In an attempt to clear up the rumors following the developer interview at Incgamers, Blizzard announced yesterday that StarCraft II will indeed lack LAN support. Bob Colayco of Blizzard had this to say:
“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.”
Anyone who attends LAN parties regularly must concede that piracy is quite common, with most participants sharing a single purchased game amongst each other, if not simply downloading the game illegally to begin with. Of course, limiting a hardcore PC gamer’s choices tends to result in interesting work-arounds, so we’ll see just how long StarCraft II stays LAN-free.
On a side note, it’s rather interesting to see several of PC’s most beloved companies under fire recently; first Valve, and now Blizzard. In fact, fans have already orchestrated a petition requesting that LAN play be reconsidered for the final product. What will become of these once-untouchable studios should they continue to move in opposition of the community’s wishes?
