2010 is coming to a close, and the Web site MMORPG.com has opened the voting for its annual MMORPG of the Year award. Instead of limiting voters to a small list of games, the site has provided a huge list of currently active online RPGs to select from.
The list really is quite large, so I guess it shouldn't be that surprising that Phantasy Star Universe is somehow on it. I've never even heard of most of the games on that list. (Ignore the fact that PSU is not technically an MMORPG and therefore shouldn't even be a choice.)
However, I was a little surprised when I came across this thread on the official Sega forums asking PSU players to vote for the game as the best of 2010. Why would anyone want to do this?
The game is over four years old and struggling to maintain its player base, thanks in large part to Sega's day-to-day decision making and management of the servers (and the community in general). In just this past year, the community endured a continuing lack of updates, sporadic network outages, billing issues, and a permanent server shutdown.
Then there's the issue of server population. At any given moment, the number of people playing PSU online is equal to less than one percent of the population of people playing World of Warcraft, Aion, or any of the other large pay-to-play MMOs. That's not even a scientific estimate, but it's probably accurate. PSU is a niche game, and will remain that way forever.
Finally, you could make the argument that Sega is not really releasing new content for PSU anymore (meaning new environments / enemies / etc). Yes, the supplemental update has been released and is providing players with some new equipment, but Sega is not doing anything to expand the PSU world, and that probably won't change now that Phantasy Star Online 2 has been announced.
That said, if you'd like to think you're being clever, or if you want to try and screw with the results a little (good luck -- see the server population discussion), head over to MMORPG.com and cast your vote for Phantasy Star Universe as MMORPG of the Year 2010! (You have to have an account there to vote.)
Monday, December 20, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
Absolute Zero is Live
Absolute Zero officially began today, and an event site listing the kill count and unlockable rewards is now available. This event differs from recent ones in that much of the reward information is already displayed, but the kill counts required to earn the rewards is unknown.
In a move that I found to be surprising, Sega of Japan has decided that Absolute Zero will run for a ridiculous seven weeks, until January 21, 2011. That's just enough time to get bored with the event missions about five times over. Whatever happened to the short (i.e. month-long) events, anyway? Is Sega just trying to get players to hang around as long as possible?
Oh, and one last thing -- it seems the Xbox 360 is incapable of handling some of the Absolute Zero missions, as evidenced in this warning by PSU GM Edward. Apparently you might (read: will) experience massive slowdown in the first block of Frozen Flowers. According to Edward, the mission is "much better" by Block 2 (though I'm not really sure what that means).
Of course, to fix the slowdown problem, simply play the mission with the camera pointed at the ground the entire time. That's a lot of fun! Or, you could play the PC vers- oh, I'm sorry, I forgot -- you can't. What a shame.
For more information on Absolute Zero, check out the event page linked at the top of this post.
In a move that I found to be surprising, Sega of Japan has decided that Absolute Zero will run for a ridiculous seven weeks, until January 21, 2011. That's just enough time to get bored with the event missions about five times over. Whatever happened to the short (i.e. month-long) events, anyway? Is Sega just trying to get players to hang around as long as possible?
Oh, and one last thing -- it seems the Xbox 360 is incapable of handling some of the Absolute Zero missions, as evidenced in this warning by PSU GM Edward. Apparently you might (read: will) experience massive slowdown in the first block of Frozen Flowers. According to Edward, the mission is "much better" by Block 2 (though I'm not really sure what that means).
Of course, to fix the slowdown problem, simply play the mission with the camera pointed at the ground the entire time. That's a lot of fun! Or, you could play the PC vers- oh, I'm sorry, I forgot -- you can't. What a shame.
For more information on Absolute Zero, check out the event page linked at the top of this post.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Time for Absolute Zero
When Sega has good PSU-related news to announce, it doesn't take very long to get it out to the masses. So when PSU GM Edward took the unusual step of announcing a content update on a Monday afternoon, it should have been pretty clear that this would be no ordinary maintenance week.
