Over the past decade, the original StarCraft has become a staple of local area network (LAN) play, at first due to sheer necessity when the Internet was in a less developed state and later because of a combination of popularity and low system requirements. Now, however, it seems as though the option will not be available in StarCraft II for a variety of reasons.
"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," read a statement by Blizzard. "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," continued the statement. "We’re looking forward to sharing more details about Battle.net and online functionality for StarCraft II in the near future."
This business-oriented design decision is a shame, considering the memories IndustryGamers has playing StarCraft via LAN. We'd expect the always outspoken PC gaming community to have unkind words for Blizzard over this.
2 Comments
July 1, 2009
It makes sense as a business decision, but it really sucks for gamers. Something could be worked out to prevent piracy, like an online validation system (although you'd have to consider privacy issues). It's still lame on the part of Blizzard, they should just trust their fans.
July 1, 2009
Trust the fans? I've heard that before about Sims 3, and it was pirated faster and more then Spore. Lets also not forget about Demigod. Still, this sucks. We need LAN!!! What about tournaments? Do you really expect a fast internet connection to be available within those buildings? Can you depend on it? Vietnam will have a word with you later Blizzard.