Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate's multiplayer to be region-locked

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate's multiplayer servers will be region-locked, disallowing European, Japanese and US players from interacting.

Word came from series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto in a recent interview with GameReactor, via auto-translate.

It was later confirmed on the Capcom Unity forums.

Capcom USA's Yuri L. Araujo said he's "not thrilled" about the news and would pass feedback to the team responsible, but did not expect a change as a result.

The multiplayer aspect of Monster Hunter is one of the factors which drove the third entry's incredible sales across a variety of platforms, and the opportunity to participate in timed events with a broader pool of players is a blessing for western fans, who often have a smaller group of real world friends up for a high-level monster hunt. It's a disappointment after the good news of a transition to more-reliable Nintendo Network servers

Monster Hunter Ultimate 3 releases on 3DS and Wii U in March; the 3DS version does not support multiplayer, but cross-save is available.

Thanks, Siliconera.