Region locked online games… why would you do that?!

One of the great things about online gaming is the ability to play with your friends from down the street or on the other side of the town or in the same state. Even better is the ability to meet and play with people you have never physically met before in your entire life. It’s the reason why online networks such as Steam, Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network are so great.

The thing that sucks about online gaming is when the companies involved in the production of the game see the need to lock people into separate regions with online play. For some games this isn’t such a big deal, it’s just extremely inconvenient… however there is one game (take a look at the pic and take a guess) where this region locking has pretty much killed the games main selling point.

For those who don’t know, Monster Hunter, although being a series which is playable offline, is primarily an online co-operative game. From my experience with the series, the most the offline sections of the game are good for is to set up your character and the initial tutorial parts at the start of the game. Once you’ve gotten a hang of the game, you get a group of friends together and you go online with it… and there you stay for the rest of your Monster Hunting experience…. unless your Internet goes down and you still feel like playing Monster Hunter.

We lucky bunch who live outside of Japan get to play Monster Hunter (3) Tri with absolutely no subscription fees involved. The reason for our luck amounts to the fact that Monster Hunter is nowhere near as popular as it is within Japan. Giving the game free online access ensures that the series will grow in popularity, making it a good investment for the future… even better is the fact that those dreaded Nintendo Friend Codes aren’t used…

I played through the entirety and MORE of Resident Evil 5 with folks from both Europe and the US… I should be able to do the same with Monster Hunter Tri and any other game that locks people out from other continents.

Personally, I believe Monster Hunter Tri would’ve turned out better on Xbox Live or PSN provided that they didn’t region lock those either… or at least just not Berlin wall us into our own playing pens… especially for folks in Australia. Out of around 22 million people, I’m sure only about half a percent will end up buying Monster Hunter Tri at the very most, and even then, not all of those people will end up going online with it.

I guess I’ll just have to enjoy my empty Australian Monster Hunter Tri servers…