Starcraft II jettisons LAN support

Blizzard confirms anticipated sci-fi RTS will skip local multiplayer due to piracy, quality concerns.

As part of Activision Blizzard's pre-2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo tele-press conference, Blizzard Entertainment executive Michael Morhaime confirmed what many had suspected: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is expected to launch for the PC alongside the newly redesigned Battle.net online networking service before the end of the year. However, when Starcraft II does see release, it will do so without a hallmark of the real-time strategy genre: a local area network multiplayer option.

So much for Starcraft II LAN parties...

Blizzard today confirmed for GameSpot that LAN functionality will be absent from Starcraft II's multiplayer component, as both a piracy prevention mechanism and a quality-assurance initiative.

"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," a Blizzard representative said in a statement. "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," the statement continued. "We're looking forward to sharing more details about Battle.net and online functionality for Starcraft II in the near future."

Speaking with GameSpot during BlizzCon 2008, Blizzard Entertainment cofounder Frank Pearce noted that piracy was a concern for the developer and that Battle.net would play a role in helping to counteract theft of the game.

"We're definitely talking about ways with Battle.net that we can provide the best online experience for our customers so that there's not an incentive to pirate the product but instead an incentive to be part of that community of gamers playing that game and they'd want to be part of that social experience on top of the single-player experience," he said.

Blizzard expects to begin closed beta for Starcraft II sometime this summer and is currently taking sign-ups for the testing phase through the official Battle.net Web site. For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of Starcraft II.

974 Comments

  • tmlim

    Posted Oct 26, 2009 2:27 pm PT

    I totally missed this piece of news. I suppose I can live without the LAN support. Don't get me wrong, I don't like the idea.

  • WillyChong

    Posted Aug 8, 2009 6:45 am PT

    Blizzard please. Don't sacraficed us loyal fans because of piracy. Only True Gamers play original, don't do this to us. I've been waiting it for so long for it. I ready to pay for it. Please don't do this to us. Give us LAN Please, Please, Please, Please, PLEASE! I begging you, Blizzard!

  • amerus

    Posted Aug 6, 2009 10:29 am PT

    removing lan is a big mistake...

  • mashkur128

    Posted Aug 4, 2009 4:34 am PT

    Even Bill Gates @ Microsoft knows this....fight against the piracy is futile...but focus on loyal customer will pay off....if u care about them...they will care for u!!!

  • mashkur128

    Posted Aug 4, 2009 4:30 am PT

    But hey guyz don't worry, what Blizzard cann't give other companies will surely provide

  • mashkur128

    Posted Aug 4, 2009 4:28 am PT

    just another dumb a** marketing scheme. SC I became popular b'coz it enabled few guyz can get together in local Cyber cafe and kill each other in LAN games. I bet some a**holes from Apple joined Blizzard

  • RICEric22

    Posted Aug 1, 2009 4:55 am PT

    It's pretty much encouraging piracy for those that want to play on a LAN. Many people have said that because there's no LAN they have no choice but to pirate a LAN-enabled copy. Meanwhile the pirates will just find another way to pirate the game. I for one will not be buying this game anymore. Blizzard has just lost another customer.

  • seepyou

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 4:58 am PT

    It is time for Blizzard to be brave. Do not punish loyal fans of the game that buy the game by denying them a LAN module because it cannot be policed. We will play in battlenet, we will go after those achievements, but we do want the LAN capability, we deserve it. Let the pirates play only on LAN, pirates will find a way to do that in the long run and we, the buying customers, will be forced to install a pirated version to play on LAN. Do not assume everyone has 24/7 Internet access, or good enough bandwidth. Be brave Blizzard, show us that you care about us that buy your products.

  • rapiergv

    Posted Jul 28, 2009 12:17 am PT

    no starcraft II lan parties? ... i really do hope they change their minds, this would really suck. i'm considering not buying the game

  • noman21

    Posted Jul 27, 2009 6:30 pm PT

    What is this? Online verification to play your game on a LAN... smells like Steam. I dunno it might deter some pirates, but I don't think most will care.

