StarCraft II: Blizzard Responds to Lack of LAN Support

[Spawndemon]

It was recently reported that StarCraft II will feature no LAN support. The reason? Piracy. Bob Colayco at Blizzard PR responds over on Joystiq:

"We don't currently plan to support LAN play with StarCraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games. While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy.

Several Battle.net features like advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more, require players to be connected to the service, so we're encouraging everyone to use Battle.net as much as possible to get the most out of StarCraft II. We're looking forward to sharing more details about Battle.net and online functionality for StarCraft II in the near future."

It looks like you'll have to continue to play the original StarCraft if you want a true LAN experience.

[[3SA]D|Pvt.OregonSlacker]

Re: StarCraft II: Blizzard Responds to Lack of LAN Support

rofl
Everyone knows the hackers will have a workaround lan patch out in days after release and we, the loyal fan base, will be the only ones hurt in the end.. for shame... for shame.....

[Iwantcable]

Re: StarCraft II: Blizzard Responds to Lack of LAN Support

ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II

AFAIK LAN provides the best multiplayer experience possible.

[MrKLM]

Re: StarCraft II: Blizzard Responds to Lack of LAN Support

I bet that battle.net has some sort of advertising deal. So by having more people on the site = more ad views = more money.

[Wizrdwarts]

Re: StarCraft II: Blizzard Responds to Lack of LAN Support

"We don't currently plan to support LAN play with StarCraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games. While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy.

How exactly forcing people to connect to Battle.net ensure a "quality multiplayer experience"? This is all about piracy. LAN cracks will to be made anyways, what does Blizzard think they're achieving with this?

This is like forcing people who legally bought DVDs to watch the anti-piracy notices.

[Chaoticrambo]

Re: StarCraft II: Blizzard Responds to Lack of LAN Support

I have never used LAN, so this will not affect me in any way shape or form, and I play the custom games more than anything - which are best on battle.net