StarCraft 2 LAN support not part of Blizzard's "philosophy"

StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm may add a pack of content, but it won't add one of the RTS's most requested features: LAN support.

Game balance designer David Kim told PC Gamer that LAN support just doesn't fit with what Blizzard is trying to achieve.

“We’re building Starcraft 2 as an online game and so from very early on our focus was making a game that people were connected to,” he said.

“We’re building things around the ladder, we’re building achievement systems, so our system is about making an online game.

“It’s really just about our philosophy of how we’re trying to make the game."

Kim said Blizzard is looking at ways to make localised play easier while still using Battle.net's infrastructure.

“I think moving forward we’ll be looking at things like ways where people who are nearer each other can find each other more easily. But that’s not necessarily LAN it’s just a way of finding people nearer to you," he said.

Heart of the Swarm has not been dated.