Friday's maintenance period will kick off the long-awaited Absolute Zero event on the regional servers. PSU GMs had been hinting at the arrival of this event for awhile, and it doesn't really come as a surprise that Sega chose this week to start it.
Though no end date for the event has been announced as of yet, my guess is that it will probably run for five weeks, until January 7th, 2011 (unless Sega enjoys doing maintenance on New Year's Eve -- I know I wouldn't). By doing this, Sega can basically finish any mid-event maintenance on the 17th or 24th of December and then take off for the holiday. This also gives Sega the chance to reel some former players back in for awhile during the hectic holiday release season. (Of course, whether they stay after the event ends is another story altogether, but...)
On the other side, players will be happy to know that they'll actually get something to do during a month where Sega has not typically been forthcoming with new content for PSU. Absolute Zero is a Maximum Attack-style event with a global kill counter and unlockable rewards, which might help keep players motivated. An event Web site, which normally accompanies this type of event, will not be available until after Friday's maintenance.
Only one question remains to be answered: Can Sega hold this event without some kind of catastrophic failure or server problem? Based on the current track record, I wouldn't be too sure, but you never know!
Friday's maintenance period will kick off the long-awaited Absolute Zero event on the regional servers. PSU GMs had been hinting at the arrival of this event for awhile, and it doesn't really come as a surprise that Sega chose this week to start it.
Though no end date for the event has been announced as of yet, my guess is that it will probably run for five weeks, until January 7th, 2011 (unless Sega enjoys doing maintenance on New Year's Eve -- I know I wouldn't). By doing this, Sega can basically finish any mid-event maintenance on the 17th or 24th of December and then take off for the holiday. This also gives Sega the chance to reel some former players back in for awhile during the hectic holiday release season. (Of course, whether they stay after the event ends is another story altogether, but...)
On the other side, players will be happy to know that they'll actually get something to do during a month where Sega has not typically been forthcoming with new content for PSU. Absolute Zero is a Maximum Attack-style event with a global kill counter and unlockable rewards, which might help keep players motivated. An event Web site, which normally accompanies this type of event, will not be available until after Friday's maintenance.
Only one question remains to be answered: Can Sega hold this event without some kind of catastrophic failure or server problem? Based on the current track record, I wouldn't be too sure, but you never know!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
PSU Network Lag, Now and Forever
After several weeks of no updates, things might be temporarily looking up again on the US/EU PSU servers. Friday's maintenance period kicked off another GBR -- this time on the Guardians' Colony -- and added the autumn lobbies. Plus, with the Absolute Zero event looming on the horizon, there's some hope that players might be able to stay occupied through the holiday season.
However, it's not Sega's style to hold events without some kind of huge server issue, and it looks like we have the potential for another one here. For the last month, players have been reporting irritating lag spikes that have dropped whole universes in some cases.
Things were so bad last weekend that there were actually prolonged server outages. Compensation is planned but so far nothing has been announced.
Call me crazy, but I don't think it's too much to ask to be able to play a cooperative online game without fear of being randomly disconnected or dropped from the server "just because". PSU GMs have apparently been making an effort to pinpoint the problem by surveying users, but it's been almost a month now and very little has changed.
Periodic network outages and connection drops are nothing new, either. PSO: Blue Burst players will remember the infamous 906 errors that occurred for months leading up to the shutdown of those servers.
The bottom line is that Sega should be doing more to ensure that players don't leave the game because of annoying network problems. The upcoming event will bring idle players back, but only if Sega can get things in order before then.
However, it's not Sega's style to hold events without some kind of huge server issue, and it looks like we have the potential for another one here. For the last month, players have been reporting irritating lag spikes that have dropped whole universes in some cases.
Things were so bad last weekend that there were actually prolonged server outages. Compensation is planned but so far nothing has been announced.
Call me crazy, but I don't think it's too much to ask to be able to play a cooperative online game without fear of being randomly disconnected or dropped from the server "just because". PSU GMs have apparently been making an effort to pinpoint the problem by surveying users, but it's been almost a month now and very little has changed.
