Zelda: Tri Force Heroes Will Have Region-Locked Online Play

[Steven Bogos]

Zelda: Tri Force Heroes Will Have Region-Locked Online Play

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes won't let players from different regions play together.

Pocket Gamer [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/the%20legend%20of%20zelda%20tri%20force%20heroes?os=the+legend+of+zelda+tri+force+heroes] has learned that the game's online component will be region-locked.

While region-locking is par for the course at Nintendo, restricting online play is something new, as prior multiplayer focused titles Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon have allowed gamers all over the world to play together.

Additionally, just like Splatoon, Tri Force Heroes will lack any kind of voice support. You'll be able to send quick emoji-like messages ("over here!" "Totem up" "Item!") but obviously won't be too much help with such a puzzle-focused series as Zelda.

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes launches on October 23 exclusively for Nintendo 3DS.

Source: Destructoid [http://www.destructoid.com/zelda-tri-force-heroes-region-locks-online-play-313762.phtml]

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[GTMippey]

I love you Nintendo. I really do. But you make it so hard sometimes.

 

[weirdee]

The weird thing is that in addition to making it childsafe, the goofy emoji Link faces during multiplayer stuff are supposed to make it EASIER for cross region play due to bypassing the language barrier. What gives?

 

[Denamic]

Nintendo was part of my childhood, but it's not going to be a part of the rest of my life. They're just assholes nowadays.

 

[otakon17]

It's ONLINE. That DEFEATS THE PURPOSE OF ONLINE PLAY NINTENDO! Holy Hell you idiots, why even give it online play then? Make it local only, you'll sell more copies and still make it hard for people in the other parts of the world to play your game not by themselves! Freaking hell Nintendo GET WITH THE TIMES.

 

[Zacharious-khan]

To anyone stupid/ignorant out there, this sort of thing usually means that there are bandwidth or latency issues that could impact playability between regions or sometimes weird misc but those are more rare. It's not always impossible to bring the game up to standards but there are time constraint issues as well as increased production cost, server costs are also a possible issue if the game requires one for whatever reason.

and Occasionally its Nintendo being weird.

 

[sonicneedslovetoo]

I found a solution to all your nintendo hating needs. Buy used, if you don't support them but can't live without Mario Kart: buy used games. That way you can still play Smash Bros but nintendo doesn't get any money.

 

[DanteLives]

Well this is gonna be a bigger flop than Francis Jeffers in an Arsenal shirt.

 

[Leg End]

and always its Nintendo being weird.

FTFY
This basically defeats the point of the game, doesn't it?

 

[Zacharious-khan]

FTFY
This basically defeats the point of the game, doesn't it?

No not at all

 

[spartandude]

And my interest is going... it's going.... IT'S GONE! And Nintendo knocked it right out of the park, I tell ya after Metroid I didnt think they do another blunder this year but my gosh was I wrong.

 

[ChaoshadowZero]

Seriously Nintendo?

Zelda is my favourite game series but between the recent trailer and this, I've lost all interest I had in this game.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

So... since the player pool available for each person to connect to is smaller than we anticipated, they're going to announce that requiring a third player is no longer true and one of the two (or both) can control the third Link?[footnote]Imbalanced player to character ratios existed in Four Swords Adventures, and that was when the players could easily punch each other in the arm. 2 players-> one with three Links 3 players-> one with 2 Links.[/footnote] That's kinda a bigger issue than being region locked. I'm still hearing about couples and siblings that are bummed they have to either find a third wheel or go online (which might be impossible in some cases).

If Nintendo was able to pull off worldwide connectivity with a third person shooter, the only reason I can think of why they can't do it with an action-puzzle game is some unforeseen limitation with the 3DS hardware. It just seems a little ridiculous when they eliminated the language barrier with the emojis. At least that still has use in regions with many different languages concentrated together.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Sounds like lazy implementation of region locks.
I get not wanting to deal with arbitrage, but the 3DSes are DRM'd up the wazoo at the user-end to begin with.

So, I see no reason why limiting external connectivity via region is necessary when a region lock is employed between the 3DS and its software to begin with.

 

[AidoZonkey]

And this game essentially became worthless. It really does seem like every good move they make, Nintendo has to offset it by doing something entirely pointless and damaging to their company

 

[BarkBarker]

What's that in the sky? A bird? A plane? No you fools, it's my hopes for this game crashing into the earth in a blazing glory! Oh the horror!

 

[ResonanceSD]

This is awesome. No lag between players allowed. For anyone that's serious about multiplayer, this is good news.

 

[lordofpowies]

One day Nintendo will learn. One day they will pack this shit in.

But today is sadly not that day...