StarCraft II, Diablo III Getting Pseudo-LAN
Saturday Shacknews reported that Blizzard is currently working on a pseudo-LAN application that will be implemented into the revamped Battle.net service.
According to Blizzard's Greg Canessa, the support is planned for StarCraft II when launched next year; Jay Wilson also said in a separate report that Diablo III will provide the same support.
However, fans shouldn't expect the cherished offline LAN support of days long gone... at least for now "We are working on solutions with regard to things we can do to maintain connectivity to Battle.net in some way, but also provide a great quality connection between players," said Canessa. To clarify, Shack suggested a scenario where the game would only check in with Battle.net to authenticate the game before reverting to typical LAN behavior.
"Something like that," he replied. "Maintaining a connection with Battle.net, I don't know if it's once or periodically, but then also having a peer-to-peer connection between players to facilitate a very low-ping, high-bandwidth connection... those are the things that we're working on."
Based on the information, it may be that StarCraft II (and Diablo III) will feature some kind of offline LAN support, only requiring an online connection to authenticate the game. That's certainly positive news for fans upset over the whole LAN connection issue.

They had NO CHOICE to do this from the very beginning because of Pros/tourneys that NEED the low latency to perform, and this is exactly how I thought they'd do it.
I think this was their plan all along. Drop a bomb and save the day with this 'kind of... lan' that they already had planned up. This will help people on dialup have LANs but you are still forgetting the LANs that have NO INTERNET. LAN implemented into Battle.net is NOT what we WANT. (at least not what 'I' want =P)
Smarten up, Blizzard!
"only requiring an online connection to authenticate the game. That's certainly positive news for fans upset over the whole LAN connection issue."
no, it isn't.
why do they keep beating round the bush? just come out and say it: starcraft 2 is utilizing a monumentally gay form of DRM that requires an internet connection to play. thats all it is, DRM.
They had NO CHOICE to do this from the very beginning because of Pros/tourneys that NEED the low latency to perform, and this is exactly how I thought they'd do it.
I think this was their plan all along. Drop a bomb and save the day with this 'kind of... lan' that they already had planned up. This will help people on dialup have LANs but you are still forgetting the LANs that have NO INTERNET. LAN implemented into Battle.net is NOT what we WANT. (at least not what 'I' want =P)
idiot, what makes you think that when the pirates go to download it it wont already be nice and cracked for them to do offline LAN? all your basically supporting is a retarded form of DRM that adds a massive prerequisite to the game for no other reason than they THINK it will stop piracy!
Try again, Blizzard.
Do you realize how much more difficult it is to setup up to 100+ internet connections at a LAN party?!
Join the outcry:
http://www.petitiononline.com/LANSC2/petition.html