Army of Two Multiplayer Is Region Locked

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Army of Two Multiplayer Is Region Locked


Reports are coming in that the multiplayer component of EA's third-person shooter Xbox 360 [http://www.ea.com/armyoftwo/]is region locked, meaning gamers cannot engage in online action with anyone outside their home area.

The issue was first reported on XBL [http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/2008/03/army-of-two-no-eu-us-play.html]as Army of Two (EU) and attempts to connect across the pond have, so far, come up fruitless." A SarcasticGamer user confirmed the issue, pointing out that page six of the owner's manual for the European release of the game states, "NOTE: The online game modes in Army of Two are not cross region compatible and is only supported between PAL discs."

Complaints have also been raised on the EA forums [http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/army-two/307139-region-locked-dear-god-whos-idea.html], where a community representative claimed he didn't know why the multiplayer was region locked, but suggested it was to eliminate latency issues and reduce server load to increase stability. Concern has also been expressed over the fact that the region lock was not noted on the outside of the package, but was instead buried inside the manual.

PlayStation 3 [http://www.ea.com]version of the game suffers from the same problem.


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Hey Joe

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Dec 23, 2007
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Oh noes! Does this mean I can't have yanks making fun of my accent whenever I play online now?
 

fix-the-spade

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Feb 25, 2008
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What? how am I supposed to berate Texans now?

Shouldn't the nationality of opponents be a decision for the players to make rather than the developers?

This sounds like one of the classic "we'll do this and everyone will call us geniuses" moves that developers make without asking anyone. Followed by the frantic scrabbling to come up with explanations when the crap hits the fan.

See also: Dynamic pricing on CSS. Virtual boy. SIXAXIS controllers with no rumble...