Earlier this month Ryozo Tsujimoto (the producer for the Monster Hunter series) revealed that the online servers for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate would be region locked on the Wii U — meaning players from North America would only be able to play with other people from North America, Europeans with other Europeans, and so on. Today we have received word from Capcom that this decision has been somewhat reversed, and certain international online play will be allowed.
Citing “community feedback” as the reason behind the shift, Capcom announced that up to four-player cross-region functionality for the Wii U version Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate will be allowed between North America and Europe. While this is certainly good news for everyone who has a best-buddy monster hunter that lives across the pond, it is not so good news for those gamers with friends in Japan. For whatever reason, Capcom has excluded their home turf from the upcoming almost-worldwide monster slaughter.
The other thing to note about this good news, is that Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate will not feature cross-region functionality out of the gate. According to Capcom, the feature will be patched in about one month (April) after the game launches.
Once the patch hits, it will also add the off-TV play feature to the game. This will allow you use the Wii U GamePad screen to hunt monsters while sitting on the porcelain throne, thus forever eliminating the need to ever take an actual bathroom break from Monster Hunter.
I’m telling you,life just doesn’t get any better than this.
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate launches on March 19, 2013 in North America for the Wii U and 3DS, and on March 22nd across Europe. The game will be available for purchase on launch day as both a boxed retail product and as a digital download on both systems. Additionally, a Wii U/3DS demo of Ultimate is currently available via the Nintendo eShop.
Published: Feb 28, 2013 06:06 pm