No LAN Support for StarCraft 2
Wednesday July 1, 2009
Blizzard certainly ruffled a few feathers recently by confirming that StarCraft 2 won't have LAN support. Given the popularity of the original StarCraft at LAN tournaments and parties, most of us took for granted that StarCraft 2 would be LAN ready. The word is that all multiplayer will go through Blizzard's revamped Battle.net, in part to reduce piracy. LAN play probably isn't as common as it used to be, but it's still fun to have a get-together with a few computers on a lag-free network.
Comments
I’ve commented on too many other sites to repeat it all but think of the kids! Sure maybe in America every kid has access to a fast uncapped connection…but here in – ah you know what…never mind. Blizzard obviously only cares about green these days. Blizz…you guys now officially suck.
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
@Wayne
That’s a really interesting article, and it could well be one of Blizzard’s reasons for leaving LAN out of the game. I guess the question is: are game developers entitled to a cut of the broadcasting revenue created by their games?
I also get the feeling Blizz wants Battle.net to be something like Steam, although I’m pretty sure Steam still supports LAN play.
Dave