  • Jethrob3

    Posted Jul 27, 2009 9:29 am PT

    fail

  • Vicissitude24

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 2:31 pm PT

    Blizzard only considers their own market, what about the game fans?
    I for one, don't have a fast internet connection plus it is never my ideal thing to play an expensive game online. Think of it Blizzard, I'm paying my internet connection for checking things online, not to waste my bandwidth with your online games.

    Blizzard is even promoting piracy with No LAN. Hackers will release a pirated version with LAN support. Let's see if your reasoning is good enough. No LAN for Piracy-prevention is such a lame excuse.

    Your game will not survive for years (like the original Starcraft w/ LAN play).

    Better make a good choice Blizzard your just disappointing your fans.

  • gam3r3OOO

    Posted Jul 23, 2009 7:59 am PT

    EPIC FAIL

  • w0rk1d

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 4:06 am PT

    Starcraft 2 without LAN support is kind of f**ked up, if there's no LAN option I wont buy it and if a pirated version comes along offering LAN support I will download it as will a lot of people, what on earth are blizzard thinking?????

  • WillyChong

    Posted Jul 17, 2009 9:16 am PT

    Starcraft series I never play in piracy. I played Warcraft III battle.net before but its highly unreliable and a lot of lagging and severed line. Its pissing me off for real. I usually played on my ladtop with my friends. We all banned piracy but hate the unreliable battle.net. US probably ignored guys outside the US that love this game as well.

  • kevinxiao2

    Posted Jul 17, 2009 5:38 am PT

    Blizzard's becoming screwed. Even though I have Bnet, the only multiplayer i do is LAN with friends. And screw pirates, they're gonna pirate teh game whether theres LAN or not. And they'll probably make a LAN hack or something. I need LAN to play multiplayer so if blizzard is gonna be screwed up and not include it, I might as well pirate the game, and get a LAN hack...

  • dave5787

    Posted Jul 16, 2009 3:40 pm PT

    NO LAN!!!!!! WTF!!!!!!! I can understand the concern for piracy of the game but to remove LAN play inorder to counteract piracy is just plain stupid. LAN play makes Blizzard games so popular, why not just make the game have to register online once in order for it to be verified to play, that would be smart. Plus not everyone has internet all the time plus the bandwidth it will take to play 8 players at once through one router. BLIZZARD IS HARDCORE EPIC FAILURE!!!!!!

  • qrami

    Posted Jul 16, 2009 12:16 am PT

    antipiracy ! you think you can stop them from getting their hands on SC2? get alife ! they will no matter the cost ! the pirates net are so huge u cant even think about hiding anything from them, they are LEGENDS !

  • professor7

    Posted Jul 15, 2009 2:03 am PT

    The STARCRAFT NAZI's BLIZZARD. Don't they understand that this kind of crap just causes more piracy and just makes them look like JERKS!!

    This is a bummer I really thought this would be a good game, but bottom line RTS's suck over the internet. I used to use 8 player RTS games to crash routers in testing. The amount of packets sent in an RTS is insane.

    Bottom LINE!! If there is no LAN feature I won't buy this game.

  • brana666

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 2:41 am PT

    Well, guys from Blizzard i got something to tell you:
    1. This waiting (10 years) was way to long for my taste. I was thinking of punishing you by not paying, buying game, specialy after annauncing release in 2009 and still farting in the wind. I am 37 and work in large company, to miss 1 month would be the end of me in business, how you manage to miss 1 year is out of my wildest dreams, something like perversion to say at least.
    2. I play ONLY with my brother and my frends, and we do it in live contact with each other, once a week on my estate 50 km from city through lan on laptops. Played anihilation last week.
    I have no internet there and i like it that way. No cheking mails, no skype, no facebook. It will stay that way on purpose.
    I dont care about wow and your bnet and it will stay that way.
    We are not members of wide gaming comunity, we are small isolated comunity and it will stay that way. So no LAN? No money for you from us. Simple.
    I dont read and dont care about features of bnet. Dont bother to explain benefits, there are hard core pc gamers who never register accounts. Can you dig it? I dont care if you cannonot.
    No money from us anyway.

