Why did they region lock the game?

[Wildfire]

I didn't even notice until a friend pointed it out, and then I realised I was racing against europeans all the time, which basically translates to higher skill level + get crashed by 95% of Spaniards.

I bought the US version of the game from the store, but I play on my UK account because it's my original PSN account and most games don't region lock these days.

I know it's not a big deal, and you can still play with whoever in the created races, but still, I was hoping for the easier competition with the North American player base

 

[Imari]

I didn't even notice until a friend pointed it out, and then I realised I was racing against europeans all the time, which basically translates to higher skill level + get crashed by 95% of Spaniards.

I bought the US version of the game from the store, but I play on my UK account because it's my original PSN account and most games don't region lock these days.

I know it's not a big deal, and you can still play with whoever in the created races, but still, I was hoping for the easier competition with the North American player base

Latency.

 

[Wildfire]

Latency.

I understand that, but why lock it by account and not by the source of the connection?

Or at least give us the option to choose servers even if it's simply (NA or EU)

It just comes across as lazy tbh, to lock by account, most people have decent connections these days, hell in the last 5 years in two different countries i've not have lower than a 250/25 fibre optic connection so latency plays almost no factor.

Not once have I come across laggy players on GTS, and I'm located in North America, forced to play against Europeans because they are too lazy to implement a location check.

 

[baldgye]

I understand that, but why lock it by account and not by the source of the connection?

Or at least give us the option to choose servers even if it's simply (NA or EU)

It just comes across as lazy tbh, to lock by account, most people have decent connections these days, hell in the last 5 years in two different countries i've not have lower than a 250/25 fibre optic connection so latency plays almost no factor.

Not once have I come across laggy players on GTS, and I'm located in North America, forced to play against Europeans because they are too lazy to implement a location check.

It could also be because it'll be linked with the GT Academy stuff, and they want players from certain countries/regions rather than ones just located there?

 

[covan2306]

I'd guess lag issues, I'm on NA servers and even when region locked I have raced against some players with baaaaad connections, very hard to pass someone who is flickering around a 200 sq foot box at all times. Add an ocean between us and it will give me either diabetes or epilepsy...

 

[GTP_Monkey]

Wait hang on a second, I've been in online lobbies and raced folk from the USA, New Zealand, Japan as well as most of the european countries where i live in the UK so I dont think region lock has anything to do with who you meet online. As far as i understand its more to do with the area your registered with PSN

 

[Wildfire]

Wait hang on a second, I've been in online lobbies and raced folk from the USA, New Zealand, Japan as well as most of the european countries where i live in the UK so I dont think region lock has anything to do with who you meet online. As far as i understand its more to do with the area your registered with PSN

That's the point... they have essentially region locked the game by your PSN account location.

I'm talking about Sport mode by the way... if you're in the UK, I highly doubt you have raced against people from North America if you are playing on a UK PSN account.

It's possible you'll race against Japanese and NZ/Australia because if you know games, they usually just throw those guys on the EU servers, or in the category of EU whenever they region lock.

Again, we're talking about sport mode, not the casual unranked online mode.

 

[GTP_Monkey]

That's the point... they have essentially region locked the game by your PSN account location.

I'm talking about Sport mode by the way... if you're in the UK, I highly doubt you have raced against people from North America if you are playing on a UK PSN account.

It's possible you'll race against Japanese and NZ/Australia because if you know games, they usually just throw those guys on the EU servers, or in the category of EU whenever they region lock.

Again, we're talking about sport mode, not the casual unranked online mode.

Definitely raced against USA drivers and Canadians again only online lobbies and it was early hours in the morning here 2am through 5am got 2 American friends from GT5 and 6 days i've met with as well as, One lives in Dallas the other near New Orleons, No idea where the others and canadians where from.

 

[ConnorWolf]

Definitely raced against USA drivers and Canadians again only online lobbies and it was early hours in the morning here 2am through 5am got 2 American friends from GT5 and 6 days i've met with as well as, One lives in Dallas the other near New Orleons, No idea where the others and canadians where from.

Lobbies are not Sport Mode

 

[Wildfire]

Definitely raced against USA drivers and Canadians again only online lobbies and it was early hours in the morning here 2am through 5am got 2 American friends from GT5 and 6 days i've met with as well as, One lives in Dallas the other near New Orleons, No idea where the others and canadians where from.

Sorry mate I should have been clearer.

Sport mode is the competitive part of online, so Daily races and tournaments.

Hosted lobbies are the other part of online, although i forget what the menu is to get there, these are non-ranked events where you can link up with friends.

But Sport Mode is locked to whatever region your PSN account is in, as it's ranked game modes and like others have suggested, requires low latency.

I just wish it was locked by your actual location and not the location of your PSN account

 

[Imari]

It's possible you'll race against Japanese and NZ/Australia because if you know games, they usually just throw those guys on the EU servers, or in the category of EU whenever they region lock.

They actually don't for online. Latency to the EU is far higher than latency to the west coast of the US.

 

[rex1825]

Well, I don't have problems with latency, yet using US account and living in Serbia(EU)...