Periodic network outages and connection drops are nothing new, either. PSO: Blue Burst players will remember the infamous 906 errors that occurred for months leading up to the shutdown of those servers.
The bottom line is that Sega should be doing more to ensure that players don't leave the game because of annoying network problems. The upcoming event will bring idle players back, but only if Sega can get things in order before then.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Phantasy Star Portable 2 news
So I've been busy and haven't wrote anything here in awhile and since I felt I haven't posted enough like Minus I wanted to post this and it probably contains information you already know about... BUT YOU'LL HAVE TO DEAL WITH THAT OK!?
Anyway, I was pretty disappointed that Sega ruined PSP2's online mode right off the bat. Yes that's right the code for online that came with the game was useless! Oh, but don't worry Ruby said they are working on a fix! I have no idea if they got it working yet but the damage is already done. This is probably the fastest I've seen an online Phantasy Star game get ruined. Sure it was bound to happen but at least the online code could have helped kept off pirated copies of the game.
Next the game seems to have a few glitches. The UMD version of the game seems to have the install "corrupt." I use the word "corrupt" loosely because from my experience it seems that the game randomly shuts off the install data in a mission and once you complete it you are able to just turn it on again. It's pretty annoying and should be fixed. Also there seems to be a freezing issue with the mission Awoken Serpent once you enter the boss warp. This should have never been and definitely must be fix.
Also it looks like the game has no DLC, free and paid (I didn't care about the paid stuff anyway). It seems the English version of the game changed the way some items were obtained so it's looking very unlikely that this content will be released. I have no idea why they took this route. The DLC missions are FREE for the Japanese version of the game so why not just put it on the disc and leave it at that?
There is a way to use the Japanese DLC on the English version of the game though. Besides the mission text being in Japanese for the new content it seems it also updates a few English quests into Japanese, also there are issues playing online with people who do not have the DLC. I haven't tried using this so if you try it do so at your own risk.
And lastly, the nice folks over at PSUPedia released the full list of passwords for PSP2. I thought this was pretty nice, and much better than Sega's slow release of them (PSU updates anyone?). Although Clumsy wasn't too thrilled about this, and compared to them a cheat site (although he later changed his wording on the matter). Lastly he said "hacking out content is killing the game, killing the community, and hurting the franchise." I agree with the first and last statement but in all fairness I'm pretty sure the community is killing the community. Also in this case the "hack" didn't hurt anyone so I don't see what the big deal is compared to some of the stuff that went on in PSO and PSU.
Anyway, I was pretty disappointed that Sega ruined PSP2's online mode right off the bat. Yes that's right the code for online that came with the game was useless! Oh, but don't worry Ruby said they are working on a fix! I have no idea if they got it working yet but the damage is already done. This is probably the fastest I've seen an online Phantasy Star game get ruined. Sure it was bound to happen but at least the online code could have helped kept off pirated copies of the game.
Next the game seems to have a few glitches. The UMD version of the game seems to have the install "corrupt." I use the word "corrupt" loosely because from my experience it seems that the game randomly shuts off the install data in a mission and once you complete it you are able to just turn it on again. It's pretty annoying and should be fixed. Also there seems to be a freezing issue with the mission Awoken Serpent once you enter the boss warp. This should have never been and definitely must be fix.
Also it looks like the game has no DLC, free and paid (I didn't care about the paid stuff anyway). It seems the English version of the game changed the way some items were obtained so it's looking very unlikely that this content will be released. I have no idea why they took this route. The DLC missions are FREE for the Japanese version of the game so why not just put it on the disc and leave it at that?
There is a way to use the Japanese DLC on the English version of the game though. Besides the mission text being in Japanese for the new content it seems it also updates a few English quests into Japanese, also there are issues playing online with people who do not have the DLC. I haven't tried using this so if you try it do so at your own risk.