  • mdk31

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 12:49 am PT

    Kinda a deal breaker for me. Not gonna buy this game without LAN support. I'll wait til they patch in a LAN option, or someone in the modding community makes an unoffical LAN patch.

  • Elrax

    Posted Jul 11, 2009 2:34 pm PT

    I think the rumor of people having to pay to play in Bnet 2.0 was because people on the forums were bugged to have "WoW Kids" playing and started setting up threads about making it subscription based. But it has been confirmed that there will not be any subscriptions on Bnet. Its totally free, yet I do feel down about not having Lan. I guess my bro and I will have to stick to SC1 for Lan. Though I'm still going to get this game. I can't wait for it. On another note, Bnet isn't all perfect. Before you guys know it someone may have found a way to connect SC2 to Hamachi or something like it. So seriously no need to fuss.

  • FireWarriorr

    Posted Jul 8, 2009 1:12 pm PT

    removing lan ???? are they f**** crazy ???

    how can they even think in doing that... they just want money and dont care about the players anymore

    they just do it to avoid piracy and get more money


    they really let me down this time... i never thought they will do something like this, they are just destroying what i loved from starcraft

  • Maxpowers_32

    Posted Jul 7, 2009 8:05 pm PT

    The headline should read "starcraft 2 jettisons the reason why most people were going to buy the game." The whole reason I enjoy playing starcraft is I can play against my brother, just like you can on the PS3 with games like mortal kombat, but we don't have to share a screen. Also, the internet service is rather flaky so its great playing PC games over the LAN. If I can't play over the LAN there is no point to buying the game. I hope they reconsider and add the feature.

  • Rudorlf

    Posted Jul 7, 2009 9:40 am PT

    Give us back StarCraft with LAN!!! We can't live without it!!!

  • vit12345

    Posted Jul 7, 2009 5:51 am PT

    Well, the game may look nice, awesome, balance, epic campaigns ...etc. I don't care. A RTS game without LAN support = LAME. Battle.net? Yeah I just don't want to go to battle.net to just meet and battle some freaking hardcore SKorean Gamers. A RTS without LAN support is just like a half-assed game. Imagine this: Starcraft 2 got to WCG and gamers have to do battles on Battle.net. What will happen if they are disconnected from the server?(Low chance man but that might happen). Well I expect to see some broken keyboards and mouses or even monitors. Another Lame thing of not having Lan. No need to say anymore.

  • Guyver81

    Posted Jul 6, 2009 11:24 pm PT

    This is my Experience.. Me and my buddies (8 of us including me) go to our favorite Cybercafe planning to play Left 4 Dead Versus mode... So.. we all need to connect to Steam server to play the game... But to our luck! Steam Server is down... Since Plan "A" fail.. we decide to play DOTA instead... COUGH "LAN" cough.. ahemm

    After a few days we decided to try and play Left 4 Dead versus mode again. This time we able to connect to stream server... but after a while we keep getting kick out or disconnected... so its not an enjoyable game in the end... So we decided to play DOTA again. COUGH "LAN" cough.. ahemm

    After a few days later... we decided to play co-op Left 4 Dead After a while we have a good game... but in the middle of game... the Cybercafe ISP got disconnected... So the game is half done -_-'. Out of frustration... we decided to play Counter Strike so we can shot each other out! Haha.. After a while we play DOTA again.... so Again we turn to a LAN game instead

    See my point?.. How important a game is.. to have LAN support? . Not everyone have Internet.. and not everyone who have internet have a fast blazing speed bandwidth. Even thou you have fast blazing internet speed... you still encounter LAG... due to your opponent not have blazing speed internet or BattleNet = Full = lagged.

