Games distributor Electronic Arts says that Respawn Entertainment's highly-anticipated online-only multiplayer shooter Titanfall has been cancelled for retail release in SA.
This comes two weeks before it was scheduled, with the company citing poor online play quality as a major factor in the cancellation.
"After conducting recent online tests for Titanfall, we found that the performance rates in South Africa were not as high as we need to guarantee a great experience, so we have decided not to release Titanfall in South Africa at this time," the company said in a post on its Facebook page.
It went on to detail that gamers will be informed once the title makes its way to African shores. "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."
The news comes after it emerged that online user Psuno logged a complaint to EA's local distributor Apex Interactive about the title's poor online performance during a beta phase.
"I logged a complaint with Apex Interactive about Titanfall not having any local servers at the time of it going retail in South Africa. Titanfall which is set for release in March this year (2014), across multiple platforms, will be a multiplayer only game which hosting servers are not located in South Africa. How will Apex be informing consumers about the fact that the experience will be diminished when the product is used locally?" he wrote in a forum post on SA Gamer.
In his complaint to Apex, he detailed consumers' rights according to South Africa's Consumer Protection Act.
"I refer to consumer's rights to safe, good quality goods, section 55 of the National Consumer Act. It is my understanding that consumers have the right to be informed of any diminished qualities a product may contain. In the case of this product, no local facilities are in place in order to support the play experience sufficiently and thus the supplier has to make effort to inform the consumer of this."
While it hasn't been confirmed that the complaint gained any traction with EA, Apex Interactive or Respawn Entertainment, readers of the forum point to the post of a possible explanation for the cancellation.
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