And lastly, the nice folks over at PSUPedia released the full list of passwords for PSP2. I thought this was pretty nice, and much better than Sega's slow release of them (PSU updates anyone?). Although Clumsy wasn't too thrilled about this, and compared to them a cheat site (although he later changed his wording on the matter). Lastly he said "hacking out content is killing the game, killing the community, and hurting the franchise." I agree with the first and last statement but in all fairness I'm pretty sure the community is killing the community. Also in this case the "hack" didn't hurt anyone so I don't see what the big deal is compared to some of the stuff that went on in PSO and PSU.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
PSO2 Console Versions Possible? Let's Hope Not
Yeah, I realize that I've been posting a lot of PSO2 news/comments on this blog lately. Any new PSO2 news is a lot more interesting than another PSU maintenance period skipped and another week of no new content.
So, on to the PSO2 news. Sega of Japan has posted job listings for software engineers looking to help develop Phantasy Star Online 2. (As a side note, this does not give me great confidence for a release anytime next year.)
Of particular interest are the qualifications required for the positions. According to the job listings, posted on Sega of Japan's corporate site and translated in a post on fansite PSO World, successful candidates will (among other things) have "experience in network game development for PC, PS3 and/or Xbox 360".
I found this to be a little troubling, since it indicates that Sega is at least considering console versions of PSO2. Such a decision could have disastrous effects on the success of the game in the West, primarily in regards to the international servers that many potential players (including this one) are hoping for.
So far, PSO2 has only been announced for the PC. Any console versions of the game that are announced could ruin the dream of international servers. A PS3 version of PSO2 does not necessarily mean certain doom, since PC and PS3 servers would probably be combined (as they were with PSU). However, if an Xbox 360 version of the game is announced, all bets are off. Microsoft's refusal to allow combined Xbox/PC/PS2/PS3 servers means that the server population would have to be split somehow. Of course, if that were to happen, Sega could break the population up into international PC/PS3 and international Xbox 360 servers. However, I think this scenario would be unlikely. Instead, I would expect regional servers and a return to the drama and infighting that made the PSU community so great.
Bottom line: Pray that Sega stays away from the consoles, especially Xbox 360, if you are hoping for worldwide servers.
There's also the issue of actual development. If Sega chose to release console versions of the game, which console would they use to develop the game? I won't care as long as Sega chooses the PC or the PS3. The Xbox 360 is the weakest link of the three platforms, and I think Sega would have a hard time making a really good-looking, expansive, next-generation game there.
Of course, this is all speculation. Sega may choose not to develop any console versions of the game at all. This is the smartest choice, but with Sega it's not a foregone conclusion. We can only wait, watch, and hope they get things right.
So, on to the PSO2 news. Sega of Japan has posted job listings for software engineers looking to help develop Phantasy Star Online 2. (As a side note, this does not give me great confidence for a release anytime next year.)
Of particular interest are the qualifications required for the positions. According to the job listings, posted on Sega of Japan's corporate site and translated in a post on fansite PSO World, successful candidates will (among other things) have "experience in network game development for PC, PS3 and/or Xbox 360".
I found this to be a little troubling, since it indicates that Sega is at least considering console versions of PSO2. Such a decision could have disastrous effects on the success of the game in the West, primarily in regards to the international servers that many potential players (including this one) are hoping for.
So far, PSO2 has only been announced for the PC. Any console versions of the game that are announced could ruin the dream of international servers. A PS3 version of PSO2 does not necessarily mean certain doom, since PC and PS3 servers would probably be combined (as they were with PSU). However, if an Xbox 360 version of the game is announced, all bets are off. Microsoft's refusal to allow combined Xbox/PC/PS2/PS3 servers means that the server population would have to be split somehow. Of course, if that were to happen, Sega could break the population up into international PC/PS3 and international Xbox 360 servers. However, I think this scenario would be unlikely. Instead, I would expect regional servers and a return to the drama and infighting that made the PSU community so great.
Bottom line: Pray that Sega stays away from the consoles, especially Xbox 360, if you are hoping for worldwide servers.
There's also the issue of actual development. If Sega chose to release console versions of the game, which console would they use to develop the game? I won't care as long as Sega chooses the PC or the PS3. The Xbox 360 is the weakest link of the three platforms, and I think Sega would have a hard time making a really good-looking, expansive, next-generation game there.
