Posted on July 1st, 2009 - 3:18 pm - 9 comments
The disturbing rumors have been around for quite some time. And yesterday a Blizzard representative told Kotaku:
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.
Such a bold and insanely stupid move by Blizzard!
Why don’t they split up the campaigns into three different parts, releasing them like downloadable episodes (i.e. Half-Life 2) as well? (Read: They’ve also done this…)
Safeguard against piracy? If you have an internet connection that only works well for one PC, you can’t have friends over to play co-op for fun?
I remember playing WC3 at LAN as being one of the best gaming experiences. Especially microing at ~1ms (max) when participating in compos.
Blizzard just shot themselves in the head.
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Sigg3:
It’s all WEB 2.0 and WoW these days.. Kids today would never get an IPX game working..
#1: July 1st, 2009 - 3:42 pm
Aouri:
WTF?? huh huh huh huh…. BattleNET next? Sucks… I wont buy Starcraft if it doesn’t support LAN which should be normal by now…
#2: July 8th, 2009 - 6:55 am
Tim Bayliss:
As of Tuesday 21st July, it is now 80,000 signatures on the petition.
/
If Blizzard don’t add LAN support. They will lose millions in sales.
And whoever made this decision is possibly the most stupid person ever to live.
They should be immediately sacked.
#3: July 21st, 2009 - 1:34 am
koew:
Thanks for mentioning this, Tim. The only numbers I could find was from petitiononline. The petition got 78 045 signatures as of this moment.
I don’t believe they’ll actually lose millions; they are, after all, Blizzard Entertainment. But I do belive it won’t work with the new Battle.net when there’s giant SC2-compos on LAN parties.
#4: July 21st, 2009 - 2:42 pm
Wayne Barker (South Africa):
hmmm, i think i have found out why Blizzard is taking out LAN. It has nothing todo with piracy…well not in the way most of us are thinking about it. I applogise if this is old news but it just clicked for me now.
StarCraft is huge in korea. Just take a peak at this vid. They have huge tournaments that get broadcasted.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6648934043675888354
In any case it seems that Blizzard is upset because their product Starcraft is being used on TV without their permission and they are not getting a slice of the action, no royalty….So how do they make sure that they can regain control with their next release of starcraft?…thats right take LAN out and force everyone to play via B.Net then Blizzard can control things again and force broadcasters to share the profit…pay or we cut your connection. They can also goes as far as to try and become the E-sports organisers them selfs taking the whole pie for them selfs.
Read more about it here: http://www.gosugamers.net/starcraft/news/10265-blizzard-vs-kespa-the-ultimate-fight
#5: August 13th, 2009 - 11:49 pm
Starly Jackson:
StarCraft II Content Drop 111809 | by XG3 We’ve just uploaded new intel to the StarCraft II website This
starcraft2com 5/6/2009 How do I sign up for the StarCraft II beta? In order to sign up for the StarCraft II beta, you first need to register a Battlenet account You
starcraft2com 4/17/2009 Welcome to the latest installment of Blizzard Entertainment’s official shoutcast for StarCraft II, currently in the alpha phase of development
#6: December 23rd, 2009 - 2:32 pm
koew:
Thanks for the links, Starly. I’m looking forward to play the campaign, but the multiplayer is actually the real reason I’d get this game. I’ve got a score to settle with Haltemien, and I can’t stop untill I’m in the lead. Current score (him vs me): 6-1.
#7: December 23rd, 2009 - 4:25 pm
Ishmael:
DUDE!!!! its 2010 and SC2 has been split into three games with out LAN, theirs no word from blizz and the beta is “expected” this year… if this becomes ghost “the second cumming” imna freak out!
#8: January 7th, 2010 - 4:40 am
John:
Found your site just now- really great, thanks!
#9: February 13th, 2010 (4 weeks ago) - 8:49 pm