Many South African gamers took part in the Titanfall beta and thoroughly enjoyed their experience. The game ran buttery-smooth, was incredibly fun and had great lag compensation such that the experience was still amazing even at the latency disadvantage. We pre-ordered the title through Origin and various online outlets eagerly anticipating the game's release on March 11th (13th in EU). We did so with the full knowledge that we have no Microsoft Azure Servers in South Africa and would most certainly have a disadvantage playing with 180+ ping by connecting to EU servers.

On March 7th 2014, the official pre-loading date on Origin and a mere 3 days from release, EA announced the following via a facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/EAGamesSouthAfrica/posts/10151922412992407?stream_ref=10 "After conducting recent online tests for Titanfall, we found that the performance rates in South Africa were not as high as we need to guarantee a great experience, so we have decided not to release Titanfall in South Africa at this time. We understand this is a disappointment for local fans and will keep fans posted on any future plans regarding the release of Titanfall in South Africa".

This was confirmed by Vince Zampella (founder or Respawn) via twitter: https://twitter.com/VinceZampella/status/441831190505340928

We believe that this should be OUR decision to make. We enjoyed the experience so much that we are willing to pay the admission price and put up with high latency in order to play this game. Many of us were swept up in the post-beta hype and eagerly awaited our shiny new Titan on March 11th, this announcement is not only a huge disappointment, but a kick in the teeth to all FPS gamers in South Africa. We have been putting up with bad latencies to EU and US for many years in order to enjoy our favourite titles in a multiplayer environment. Please don't take away what might be one of the best FPS titles of the decade, on the pretense that we would not enjoy the experience with a higher latency.

With this in mind we humbly petition Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment to make the game available to South Africans on release date, and give us the CHOICE to play Titanfall.

Even though this petition is aimed at the PC version of Titanfall, we believe it should be made available to South African gamers across all platforms.

UPDATE:

There is a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BuildOurTitansZA

A Twitter account: https://twitter.com/BuildOurTitans

And a Steam group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/BuildOurTitansZA

Join us in spreading the word!