Titanfall not coming to South Africa

Update: It appears that Titanfall has now been removed from the South African Origin PC digital distribution store.

Original article:

Electronic Arts South Africa has confirmed that Titanfall will not be released in the country at this time.

The reason given by EA was that a “great” Titanfall experience could not be guaranteed in South Africa, following recent online performance tests.

“We understand this is a disappointment for local fans and will keep fans posted on any future plans regarding the release of Titanfall in South Africa,” read a statement on EA’s Facebook page.

James previously pointed out how Titanfall’s multiplayer would “suck in SA” due to the game’s use of Microsoft Windows Azure to host dedicated servers for the game.

On paper, Titanfall using Azure is a good idea because the server provision is scalable based on demand, and it takes the hosting load off the end-user, removing annoyances such as host migration mid-match, host latency advantage, and unstable host connections.

However, if you are nowhere near an Azure server node all of these advantages are moot. Microsoft South Africa previously confirmed that there are no physical server deployments for the Azure network in South Africa.

At the time, EA reassured SA gamers, saying that “EA, Respawn and Microsoft have been testing Titanfall all over the world, including South Africa, and we’re confident that players worldwide will have a great experience when the game launches in March.”

I guess things have changed.

So no Titanfall in SA – for now at least; are you upset, outraged, or do you even care? Let us know on the forums or in the comments below.