Soul Calibur III: no online mode
And no character cameos either, says producer Hiroaki Yotoriyama. Spoilsport.
Following Namco's recent announcement that Soul Calibur III will be a PS2 exclusive, producer Hiroaki Yotoriyama has now revealed that the game will not offer online play.
Speaking in an interview on the official Japanese SCIII site, partially translated by GameSpot, Yotoriyama-san explained the reasons behind the decision: "At the current time, the online infrastructure is extremely different between countries, and there [are] people [who] can't enjoy network gaming.
"We've decided to concentrate on improving the [game's offline content] and its characters so that people all over the world will be able to have fun."
However that offline content won't include any guest appearances from non-SC characters. Link, Heihachi and Spawn enjoyed cameos in the GameCube, PS2 and Xbox versions of SCII respectively, but Yotoriyama says it's not his style to "do the same thing twice", despite receiving various offers. Gex the Gecko's agent is said to be gutted.
Soul Calibur III is due for a European release by the end of the year, and will be on show at E3 in May.