No APB For Australia

[Andy Chalk]

No APB For Australia

Electronic Arts has announced that APB [http://www.apb.com/], the crime-themed MMOG from Realtime Worlds, won't be released in Australia, but for once government censorship isn't to blame.

APB: All Points Bulletin is scheduled to be released on June 29 in North America, July 1 in Europe and July 2 in the U.K. Australia? Try never. Yes, it's sad, but it's also a situation that should be familiar to our brothers and sisters Down Under, except that this time the Classification Board [http://www.classification.gov.au/] has nothing to do with it.

The hangup is entirely technological. APB features a lot of shooter-like action and thus a low ping is far more important than in most MMOGs. That means local servers are a must for decent gameplay, but EA [http://www.realtimeworlds.com/] is only handling distribution of the game through the EA Partners program, it has no say in the matter and has thus decided to simply not release the game there.

As Kotaku Australia [http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/06/apb-will-not-be-released-in-australia/] points out, determined Aussie gamers could import a copy from the U.S., set up an account with a U.S. credit card and try to play on a U.S. server, but if it doesn't work out - and it probably won't - then it's tough noogies for you. Can't really complain to customer service about that. Perhaps an internet petition would be in order?

Poor Australia. It's like Fate herself has it in for you.

Thanks to Labyrinth [http://ims.warcry.com/profiles/view/Labyrinth] for the tip.


Permalink

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

So, it's Realtime Worlds AND EA Partners choice? Ahh well. That sucks.

And what's that about Fate?

Damn...Chrono Cross looked GOOD. That is some kick ass in-game PS1 graphics...

 

[UFriday]

All Australian Escapists, you have my sympathy

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Damn, that's harsh. Must be because of all the dropbears.

 

[Irridium]

Damn rati-

Oh, yeah, right.

Anyway that sucks ass. APB looked pretty cool, shame Australian gamers can't get it.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Damn, that's harsh. Must be because of all the dropbears.

That's why it's long past time wearing pointy hats was made mandatory, puts a stop to that nonsense rather neatly.

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

...That game actually had me interested. Damn.
Low Ping has always seemed like a handicap, not neccessarily a disqualification. Oddly I'm pleased that it wasn't banned for legal issues though, although this is a twist.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

Austrilan gamers...

Dr. wonderful pity you.

...

Ok folks! I'm going to do an assassin contract! Who want a piece of it!?

 

[Abedeus]

So, Australians won't be able to pretend they are 50 Cents pretending to be gangsters in a world full of 13-year old "gangstas"?

WHYY GOD WHYYY

 

[Jared]

Well, I suppose that makes sense. Sucks for them unfortunatly living in the middle of the ocean ><

 

[tehweave]

Well, Yahtzee is going to be pissed.
Or apathetic. It could go either way.

 

[tetron]

I'd just have a friend in the states let me proxy through his computer. There's workarounds for every regional restriction.

 

[Darktau]

Unless they magically fixed a ton of problems/bugs then don't worry, your not missing out on much.

 

[Racistman3d]

hmmmm, from what I heard about this game, we aren't missing a whole lot, shame really, since the game looked pretty cool.

 

[Fire Daemon]

Now, I kind of hope that this game fails. Maybe that sounds quite bitter and mean, but I've been following this game and looking forward to it for a long time, I'm talking back when it was supposed to be on the 360 long. And then they go and pull this shit? The amount of money spent on creating/running a server will be returned when it gets players, the only possible reason to do this is either from laziness or by releasing a bad game and not trusting that profit can be made, so only laziness really. I doubt that Realtime is thinking 'this game sucks so lets spend the lowest amount of money possible on the servers' so it seems like they just can't be fucked to do it. Great design philosophy.

What really sucks is that the game could probably be played pretty well for an Aussie on a Korean, Chinese or Japanese server and you can bet that there will be a lot of those. Man, screw Realtime. I'll be picking up SW:TOR for sure.

 

[Vaccine]

but Realtime Worlds apparently has no interest in running servers in Australia.

Lazy/racist/cheap pricks.

I don't even know what this game is but it sounds bad anyway.

 

[Doc Cannon]

I guess I know how you Australians feel, here in South America we too won't be able to play it (very high ping, etc.). For once I wish an action game was a classic point and click mmorpg.