Blizzard is one of the most respected video game developers in the industry, largely because it makes titles that are very reliable, run on a lot of PC configurations and have features that are extremely intuitive.

Another reason why old titles like StarCraft, Warcraft III or Diablo II are still being played today is that they support Local Area Networks (LANs) and, by doing this, players that are on the same network can play together without worrying of a high latency or lag.

But one of the most expected titles from the large company, StarCraft II, won't have this feature, as a Blizzard representative revealed to Kotaku that it would use only the Battle.Net online service for its multiplayer mode.

“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.”

He also revealed that a lot of the new features in the improved Battle.Net experience would more than make up for the lack of LAN support. “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.”

How do you feel about this decision to not include LAN support for StarCraft II? Do you think that it will stop piracy and make everyone adopt the service, or will it have a negative impact on the sales of the title? Leave us a comment with your thoughts.