14 DAY TRIAL // Sony San Diego, the studio behind the upcoming ModNation Racers: Road Trip racing game for the PlayStation Vita, has explained the lack of online multiplayer, saying that the team opted to focus on other uses for the handheld’s Wi-Fi/3G connection and its GPS sensor.
The PlayStation Vita is set to appear next month, alongside a huge variety of games. Among them is ModNation Racers: Road Trip, a new portable installment of the popular kart racing game made by Sony San Diego.
Unlike the PlayStation 3 or PSP editions of the game, however, Road Trip won’t have an online multiplayer feature, instead relying just on an ad-hoc one, where players need to be in the same room to race against each other.
The lack of such a crucial racing feature has now been discussed by studio Director Erich Waas on the PlayStation Blog.
"The team here in San Diego created an impressive list of online functionality to take advantage of the WiFi/3G and GPS functionality," said Waas. “This game is intended to let you take advantage of your road trips—whether they’re across the country, to another state or just traveling between home and work or school. More importantly, ModNation Racers: Road Trip was designed to work around your schedule and let you compete with your friends whenever (and wherever) you want.”
"I know there are some of you that are disappointed that ModNation Racers: Road Trip doesn't let you play head-to-head online other than ad-hoc. But we really wanted to evolve online functionality and take advantage of the PlayStation Vita's unique feature set in new ways," he said.
In the same post he went on to describe the variety of online features that would be included in Road Trip. These include localized leaderboards, ghost times based on matchmaking, travel points that unlock new content by visiting different places, as well as the ad-hoc local multiplayer and the compatibility with the tracks and karts that were already made for the PS3 edition of ModNation Racers.
"While online head-to-head has been a mode used in many games in recent years, we focused on making a game that is crafted for how portable games are most often played-in quicker 'pick up and play' sessions multiple times in a day. Your online interaction, competition and socialization will always be when it's convenient for you," Waas concluded.
While Sony San Diego’s intentions are impressive, an online multiplayer would have been more than welcomed. In case racing fans still want to show their racing skills online, then the futuristic Wipeout 2048 that will be out for the Vita next month may be a better choice.