Starcraft II

Blizzard Makes An Official Statement On Starcraft II Without LAN Support

Posted Jul 04, 2009 by DoranM

Post your Comment (29)

 

It was recently announced that Starcraft II will not have LAN support and the internet has been a buzz ever since! Blizzards' Bob Colayco has made an official announcement about why LAN support won't make it into SC2.

Here is what Bob Colayco had 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.

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."

There's obvious benefits to something being hosted entirely by Blizzard, and probably gives them flexibility for things they want to achieve with the game in the future, but lots of gamers are upset that they'll lose the ability to LAN, especially in places like Korea where the game is a televised sport.

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  • airddragon said 
    Sat, Jul 4 2009 11:01 PM ()

    I'm sorry, but every single response that said "They just want to make money, since this is meant to stop piracy," is pure 100% wrong.

    No LAN is 100% the same thing as EAs required login to play the game.  Period.  Saying this is anything other than an extended DRM is false.  Blizzard can take this decision to not have LAN game play and shove it where it counts.

    I for one am appalled at this and will personally not be buying SC2 because of it.  LAN play made Starcraft.  Taking it away is just plain wrong.

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  • Megamanx266 said 
    Sat, Jul 4 2009 10:35 PM ()

    If we have to pay for B.net..... I'm not buying SC2 or Diablo 3 as much as I wanna get them.

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  • SCGroot said 
    Sat, Jul 4 2009 9:35 PM ()

    A) It'll be patched in later.

    Or

    B) It's all part of Blizzards' plan to make people pay for B.Net.

    My guess is leaning more toward B.

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  • animegohan said 
    Sat, Jul 4 2009 6:58 PM ()

    Having no LAN sucks. Sucks when you lose internet and no LAN means no multiplayer actions. I know when I was in school, staying in a dorm room, internet was not an option to us, but LAN parties were fun.

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  • Megamanx266 said 
    Sat, Jul 4 2009 6:36 PM ()

    Way to be LATE with this news Curse.... I had to freaking mention it in the article about the "Cataclysm" trademark.

    And as much as having no LAN sucks.... It is sortof true that most people have decent enough connections anyway. too bad I can't just ditch the internet and play with my brothers that sit in THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL!

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  • ArenaceusMaga said 
    Sat, Jul 4 2009 1:49 PM ()

    STOP?  No, but it'll help stem it.  As for your situation you've so easily created out of no where, why not realize the "pirate" community will just as easily find a way around the no LAN situation?  

    Crappy connections occur, yes, but the prevailing number of people that play online games are on cable+ connection.  I'd like to think the world could come together and make a game thats perfect for everyone, but its not.  Having no LAN is not something that makes blizzard horribad.

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  • oopomopoo said 
    Sat, Jul 4 2009 11:44 AM ()

    I dont mind no lan, i never played on it anyways. I just got on B.Net with my friends.

    It's not as laggy as you think.

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  • Moonchill said 
    Sat, Jul 4 2009 11:00 AM ()

    Are you kidding me? If I want to have a lan-game from my home, and I'm out in the country, chances are I've not got a brilliant connection. Making all the people I want to lan with (say 8) play trough my one crappy connection will not be pretty.

    And, lets be honest, the pirate community will find a way around the "connect to battlenet" thing within a month. Stuff like this is a challenge for them. Most likely, they'll manage to emulate a battle.net server on one computer, which the other then can connect too. So... stopping piracy. Not going to work, and they know it. They're not morons after all.

    So, what does that leave us at? In my eyes, its a way to monitor more players, manage to display adds to them, and data mine them. All things they couldn't do if they were playing trough Battle.net.

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  • ArenaceusMaga said 
    Sat, Jul 4 2009 10:43 AM ()

    I would be hard pressed to believe that there will be no way to connect to a group of players near you.  Just because you have to actually BUY the game doesn't make it a bad thing.  If battle.net is smooth then there is nothing to worry about.  I'm really disappointed with the community for being so up in arms about this with the main theme being that its a way to curb piracy.  They made a game and want to be paid for it...  Why is that so ridiculous?

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