Blizzard made exactly clear that LAN play won’t be a part of its games – or games at all – in the future, declaring that LAN will “be a great footnote in our history.”
Not even the willpower of 100,000 petition signers can stop the forward march of technology. Despite the popular support for local area network play in StarCraft II, Blizzard’s VP of game design, Rob Pardo, is pretty clear cut about how his company feels about the implementation of offline network multiplayer in games.
“I think LAN will be a great footnote in our history, just like DOS was,” Pardo said. Ouch. No offense to those of you with fond recollections of using DOS (I have none), but I’d figured that the idea of hooking in a few computers on the same local network might have a bit more currency than that.
Keep in mind, however, that Pardo said this in July at a press event for StarCraft II‘s campaign mode – back then the petition didn’t have as much support as it does now. But I really doubt it’s going to change the company’s mind.
Because it’s not like Blizzard doesn’t have any love for LAN. They do. They love LAN. It’s just, it’s not working out any more, and it’s time to move on. “It was a very tough decision, and I’d say we’d been talking about it back and forth for well over a year before we finally decided that this is more the direction for the future for us, and actually for the industry,” Pardo said.
Oh well. LAN or online, it doesn’t matter. Funk goes down like a punk either way.
[Via VG247]
Published: Aug 17, 2009 05:38 pm