Australia gets f**ked again - MOH -Heros 2

[benniemc]

iTWire - No online for you Australia, EA apologies for Medal of Honor restrictions

No online for you Australia, EA apologies for Medal of Honor restrictions
by Mike Bantick
Tuesday, 12 February 2008

Sometimes it feels like we live in a technologically neglected corner of the globe, if such a thing was possible. Electronic Arts have had to apologise and offer a refund to purchases of Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 for the Wii due to the lack of online multiplayer available in Australia.

Just when we thought some 32 player multiplayer action was coming to the Nintendo Wii, and even more excitedly in the form of the excellent Medal of Honor franchise, we Australians have been delivered a terrible gaming blow.

Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 on the Nintendo Wii has as a core feature, a multiplayer component that folks in other regions of the world must be enjoying immensely. Sadly in Australia, the multiplayer aspect is as populated as the countries own central desert.

Local EA spokesperson Cameron Jenkins confirmed the issue;"Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 for Wii does not support online functionality in Australia," Jenkins said.

"We've made an error in the documentation and marketing materials. We're very sorry to have caused confusion for our customers and we will provide a refund to anyone in Australia who wishes to return the game to EA because of the lack of online functionality."

Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 multiplayer is available in North America, Europe and Japan.
Australia must be a difficult market for tech companies, including game marketers. Being an affluent society well versed in a modern first world technological environment, but hampered by a much lower population compared to other regions. Then there is the tyranny of distance on top of volume issues which once crunched by company accountants mean, more often than not a public hungering for services that are not as profitable for multinationals.

Evidence of this is all can be found in the lack of online content for services such as Xbox Live Marketplace and the yet to arrive – but more than likely to lag in Australia – PlayTV for the PlayStation 3. The list goes on, local servers for many Massive Multiplayer games, iTunes movie downloads, Amazon.com downloads and so on.

With convict roots, and no legal avenue, is it not surprising that a nation of technophiles starved of service turn to alternative methods for content. Of course, there is no alternative when all you want is to blast your mates online, and the facility is simply not available.

[DonaldRay510]

No point in buying it without multiplayer....

[Timmyp34]

Its even worse in New Zealand