    With LAN you dont have all this problem... How many time you heard people say.. i die because of lag in DOTA, when you play it.. in battle net? -_-' I bet my life its a lot! ha ha

  • NightmareCV posted Jul 6, 2009 10:30 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    NightmareCV

    Posted Jul 6, 2009 10:30 pm PT (hide)

    Why is there so much SCII bashing? I wasn't aware that LAN was such a major factor in purchasing a game. I guess now that there is no LAN SCII sucks. And then the people start going on about how it is going to be three games. Yeah who wants 30 campaign missions for each race? Nah I'd rather it be done with in 10 and squeeze all of them on one disc. Sure the story would end up poor but who cares as long as its all one game. I mean I could spend my money on some bad game instead of buying the next campaign.
    In all seriousness I do agree that lack of LAN may not have been the best move, but I can understand and respect why it is being done. Blizzard wants to prevent piracy and obviously wants to avoid using things like DRM to do so. I am excited for the game being three separate campaigns because now the story can be well paced and truly bring the player into the experience. Blizzard also said that the other campaigns would be more like expansions so they would most likely cost less. In all the talk I have heard from Blizzard about Battle.net 2.0 I have heard nothing about making it subscription based. They want to make the fans happy with SCII and they know very well that charging for Battle.net will do quite the opposite. This is what happens when rumor and speculation is blown out of proportion.
    Ending on a high note I can't wait for SCII and hope to be selected for the beta which, if all goes well, will soon be followed by the game at the end of the year.

  • mtecher

    Posted Jul 6, 2009 9:31 pm PT

    online petition about Blizzard not putting in lan support. over 48,000 names allready!! Show your love for the lan games and follow the link. http://www.petitiononline.com/LANSC2/petition.html

  • WindsweptSpy posted Jul 6, 2009 7:36 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    WindsweptSpy

    Posted Jul 6, 2009 7:36 pm PT (hide)

    wow... didn't know LAN was such a huge deal to people... I don't really care as long as battle.net remains lag free and cost free

  • fiskefyren

    Posted Jul 6, 2009 8:06 am PT

    i find it funny how no one has mention computer cafe's, thats a lot of sells flying right out the window there.
    and also... am i the only one that heard of this rumour that blizzard might be taking payments for their new battle-net? if this is true, you will have to pay for owning an account on b-net each month to even be able to play starcraft 2 with others...
    can you spell to; epic fail blizz?

    like it wasnt bad enough that we have to buy the same game 3 times, lol. im so gonna private this (only for the single player part ofc)!

  • fiskefyren

    Posted Jul 6, 2009 7:16 am PT

    starcraft 2 won't have LAN because of quality-assurance initiative?
    lol? are they dumb? we all know they do this ONLY because they want to force people onto battle-net, which probably will end up being a payment service like wow is.
    gg blizzard, if this is true i don't see myself paying nor playing either starcraft 2 nor diablo 3.
    enjoy failing at life blizzard.
    and the best thing is... there will still be a million fake copies of this game anyway for those that just wants to play the single player part of the game, epic fail blizz, epic fail.
    who really cares about the multiplayer part anyway? its pretty much the same as the first starcraft beside newer GFX.

    on a side note
    i just cant wait for the first map hacks to roll over this "newly improved battle-net" to **** up their so "awesome" *cough* battle-net

    @Stryker521
    you seem to have failed at the thing called netcafe?
    thats where people go in to play games over... you can guess this one right? LAN! oh my...
    im sorry but you fail as much as blizzard does at life.

  • bigdaveinhville

    Posted Jul 6, 2009 5:42 am PT

    boo

  • aura_enchanted

    Posted Jul 5, 2009 11:41 pm PT

    goodbye blizzard advidesay.. you wont be missed when you are eaten by your comrades at activison and thrown to the wolves of your fan base.. and here i thought they MIGHT stand a chance of having me forgive them for the broken game that is WoW.. and the neglect for warcraft 2 in its patching.. this truly is the last nail in their coffin for me. blizzard where did it all go wrong? was it warcraft adventures? or your cheapo gameboy advanced remakes.. that were less than ideal. what made you lose your mind in a way no other man/group ever has!!??
    i wont get this or diablo 3 they are but fodder now to their stupid fanbase who doesnt understand the developement of their brand.

  • imprezawrx500

    Posted Jul 5, 2009 7:56 pm PT

    no lan no sale, games built for multiplayer that have no lan or splitscreen mp are worthless. if they want sales they need to put in lan, if they don't that is saying bye bye to half of your potential sales.

  • Stryker521

    Posted Jul 5, 2009 7:57 am PT

    Anti-piracy contraptions always leave the genuine paying gamers high & dry while pirates keep making their money or download free and/or crackable versions.