Of course, this is all speculation. Sega may choose not to develop any console versions of the game at all. This is the smartest choice, but with Sega it's not a foregone conclusion. We can only wait, watch, and hope they get things right.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Official PSO Soon Finished Forever
Sega of Japan has announced that on December 27, 2010, the Japanese PSO: Blue Burst servers will be shutting down for good.
The shutdown of these servers marks the official end of Phantasy Star Online. This comes after a ten-year run on four platforms, beginning with the Dreamcast in 2000. It's been a remarkable run for the game, and although the official final shutdown of PSO is a sad moment for many, it should also be noted that there is a silver lining here as well.
In the shutdown announcement, it was also announced that Sega / Sonic Team is considering ways to give players the opportunity to beta test Phantasy Star Online 2. The common belief is that the PSO: Blue Burst servers are being shut down to prepare for PSO2, and if this is in fact the case, perhaps a release is not as far off as we all originally thought. However, no firm release date has been announced for either the United States or Japan.
The sale of Hunters Licenses ends on November 29, and free play begins on November 30th. After that, things could get interesting.
The shutdown of these servers marks the official end of Phantasy Star Online. This comes after a ten-year run on four platforms, beginning with the Dreamcast in 2000. It's been a remarkable run for the game, and although the official final shutdown of PSO is a sad moment for many, it should also be noted that there is a silver lining here as well.
In the shutdown announcement, it was also announced that Sega / Sonic Team is considering ways to give players the opportunity to beta test Phantasy Star Online 2. The common belief is that the PSO: Blue Burst servers are being shut down to prepare for PSO2, and if this is in fact the case, perhaps a release is not as far off as we all originally thought. However, no firm release date has been announced for either the United States or Japan.
The sale of Hunters Licenses ends on November 29, and free play begins on November 30th. After that, things could get interesting.
Monday, September 20, 2010
"New" Content This Week (Updated)
Last week, the Japanese PC/PS2 PSU servers began their fourth anniversary celebration with a new event while the regional Xbox 360 servers skipped regular maintenance. A lot of players were annoyed and frustrated at the lack of updates and expressed it loudly on the official forums.
Fear not, everyone! Sega does in fact care about its Xbox 360 players and doesn't want them to quit.
In fact, Sega of Japan cares so much that it has rewarded the US/EU community with rehashed content. Four Parum missions -- Train Rescue, Endrum Remnants, Dual Sentinel, and Duel in the Ruins -- will be receiving S3 difficulties this week to go along with the Parum GBR that begins after Friday morning's maintenance.
The news was somehow posted on the Sega of America site first, so we're not sure how long this GBR will last, but odds are it will stick around until sometime in mid-October.
UPDATE: The Japanese site has been updated and it looks like this GBR will run for a ridiculous five weeks, until Friday, October 29. I guess the folks at Sega of Japan are planning some long vacations next month!
Fear not, everyone! Sega does in fact care about its Xbox 360 players and doesn't want them to quit.
In fact, Sega of Japan cares so much that it has rewarded the US/EU community with rehashed content. Four Parum missions -- Train Rescue, Endrum Remnants, Dual Sentinel, and Duel in the Ruins -- will be receiving S3 difficulties this week to go along with the Parum GBR that begins after Friday morning's maintenance.
The news was somehow posted on the Sega of America site first, so we're not sure how long this GBR will last, but odds are it will stick around until sometime in mid-October.
UPDATE: The Japanese site has been updated and it looks like this GBR will run for a ridiculous five weeks, until Friday, October 29. I guess the folks at Sega of Japan are planning some long vacations next month!
Keep PSO2 PC-Only, Please
With Phantasy Star Online 2 just recently announced and having no set release date in the United States, the debate on the official Sega forums has turned to whether or not console versions of the game will be developed.
