The Land Down Under has always been notorious about creating obstacles between perceived violent video games and Australian gamers, but for once, a game title that's denied to the populace has nothing to do with its love of beatdowns.
Kotaku Australia is reporting that All Points Bulletin won't see the light of day in Crocodile Dundee's backyard when it launches elsewhere in July. Apparently, because of its fast-paced gameplay, APB needs local servers to facilitate low latency -- and Realtime Worlds has no plan to open an Australian server. No server, no release. Crikey!
Considering all of the positive buzz swirling about this GTA-like game, it's a shame to see a good chunk of game fanatics denied the basic right of life, liberty and the pursuit of all suspects. Aussies can buy an overseas copy and attempt to play on those servers, but as you might imagine, the ping will make that a frustrating experience.
Reader Comments (12)
Posted: Jun 11th 2010 12:03PM GryphonStalker said
Poor Aussies, they always seem to get the short end of the gaming stick. :
Posted: Jun 11th 2010 1:11PM (Unverified) said
Ironic, considering
*comment deleted by editor for rude, parochial slur - but hey, at least you used "ironic" correctly!*
*comment deleted by editor for rude, parochial slur - but hey, at least you used "ironic" correctly!*
Posted: Jun 11th 2010 3:34PM (Unverified) said
Dang, well, I hope someone had a laugh out of it. :D
Reply
Posted: Jun 11th 2010 1:14PM silvertemplar said
This is kinda misleading though, is APB launching in Asia? Is it launching in South America , Africa , Middle East, Russia ? What makes the aussies so special to be "denied" while the rest of the non-Europe / non-USA world it's just normal ?
The title gives the impression the aussies -banned- the game, [which is what i thought is more likely] , but instead this is more about them not getting any local servers?
The title gives the impression the aussies -banned- the game, [which is what i thought is more likely] , but instead this is more about them not getting any local servers?
Posted: Jun 11th 2010 1:48PM pcgneurotic said
Is it really such a great game that it's going to be a great loss? I'm not being snide, I'm genuinely curious.
Posted: Jun 11th 2010 1:54PM (Unverified) said
Great comment: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/06/apb-will-not-be-released-in-australia/comment-page-1/#comment-132327, that hopefully exemplifies to the rest of the world what us Oceanics have to put up with.
A box which you can get for $200/month in the US would cost $11,250/month in Australia.
A box which you can get for $200/month in the US would cost $11,250/month in Australia.
Posted: Jun 11th 2010 2:27PM (Unverified) said
Wow, I was looking into moving to Australia a couple of years ago and it was the price of hosting, etc. and moves by the government over there that made even the Labour UK government look reasonable that put me off. That and a general mark up on prices which was even worse than the one the UK gets inflicted on it. It was a close thing though, but I just spend far too much time huddled over a computer for the weather to win over living in a country whose government want it to be the 1980s again.
They really need to do something about those costs or they are going to lose entrepreneurs and geeks. No worries for us in the UK or US though, as that's where they are likely to go.
Reply
They really need to do something about those costs or they are going to lose entrepreneurs and geeks. No worries for us in the UK or US though, as that's where they are likely to go.
Posted: Jun 11th 2010 9:33PM (Unverified) said
AUSTRALIA:
SAD FACE :(
SAD FACE :(
Posted: Jun 11th 2010 10:58PM (Unverified) said
This isn't exactly big news, any Australian that wants to play it will do the same thing they do for most other MMOs - use a proxy server. The only difference here is that the developer is admitting that it is unplayable under normal circumstances.
MMOs like Aion are also incredibly bad under latency, but you'll never see NCSoft admitting to it.
MMOs like Aion are also incredibly bad under latency, but you'll never see NCSoft admitting to it.
Posted: Jun 12th 2010 4:08AM (Unverified) said
For once, the Aussies should be glad a game isn't coming there.
Posted: Jun 13th 2010 1:22AM (Unverified) said
As an Australian I'm actually glade that they are not doing it if they don't have servers.
Games like Aion are still sold here yet are pretty much unplayable competitively (not that you'd want to play Aion in a serious sense, but you get the idea). That game was created FOR South Korea which has the best internet in the world because they are all Asian stuck within the same small area and NOT for countries that are literally on the other side of the world from each other.
At least these guys aren't trying to sell a product that becomes useless for Australians like NCSoft.
Games like Aion are still sold here yet are pretty much unplayable competitively (not that you'd want to play Aion in a serious sense, but you get the idea). That game was created FOR South Korea which has the best internet in the world because they are all Asian stuck within the same small area and NOT for countries that are literally on the other side of the world from each other.
At least these guys aren't trying to sell a product that becomes useless for Australians like NCSoft.







