Blizzard's Battle.net desktop launcher enters open beta

After months of meticulous gestation, Blizzard's new desktop launcher is finally available to the general public in the form of an open beta .

. The new launcher congregates the StarCraft II, Diablo III, and World of Warcraftgame launchers into a single hub, allowing players to download, patch or launch those games from one client.

Blizzard says the Battle.net launcher will eventually become the default method of launching StarCraft II, Diablo III, World of Warcraft, or any future Blizzard game that uses the service. The “game-specific” launchers will become a thing of the past once the desktop launcher graduates to version 1.0.

While the prospect of not having to sign into each one of Blizzard's games individually is certainly welcomed, I'd like to see some more meaningful features to justify the launcher's existence. Husky made some good suggestionsa month ago, saying the launcher could embed Twitch.tv streams and help players manage their clans without launching the game itself. Blizzard says the app's still a work in progress, so it's entirely possible we'll see new features in the near future. We'll keep our fingers crossed in the meantime.