had Ensemble Studios Online. You created the account and you'd have to login every time you wanted to go to Multiplayer. That's how you could talk and play with friends or online matchmaking. |
Ah ok, I get it now. When I got into PC gaming Steam was already firmly established so I completely missed that era.
