Blizzard to exclude LAN play from Starcraft 2.
 

Source.

This is a real damn shame. I wonder what could possess them to do this?

Dont worry! There is already a petition about it!

Although i never saw the true reasoning for any online game to cut off Lan support... seems like such a cheap, but usable, feature to leave it there.....

Perhaps they want to increase Battle net traffic for some reason? I have no idea. They gain few benefits and piss off the fan base. Though I find their plan to release three seperate SCII games much more of a dick-move.

its apparently a method of DRM some are saying, the mindset up if people can't play LAN they wont pirate kinda deal so only nonpirated versions of the game can be played online.

And now the pirates crack the code and add LAN play to it.

...I smell an announcement about Battle.net becoming a paid server...

Yes, they said pretty specifically this was to stop piracy because those nasty pirates have to play offline instead of getting caught/banned from Battlenet.

You'd think Blizzard of all people would be a company with its wits enough to know that you shouldn't play with the fire of pirates. How about make the damn game and include the usual features (god LAN is so the perfect thing for RTS too!) and just release it. I guess CD-keys are ok?

Honestly, there's gonna be some level of piracy no matter if the game ships in a thirty-lock safe and you have to submit a 4-6 week identity and transaction verification application just to get the key for lock one. What you can ensure is that many MORE people will pirate the game just to show off the fact that they can pirate the game because they don't like assholes that restrict honest buying customers' ability to enjoy a game so the company can try (and fail) to squash piracy.

*heaves*

Would not surprise me. I mean Blizzard could afford it with WoW's revenues, but what's even scarier is I would seriously considering paying for it.

I thought I heard Battle.net already WAS a paid, but I may be wrong about that.

Naw, with starcraft I its free.

They could easily have a Online verification system that would give people access to DLC and Updates. It's really hard to crack that type of thing, so it would divert most people towards buying the real game.

Plus, you could even charge for DLC and people wouldn't mind... Hell, Starcraft 3 ain't coming around for quite some time, just Milk it while you can Blizzard!