New details emerged this week about one of the more anticipated titles of oh…. maybe the past 11 years or so; Starcraft 2. From Blizzard, the original creators of Stratcraft and it’s expansions, along with other hits such as Diablo and Warcraft comes the next big thing since World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2.
For the most part, Starcraft 2 has been kept under wraps pretty well, with the only leaked details being the occasional press release and game review website Q&A sessions. The game made headlines in 2008 when the developers stated that it would be split into 3 parts, one for every individual campaign (Terran, Protoss & Zerg), with each one having to be purchased separately. Now another announcement has hit the wire, which has many gamers up in arms. Blizzard has stated that Starcraft 2 will NOT support LAN play, arguably one of the features that made the original title so wildly popular and one of the most played titles at LAN Party events.
PR representative, Bob Colayco stated
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.
While the lack of a LAN connection has obvious benefits in aiding to stop unsupported multi player groups and servers, it leaves a lot of LAN organizers out in the cold. Many LAN events do not allow outside connections for security and organizational purposes, or because they simply do not have the infrastructure/bandwidth to allow their often hundreds of members to have access to the internet. Instead, most opt to just host games within their network.
With Starcraft 2 geared to be one of the top RTS (Real Time Strategy) games in 2009/2010, unfortunately this restriction means it is unlikely to be a feature as most gaming events, or even a viable option for a weekend with a few friends.
Beta signups for the game were announced earlier this year, and the BETA is expected to be released sometime this summer (2009). Be sure to check it out it it’s your thing.
That’s a mistake. It will only annoy the fans who plan to buy it and it will never stop the ones who plan to steal it. When will they learn.
Pirating isn’t stealing. But I do agree it’s a pretty stupid decision, I don’t mind though as long as B.Net 2.0 allows for extremely low latency play.
Please remind me how pirating isn’t stealing. You’re taking their software and using it for free. You took their software without buying their license.
Anyway, back on the topic. Having no LAN capability really puts the kibosh on LAN events. I’m sure the skilled players are sick of playing the same old StarCraft from almost 15 years ago. Say goodbye to LAN parties and the well known StarCraft tournaments. It really makes me wonder how the Blizzard competitions are going to be organized.
While I realize that computers and the whole copyright IP thing has come a long way since the days of SC, the original game and other blizzard games like warcraft never had a problem with installing the game on multiple PC’s and using it for LAN use.
You couldn’t use it online, but players with the same game/key could run the game on a lan game no problem. Thats what made it so awesome for LAN Parties. Requiring an internet connection is basically a great way to get this game dismissed from LAN’s.
The last few LANs I attended, only ONE had an internet connection, otherwise people go and play World of Warcraft or download stuff all night long instead of actually participating.
If LAN organizers are forced to provide network access, just to play one silly game, they are likely going to choose to just not host it.
They have already doomed this game with repeated delays, and now they deny the hardcore gamers/LANers their most basic needs… what a joke.
No mather I think pirating is stealing. I like Blizzard, that is a true think they had choice. Becuase of pirating gives more hit to developers so Blizzard does what should be done.
Anyway back to topic. Blizzard choice no-support LAN in StarCraft II. They want the Starcraft II players should be play in their orijinal servers. (Battle.NET) So everyone who wants play Starcraft II on multi have to be buy a original Starcraft II. That isn’t a joke. They are put themselves in the rank one again. See the others will watch this way also. Bye bye LAN!
The sequel to a game that basically started the whole LAN thing doesn’t have LAN!
How ironic!
Don’t tell me that playing through Battle Net is faster than playing through Lan!
How disappointing. Starcraft was one of the few games to make LAN parties so much fun and worthwhile, and it’s much-anticipated sequel doesn’t even have LAN support?
Bah.
Sorry, that should have been “its much-anticipated”, not “it’s”.
Stupid Move. Those of us without a reliable internet connection will not be playing Starcraft II, much less buying it. LAN multiplayer constitutes 90% of my gaming. If a game doesn’t support LAN multi, me and my local gamer friends won’t be buying it. They just guaranteed more piracy of the game, because many people with poor/slow/no internet are just going to say why should i buy this if i wont get my money’s worth with local person to person play.