Kotick: New Battle.net will be "a service similar to Xbox Live"

Acti Blizz boss Bobby Kotick said tonight that the upcoming Battle.net relaunch will be comparable in scope to Xbox Live.

The service is now confirmed to be launching "early next year."

"To put Battle.net into context, it will be a service similar to Xbox Live, and it will leverage the technologies, infrastructure and expertise that Blizzard has developed over the last decade in multiplayer play and social networking," said the exec, speaking in the firm's Q2 earnings call.

He added: "A true online destination platform, Battle.net will become the foundation for connecting the tens of millions of members of the Blizzard community in a social gaming network across all Blizzard's future games.

"This will begin with World of Warcraft and StarCraft II."

StarCraft II has now been delayed into 2010 to match the release of the new Battle.net.