    They can't control what we do with our games, the same way the Government shouldn't be able to tell you what you can and can't do in your bedroom with your significant other.

  • Stryker521

    Posted Jul 5, 2009 7:56 am PT

    LAN's offer something completely different than just sitting behind your LCD in your dark room, maybe with Teamspeak or Vent at the very least.

    And this is obviously not a matter of practicallity for Blizzard, they want the game by-passing their servers for online authentication everytime you start up the game to "fight piracy". Yay! And pirates the world over manage to pirate the game anyway >.

  • Stryker521

    Posted Jul 5, 2009 7:55 am PT

    For all the people not understanding why a large amount of gamers feel cut about this decision:

    You're obviously not in a clan that physically meets up for outings, drinks, LANs, or just hang out with your best mates for a weekend LAN sleepover or wtv other pitiful example I can muster (Make Love, Not Warcraft).

  • dannyatkinson

    Posted Jul 4, 2009 4:26 pm PT

    Does Blizzard not understand that a lot of the Lan games are not even connected to the internet at all. This is just stupid.
    Lan is the only multiplayer that I do period.

  • Epicurus-Reborn posted Jul 4, 2009 3:10 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Epicurus-Reborn

    Posted Jul 4, 2009 3:10 pm PT (hide)

    you wont need lan... just host the game online. make it a private game if you dont want outsiders. i do that with my friends on the other side of the u.s. with warcraft3 all the time. Its really not a problem.

  • Mephistroth posted Jul 4, 2009 2:40 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Mephistroth

    Posted Jul 4, 2009 2:40 pm PT (hide)

    Blizz wont crash and burn.. just look at their track record every game they have made has been rated extremely high. most of them set pc game sales records. on top of that WoW racks up money. they arnt like company's who release one good title and a few mediocre ones. Every title of theirs is amazing. although I am sad to see Lan go, I play SC and WC3 DOTA quite a bit at lans whenever my buddy comes into town from the navy. 10 of us will just crash for a night with laptops and go at it several days during his leave. But In Blizzard We Trust

  • hilanderhilande

    Posted Jul 4, 2009 2:24 pm PT

    I hope they will change their minds and add lan, even if they do so via patching

  • kensgirl73

    Posted Jul 4, 2009 10:12 am PT

    I think in all fairness the biggest thing that will happen is it will limit people buying multiple copies. I could play bnet by myself but we do not have enough bandwidth where I am at for my whole family to play at one time. Why would I buy more than one copy if I can not lan up? So I think even though they are going to make three games that many people wont buy as many copies because of it being a waste of money. I have had multiple copies of a variety of games just so we can lan. No lan, no reason to buy them. Pretty simple math really. So I hope that for every copy they sell that having no lan prevents at least three other people from piracy, if not then it might not be as cost effective as they think.

  • neo_vennom

    Posted Jul 4, 2009 10:01 am PT

    I just figured something..
    No SC LAN means no Diablo3 LAN
    Can anyone point out a RPG game focused on loot that flopped because amongst other things it diden't have LAN.. Is that HELLGATE I hear

  • neo_vennom

    Posted Jul 4, 2009 9:56 am PT

    Also I can't wait to get my hands on the editor

  • neo_vennom

    Posted Jul 4, 2009 9:54 am PT

    Eh 2 weeks of battle.net play and packet analysis and we will have the next best thing, private battle.net )

  • blargX

    Posted Jul 4, 2009 6:46 am PT

    I think this is a ploy for ActiBlizzard to generate hype for their upcoming title. Remember, they are notorious for that.

  • kyle2k5 posted Jul 4, 2009 1:58 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    kyle2k5

    Posted Jul 4, 2009 1:58 am PT (hide)

    Wow. I don't know why people are getting so bent out of shape, but maybe I just don't understand.

    I've played thousands of hours of Starcraft.. and I don't think I've ever once played on a LAN. Although, I do kind of understand the point Slagar made about living in a far-off place and having latency issues with Battle.net.

  • Vicx19

    Posted Jul 4, 2009 12:01 am PT

    WHAT THE F*CK

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