Battle.net stays curated: CD Projekt Red joins, no Steam rival planned
Summary
CD Projekt Red brings The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered and Cyberpunk 2077 to Battle.net before end of 2026.
Blizzard's Andrew Guerrero rules out an open marketplace to rival Steam or Epic.
Third-party additions stay curator-controlled, never self-serve.
"We're obviously not out there trying to do the Steam or Epic Game Store thing... It's a much more focused approach"
01
Battle.net access runs on Blizzard's audience-fit judgment, not open reach
Guerrero filters third-party titles by exposure value to Blizzard's existing player base.
"We have our audience... If something makes sense for them, we'll get after it"
Publishers get no self-publish path, unlike Steam and Epic.
02
Curation lets Blizzard skip Steam's publishing infrastructure cost
"If you look at Steam, they spend a lot of time making a platform that is explicitly for publishing games. We didn't really build Battle.net for that"
Integration stays manual and curator-led, avoiding open-submission overhead.
Guerrero rules out any future "hit the self-publish button, everything flows through" model.
03
CD Projekt Red extends a pattern set since 2017, not a policy shift
Battle.net launched Blizzard-only in 1997 and stayed that way until Destiny 2 in 2017.
Call of Duty and Crash Bandicoot followed, then Xbox and Bethesda titles post-Microsoft acquisition.
The Witcher 3 Remastered and Cyberpunk 2077 arrive before end of 2026 as individual deals.
Every prior addition traces to Activision or Microsoft ownership, or a direct curator call.
04
Blizzard's selection rests on judgment, not a repeatable framework
Crash Bandicoot 4 sits on Battle.net despite thin overlap with Blizzard's RPG and strategy base.
Guerrero's only stated standard: "What do we think our players would absolutely love?"
Access remains case-by-case negotiation, with no standardized listing process.
What this means
For Publishers & Developers: Battle.net placement requires direct negotiation, not a submission portal - budget for BD-led outreach.
For Service Vendors: No open pipeline means limited demand for third-party listing and publishing tooling on Battle.net.
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