This is probably the most controversial decision Blizzard has made in the past few years. According to an interview with Game Spot, a Blizzard executive confirmed that Starcraft 2 will only be playable via multi-player online. Yup, you guys read the right. No internet cafe parties. Read the official statement after the break.
“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.
My only concern about this is if our current internet infrastructure can handle the strain of an RTS game. 
Here’s a trailer from Game Spot:
Let’s all hope that Blizzard changes their mind and eventually opens up SC2 for LAN.
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Hitsugaya Toushirou on July 2, 2009
That means a need to buy an original installer, and not a pirated copy.
mav~mia on July 2, 2009
Garena ??
~~~~~ on July 3, 2009
-i agree with toushirou, it’s a sugar coated way of saying “we’re trying to stop piracy of our next big thing”
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-”advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking” what a load of waffle.
Decikator on July 3, 2009
Bakit kaya hindi na lang nila sabihin ang totoo…gusto nilang walang LAN yung SC2 para mabawasan ang piracy??? Kung gusto nila na mabawasan ang piracy ay dapat ay dalawa ang pricing nila…isang pang-first world price at isang pang-third world price.
LOL on July 4, 2009
Korea needs to connect to battle.net in order to play their local tournament
Zinorc on July 4, 2009
Just buy the game and play it online with your friends.
Blogger on July 4, 2009
From a programmers point of view, I have to agree with Blizzard. Huge revenue is loss through piracy.
Ripcord on July 5, 2009
To bad for players who frequent internet cafes unless the shop invests in buying multiple original copies of the game! time to buy your own highend PC, an original SC2 Box and have DSL connected in your houses!
Angel Eyes on July 14, 2009
Kahit ano pang point of view yan, you still can’t fight piracy just by removing a LAN play feature, and if you’re a programmer, you know there will always be a third party patch for that so I don’t think you can stop piracy just by removing that LAN feature. I think the pricing issue may help a lot, most software and digital media today are being distributed and licensed to be used on a certain country, so why don’t they use different pricing skims depending on that country’s purchasing power? And also a cheaper bulk licensing for internet cafe owners. Besides, LAN play is much reliable than sending/recieving information from several hosted computers through the internet when all your team and game players are all on the same place.
Stupid on August 12, 2009
Removing LAN doesn’t stop piracy, even a bit.
Andaming private servers ng Bnet ngayon. Kahit bago pa gagamitin nilang Bnet para sa SC2, di din magtatagal bago may lumabas na private servers.
Meron ngang private servers ang mga MMORPG, simpleng matchmaker pa kaya?
uruk on August 29, 2009
From a programmer’s point of view. Piracy is not the reason why they’re excluding LAN. It’s money. Sometime ago it was brought up that the BNET service will be a PAY TO PLAY PLATFORM. If anything this is the start of that move.
Piracy has nothing to do with it. In fact pirates will always find a way to tinker with the game. A simple third part program, hack here and there and you have a 3rd party LAN working for SC2. Of course Garena might be one of those.
Eto tatandaan nyo. It’s all about money. Gustong pagbayarin ng mokong na blizzard and mga bibili ng SC2 sa paggamit ng kanilang server BNET.
Simpleng simple.
Only noobs will believe it’s coz of piracy.
Which of course kokonti lng.