This thread in particular should be held up as the prime example of why there should not be any console versions of PSO2. In that thread, console players of Phantasy Star Universe (primarily those on Xbox 360, where the servers are still active) try to make a case for a console PSO2, arguing that a PS3 or Xbox 360 would be a good fit for the next-generation game. Towards the end it pretty much turns into a fight between the PC PSU players and the Xbox 360 PSU players. Been there, done that.
I strongly believe that Sega should keep PSO2 far, far away from the consoles. A console version of the game would only help to split up the community. The US/EU version of PSU demonstrated that very nicely. Also, no console versions means that Sega has to maintain only the PC version, meaning that it would be easier and quicker to roll out content updates. (And for you Xbox 360 PSU players that would like to claim otherwise, don't forget that Sega of Japan is also handling PC/PS2 content updates in addition to the Xbox 360's updates.)
Of course, a PC-only PSO2 has other advantages. It'll probably look nicer and run better; right now, it appears that PSO2 is actually being developed specifically for PCs, which is good. A PC-only game also keeps the door open for future expansion, since personal computers aren't limited by expensive proprietary storage (see: Xbox 360). The PC can also do voice chat, so it's not like anybody would be losing that functionality without a console.
Advocates for a console PSO2 claim that it would be a safe haven against the evils of PC hacking. I'm a professional software engineer, so I think I can call bullshit on that one; any programmer that's worth a damn should be able to write server code good enough to stop those things from happening in most cases. Not to mention that Sega should care enough about the game to remove those people as quickly as possible.
Finally, I'll single out the Xbox 360 specifically because a version of PSO2 developed for that console would surely result in console-separated servers. And we all saw how well that turned out for the US/EU version of PSU. I personally think that a PC-only PSO2 increases the likelihood of international servers, though it's way too early to tell if that will happen. If we get console versions of the game, I'm not holding my breath.
We still don't know much about PSO2. As I said before, there's still a long way to go before we get to play it. However, everybody is hoping that Sega gets this one right. Let's start by making PSO2 PC-only.
This thread in particular should be held up as the prime example of why there should not be any console versions of PSO2. In that thread, console players of Phantasy Star Universe (primarily those on Xbox 360, where the servers are still active) try to make a case for a console PSO2, arguing that a PS3 or Xbox 360 would be a good fit for the next-generation game. Towards the end it pretty much turns into a fight between the PC PSU players and the Xbox 360 PSU players. Been there, done that.
I strongly believe that Sega should keep PSO2 far, far away from the consoles. A console version of the game would only help to split up the community. The US/EU version of PSU demonstrated that very nicely. Also, no console versions means that Sega has to maintain only the PC version, meaning that it would be easier and quicker to roll out content updates. (And for you Xbox 360 PSU players that would like to claim otherwise, don't forget that Sega of Japan is also handling PC/PS2 content updates in addition to the Xbox 360's updates.)
Of course, a PC-only PSO2 has other advantages. It'll probably look nicer and run better; right now, it appears that PSO2 is actually being developed specifically for PCs, which is good. A PC-only game also keeps the door open for future expansion, since personal computers aren't limited by expensive proprietary storage (see: Xbox 360). The PC can also do voice chat, so it's not like anybody would be losing that functionality without a console.
Advocates for a console PSO2 claim that it would be a safe haven against the evils of PC hacking. I'm a professional software engineer, so I think I can call bullshit on that one; any programmer that's worth a damn should be able to write server code good enough to stop those things from happening in most cases. Not to mention that Sega should care enough about the game to remove those people as quickly as possible.
Finally, I'll single out the Xbox 360 specifically because a version of PSO2 developed for that console would surely result in console-separated servers. And we all saw how well that turned out for the US/EU version of PSU. I personally think that a PC-only PSO2 increases the likelihood of international servers, though it's way too early to tell if that will happen. If we get console versions of the game, I'm not holding my breath.
We still don't know much about PSO2. As I said before, there's still a long way to go before we get to play it. However, everybody is hoping that Sega gets this one right. Let's start by making PSO2 PC-only.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Phantasy Star Online 2 Announced
Sega's live stream from its presentation last night at the Tokyo Game Show produced an interesting image. The Phantasy Star community had been speculating about this for awhile, and recent developments had seemed to indicate it was coming, but it's now official.
