According to an interview with Rob Pardo, VP of Game Design on the Starcraft 2 Project (as reported by Ars Technica),

“We don’t have any plans to support LAN [in Starcraft 2]…we will not support it.”

Wait, what? My first exposure to the original Starcraft was at a LAN party. Hell, that’s primarily how I’ve played it since.

Blizzard? Can you reconsider?

Update: Blizzard has posted a response to the flood of complaints regarding the lack of LAN-play. Coverage here. Summary? No good reason. My concern is that years down the road, Blizzard will shutdown Battle.Net for some reason or other, and suddenly there will be no multiplayer support for Starcraft 2 what-so-ever. Damn.