Today, South African gamers received the terrible news that Titanfall would not be coming to South Africa. Take a moment to imagine how you would feel if EA and Respawn came completely out of left field and announced that the game you have been looking forward to since the beta (and way before that), a game that you already pre-ordered, a game ONLY 3 DAYS AWAY FROM RELEASE, was no longer available in your region.
The following was their official press release: "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. 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".
Vince Zampella replied to our tweet (https://twitter.com/VinceZampella/status/441831190505340928) with the following: "performance wasn't as good in the area as we would like, don't want to sell you something that isn't great".
Many South African gamers took part in the Titanfall beta and thoroughly enjoyed their experience. The game ran buttery-smooth, was incredibly fun and had great lag compensation such that the experience was still amazing even at the latency disadvantage. We pre-ordered the title through Origin and various online outlets eagerly anticipating the game's release on March 11th (13th in EU). We did so with the full knowledge that we have no Microsoft Azure Servers in South Africa and would most certainly have a disadvantage playing with 180+ ping by connecting to EU servers.
We believe that this should be OUR decision to make. We enjoyed the experience so much that we are willing to pay the admission price and put up with high latency in order to play this game. Many of us were swept up in the post-beta hype and eagerly awaited our shiny new Titan on March 11th, this announcement is not only a huge disappointment, but a kick in the teeth to all FPS gamers in South Africa. We have been putting up with bad latencies to EU and US for many years in order to enjoy our favourite titles in a multiplayer environment. Please don't let them take away what might be one of the best FPS titles of the decade, on the pretense that we would not enjoy the experience with a higher latency.
I appeal to you as a fellow FPS gamer in dire need of your assistance. This decision is an affront to all FPS gamers everywhere and is hardly fair this close to release. Please sign our petition: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/respawn-entertainment-give-south-african-gamers-the-choice-to-play-titanfall
I understand that the counter argument is that playing against a 200 ping player on your server is not optimal, but our gaming community is hardly big enough to have a detrimental effect, and you will still be stuck with EU players who have 200+ ping due to their crappy internet connections. If you still don't want to support our petition then just try, for a moment, to put yourself in the shoes of a South African gamer - 3 days to Titanfall and you're left high and dry.
TLDR: Please help all South African gamers by signing this petition: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/respawn-entertainment-give-south-african-gamers-the-choice-to-play-titanfall
Please upvote our post on the Titanfall reddit community as well! http://www.reddit.com/r/titanfall/comments/1ztn54/a_plea_to_the_reddit_community_help_bring/
That's an option. Pity that it's Xbox/PC exclusive.
My friend showed me this:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/zenmate-for-google-chrome/fdcgdnkidjaadafnichfpabhfomcebme?hl=en
It changes your physical location and encrypts your web browsing like a VPN. You can use it to get region locked games as a digital download.
Temporary email for sign up
http://getairmail.com/