Would like to have an option to play with people based on IP though.

Cheers...

 

[Wildfire]

They actually don't for online. Latency to the EU is far higher than latency to the west coast of the US.

I should explain, I obviously know that latency to EU is higher, however if you look at games with split servers, the majority of them force NZ/Australia and Japan/China onto the EU servers.

It wasn't an opinion, it was a fact from a plethora of games over the years...

Obviously I'm not talking about games like battlefield with a multitude of dedicated servers, more like MMOS, such as ESO or DCUO where they only have two server options EU or NA, in those cases they always lumped the east side of the world on the EU servers, unfortunately.

You only have to ask an Aussie thats been gaming for at least 5 years to know that.

 

[Imari]

I should explain, I obviously know that latency to EU is higher, however if you look at games with split servers, the majority of them force NZ/Australia and Japan/China onto the EU servers.

It wasn't an opinion, it was a fact from a plethora of games over the years...

Yeah, it's not a fact. Think about how I know.

Obviously I'm not talking about games like battlefield with a multitude of dedicated servers, more like MMOS, such as ESO or DCUO where they only have two server options EU or NA, in those cases they always lumped the east side of the world on the EU servers, unfortunately.

Or like Blizzard, who used to host Oceanic servers in NA before they got local servers. There are a few games that force AU onto EU or Asian servers, but it's usually because they're either Sony affiliated or idiots. Basic observation shows that most AU traffic goes through the US to get to anywhere, and so most big online devs figured out that they might as well throw us on the US if they're not going to pay money to a local data centre.

Don't just assume that because two games push AU onto EU it's the norm. Most games actually let you choose, and we all choose to play on US.

You only have to ask an Aussie thats been gaming for at least 5 years to know that.

Check the flag under my name.

As an Australian living in Australia and gaming for the last 25-odd years, I feel like I'm slightly more qualified to answer that than you. If your experience starts at DCUO, then you're missing a lot of history. Especially back when Australia was pretty much forced to play overseas because local servers simply didn't exist.

Or maybe you simply only game on Playstation, and are misled that the way Sony runs their regions is the way everyone does.

 

[cocoflowa]

Dedicated servers are only for sport mode.

 

[Eva]

The reason sport mode is region locked is because 1) lowers chance of latency, 2) FIA trials start by region and then become a global finale, 3) easier to matchmake people if it's cut off into set in stone regions. It isn't laziness, it's organization for the bigger goals.

 

[JockeP22]

nevermind

 

[Sander 001]

I understand that, but why lock it by account and not by the source of the connection?

Or at least give us the option to choose servers even if it's simply (NA or EU)

It just comes across as lazy tbh, to lock by account, most people have decent connections these days, hell in the last 5 years in two different countries i've not have lower than a 250/25 fibre optic connection so latency plays almost no factor.

Not once have I come across laggy players on GTS, and I'm located in North America, forced to play against Europeans because they are too lazy to implement a location check.

You're talking about bandwidth. Bandwidth has little to do with latency and lag. Test your ping and you'll find that you have lower ping with servers closer to your geographical location and that's what the game prioritizes.

 

[qwbufp]

There are very fast drivers in NA And you would get crashed by 95% of Brazilians so it’s not that different!

There is almost no latency. I only saw one player with massive ping issues so far. In PC2, you’ve got cars appearing in front of you or leaping every 200 meters. Haven’t had this issue in sport mode.

 

[Veinz]

It's there to keep the lag down, I've only had a lag issue with one Brazilian player so far. I've seen lots of clean and respectful players and only a handful of crashers. It will get better in time.

 

[ToyGTone]

I wish if there was a way to find out about the latency like in the closed beta. Also I would like to have an option to pick the regions servers like in Rocket League.

Having a Middle Eastern account, I'm being forced to join European servers and play against Europeans and Turkish players. I was surprised to know that it plays more smoother than some games *cough* Overwatch and Call Of Duty but it still sucks to play online games over here due to our ISP being a bunch of scammers and overprice stuff along with Gaming Developers never caring about us players for financial reasons.

 

[Wildfire]

You're talking about bandwidth. Bandwidth has little to do with latency and lag. Test your ping and you'll find that you have lower ping with servers closer to your geographical location and that's what the game prioritizes.

Oh my fault, I didn't realise I had to lay out clearly and concisely what my point was everytime, as to not be patronisied.

If the game was "prioritising" the actual location of players, they would detect your location and match make accordingly genius.

Clearly they are not doing that, and are instead match making based on the region of your PSN, which is an oversight to say the least.

 

[Wildfire]

There are very fast drivers in NA And you would get crashed by 95% of Brazilians so it’s not that different!

There is almost no latency. I only saw one player with massive ping issues so far. In PC2, you’ve got cars appearing in front of you or leaping every 200 meters. Haven’t had this issue in sport mode.

Totally agree with the Brazilians, you just reminded me of a hilarious race on F1 2010 involving an entire lobby full of brazilians at sao paulo gp

As for latency in the game, I haven't come across any myself and I'm stuck playing with Europeans, even though I'm living in North America.