This isn't a surprise, as the Wrath of the Lich King License Agreement already mentioned this wopuld happen, but the fact that it happened now so shortly after the beta page was re-done, could mean they are preparing for signups to the next beta: StarCraft II!
In the meantime, you can upgrade your WoW-account to a Battle.net account, and they also merge any Blizzard Account you might have added in the past.
The EU Battle.net site only has a few pages working, but the US site works, and you are able to log in on your EU account. I have personally not dared merge my account there though, in case there would be any localization problems for an EU WoW account to merge with the US site. Regardless, it seemed it already had my WoW info, and my login stuff did work on the US page. The only question if this is from my actual WoW-account, or the Blizzard Account I made before BlizzCon 2008?
The idea with the new launch of Battle.net is that a player can register all his keys in once location, and use one account for all things Blizzard. Much of this service was previously available at the Blizzard Account, but it only included games other than World of WarCraft. This is also the first step of merging all of Blizzard games, and we will most likely see the WoW forums move over to Battle.net as well. Blizzard want all their game fans to come together under a single roof and share one single community.
All the WoW-stuff you might have (such as an authenticator) will be associated with the Battle.net account, and the new accoutn will be used for all logins. If you had multiple accounts, you will log in with the blizzard account, and then choose which of the WoW accounts you want to log in to.
Interesting to note here is that they refer to the forums and the old Battle.net website as "classic Battle.net" on the new flashy front image! They are obviously not counted as "upgraded" yet, and will receive a face lift!
This is all currently optional, but will become compulsory to play.
You can also read more in the FAQ.
4 comments
So if I was to put my three WoW accounts onto 1 battle.net account. Then I would only need to use ONE authenticator to get onto all THREE of my WoW accounts?!
If this is true would have been nice to be told changes this major were coming, because I already have 3 authenticators. And if this is compulsory in the future, then that was ££ down the drain…