Lost Planet patch at launch

Lost Planet may not be out until 12th January, but Capcom's already setting admirable precedents for its first major online multiplayer game on Xbox 360.

Having released single- and multiplayer demos earlier this year, the developer has since been in touch to explain its plans to incorporate fan feedback into the full game.

"Capcom has been reading boards, emails and blogs, collecting thoughts and ideas directly from the growing community," the team explained in a statement.

Many of these changes will focus on issues with the lobby and matchmaking systems, which came in for criticism based on the demo.

Some changes were already anticipated by the dev team, Capcom says, but others "have come straight from the hundreds of thousands of people playing the multiplayer demo".

A patch will be readied for release at the same time as the game comes out in Europe and North America, 12th January, and should automatically download when you log on to Xbox Live.

The following is a list of key changes to the lobby and matchmaking systems you can expect compared to the multiplayer demo:

• Private slots can be set by host
• Invite friends to a match
• Number of players in a room will be displayed next to name of the room
• Players will not be kicked all the way out to the main menu if they try to join a full game
• New button allows players to refresh the match list without going out to the main menu and selecting Quick Match again
• Players will now go to a post-game lobby at the end of a match, not kicked back to the main menu
• The ability to replay a match with the same group without leaving the post-game lobby
• Cycling maps on replayed matches when map selection is set to Random
• Text size on the team selection screen will be greatly increased when using non-HD resolutions
• When manual team selection is set to ON, players will have 20 seconds to form teams
• The time limit on each match will be maxed out at 60 minutes, instead of the current unlimited time
• A player’s custom match criteria will now be saved

Look out for our full review of Lost Planet early next year.