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Online multiplayer may be heading to ModNation Racers: Road Trip, after all

An ad-hoc admission

Online multiplayer may be heading to ModNation Racers: Road Trip, after all

ModNation Racers: Road Trip's developer Sony San Diego didn't impress many people yesterday with its reason for not including an online multiplayer mode in its upcoming PS Vita racing title.

Game director Eric Waas wrote on the PlayStation Blog that the team had omitted the mode because "we really wanted to evolve online functionality and take advantage of the PlayStation Vita's unique feature set in new ways".

"If all we ever did as developers is rehash features that have been done in previous games, we'd still be entering passwords instead of using save files and you'd have to start the entire game over after you lost your three lives (extra 1-ups aside)."

Build it back up

This statement caused quite a furore among fans, enough to lead Waas to jump into the comments section of the article and explain the move in more detail:

"Part of the decision to not include [multiplayer in] MNR:RT at launch was that the percentage of MNR PSP gamers who played online [was so low]. The percentage was in the single digits."

He did, however, go on on to say that the team was "looking at online head-to-head in a patch", and that part of the reason for leaving the function out was actually down to "the development schedule".

ModNation Racers: Road Trip is scheduled to launch alongside the PS Vita on February 22nd.

Eurogamer
Will Wilson
Will Wilson
Will's obsession with gaming started off with sketching Laser Squad levels on pads of paper, but recently grew into violently shouting "Tango Down!" at random strangers on the street. He now directs that positive energy into his writing (due in no small part to a binding court order).