Reports are coming in that the multiplayer component of EA’s third-person shooter Army of Two for the Xbox 360 is region locked, meaning gamers cannot engage in online action with anyone outside their home area.
The issue was first reported on SarcasticGamer.com, which posted an article saying, “Details are sketchy at the moment, but players across Europe are writing in to tell us that their copies of Army of Two will not interface with their American friends. The game shows up in XBL as Army of Two (EU) and attempts to connect across the pond have, so far, come up fruitless.” A SarcasticGamer user confirmed the issue, pointing out that page six of the owner’s manual for the European release of the game states, “NOTE: The online game modes in Army of Two are not cross region compatible and is only supported between PAL discs.”
Complaints have also been raised on the EA forums, where a community representative claimed he didn’t know why the multiplayer was region locked, but suggested it was to eliminate latency issues and reduce server load to increase stability. Concern has also been expressed over the fact that the region lock was not noted on the outside of the package, but was instead buried inside the manual.
Electronic Arts has not commented on the issue, and it is not yet known whether the PlayStation 3 version of the game suffers from the same problem.
