Blizzard Entertainment (formerly Silicon & Synapse) rose from porting titles on behalf of obscure software clients to producing some of the most popular games of their genres. World of Warcraft is the most popular MMORPG in the world, and the StarCraft franchise is well known in the world of real-time strategy games. So it was no surprise when the Blizzard Store was announced as a web-based digital distribution system.

The Blizzard store allows players to search for titles and buy online using their computer. The homepage prominently displays some of Blizzard Store’s most popular digital downloads. Some are displayed as a slideshow, while others are displayed by their thumbnails. There are also other links to help users narrow their search, such as a list of tabs at the top or the small menu featuring their most popular titles on the right. Selecting a thumbnail will load the product description page. Here, users can see information pertaining to the title, such as an overview, screenshots, reviews, the price, and the option to add the game to your cart. If the game is available as a digital download from the Blizzard Store, an additional option will be provided to add the digital download version to the cart instead of the retail version. The Blizzard Store allows players to download games right after purchasing them without the need for a permanent client (just a temporary download manager).

Many issues have been reported with Blizzard’s digital distribution system. Some players complain of a message that informs them that they are not authorized to download the game from the downloader, even after being told that their order was completed successfully. Others have also reported a complete inability to successfully checkout games, saying instead that the website will only refresh the page or load another page.