No Online for Nintendo 3DS PES

Cubed3 was in attendance of the Konami developer session at the conference in Amsterdam to promote the 3DS. The two people representing the company were the sombre-looking Shinji Enomoto and the extremely personable Naoya Hatsumi, the latter being the third main producer on the Pro Evolution Soccer series now, along with mainstays Seabass and Greyhound.

The majority of the talk focused on various gameplay features of the 3DS launch title, which they pointed out as being somewhat of a milestone in itself since the franchise has not launched alongside a new system in the past (clearly forgetting the International Superstar Soccer games from Major A...).

It was revealed that the box art will feature Barcelona star Lionel Messi on the cover, with a slightly 3D effect of the ball coming out of the image at you, mimicking the general feel of the actual game where depth is a major factor in the enjoyment of this new portable edition of Pro Evolution Soccer 2011.  The 3D power of the Nintendo 3DS is being implemented in such a way that players will have a more realistic experience, getting a true sense of distance between their team and opponents elsewhere on the football field.  The stereoscopic 3D will also apparently help with the inch-perfect placing of shots, with everything being supported by Konami's traditionally impressive sound setup that gives a feeling of the crowd cheering all around you.

One aspect that some have been worried about is the default player camera that has the action following one player at a time in order to truly show off the depth features.  However, Hatsumi confirmed there will be a total of five different camera positions, including a spider cam that hovers over the entire pitch, a traditional side-on camera, and a 'vertical wide' viewpoint that makes use of both screens to extend the view of the pitch.

Hatsumi-san also touched upon the multiplayer features and how one of the modes makes use of the Nintendo 3DS StreetPass function.  In Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D, the Master League data built up in the main game can be used in StreetPass mode, meaning that if your 3DS is in sleep mode and you pass another person with game data stored on their 3DS, your teams will carry out a statistically-based match, with the winner accruing points that give them a stronger StreetPass ranking that will eventually allow owners to unlock secret footballers and extra teams for use in the in-game Master League.

Towards the end of the presentation, someone in the audience asked if the StreetPass function will still work when playing a local wireless match in Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D, to which there was a firm 'no' in response.  It was then confirmed that the local wireless play only supports one-on-one play, and there will be no online options at all, despite the regular DS versions having Wi-Fi support.  When specifically asked about this, though, Hatsumi dodged giving a proper answer and merely confirmed again that there is no online.

One last point, and quite an important one, when asked if the lack of online meant the game would not be region locked, there was some laughter as he exclaimed 'of course it's region locked!'

Are you still planning on getting Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D or will you wait for the 2012 edition?