Phantasy Star Online 2 is on the way. Right now the game is announced only for Japan, and PSU GM Edward stated as much in the new official PSO2 forum, but I think it would be absolutely ridiculous if the game did not eventually make its way to the West.
As of now, the game is scheduled to be released in 2011 for the PC. Some preliminary details of the game were translated and posted over at fansite PSO World. Based on the information provided, it almost seems as if Sega is looking to blend the best elements of PSO and PSU into a single game, which is something the community seems to be clamoring for. Apparently, PSU gameplay elements such as item synthesis and photon arts will also be making their way over to PSO2, although significantly overhauled (according to the translated information). It will be interesting to see how that works.
This announcement seems to have gotten the community very excited, as you might be able to imagine. A discussion of the new game is underway over at the new Sega PSO2 forums. Obviously, there's still a long way to go before anybody gets to play anything, but this is certainly a great start!
Oh, and so long, PSU.
Phantasy Star Online 2 is on the way. Right now the game is announced only for Japan, and PSU GM Edward stated as much in the new official PSO2 forum, but I think it would be absolutely ridiculous if the game did not eventually make its way to the West.
As of now, the game is scheduled to be released in 2011 for the PC. Some preliminary details of the game were translated and posted over at fansite PSO World. Based on the information provided, it almost seems as if Sega is looking to blend the best elements of PSO and PSU into a single game, which is something the community seems to be clamoring for. Apparently, PSU gameplay elements such as item synthesis and photon arts will also be making their way over to PSO2, although significantly overhauled (according to the translated information). It will be interesting to see how that works.
This announcement seems to have gotten the community very excited, as you might be able to imagine. A discussion of the new game is underway over at the new Sega PSO2 forums. Obviously, there's still a long way to go before anybody gets to play anything, but this is certainly a great start!
Oh, and so long, PSU.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Welcome to Reality
When the PC/PS2 servers closed back in April, PSU GMs offered the suggestion that the closure would actually be better for the game in the long run. With Sega focusing resources on just one version of the game, maybe the US/EU servers could catch up to the Japanese servers. The remaining Xbox 360 players were thrilled.
Almost six months have passed since then, and the Xbox 360 PSU landscape looks very different. Aside from the release of the supplemental update in July, there have been few, if any, glimmers of hope to even suggest that the US/EU servers are catching up. Since the release of the supplemental update, the regional servers have received exactly two new (conditional) missions and a few updates to the GAS feature. There have been no content updates in September.
Now it looks like players are starting to wake up and face reality.
Sega of Japan has announced that there will be no maintenance this week, despite the fact that the Japanese PC/PS2 servers are starting their fourth anniversary event this week. Players do not seem to be taking the news too well, as evidenced in this thread on the official forums.
In the days after the PC/PS2 server shutdown, we blogged a little about the blind faith that some members of the Xbox 360 community had in Sega to deliver on the pledge to catch up to the Japanese servers. It should be mentioned that PSU GMs never actually promised to do such a thing. So I'm not sure why players are expressing anger and frustration now about something that was never going to happen anyway.
The Xbox 360 servers will never catch up to the Japanese servers before closing -- I'm almost certain of that, and if I'm wrong (not likely), then so be it. Before long, the next Phantasy Star console game will be released, and the Xbox 360 PSU servers will vanish into nothing, leaving behind all of the unreleased content. If you don't think that won't happen, consider the fact that Sega of America did it once already with PSO: Blue Burst. It will happen.
That's the new reality of playing Phantasy Star games online in the West. Welcome, Xbox 360 community.
Almost six months have passed since then, and the Xbox 360 PSU landscape looks very different. Aside from the release of the supplemental update in July, there have been few, if any, glimmers of hope to even suggest that the US/EU servers are catching up. Since the release of the supplemental update, the regional servers have received exactly two new (conditional) missions and a few updates to the GAS feature. There have been no content updates in September.
Now it looks like players are starting to wake up and face reality.
Sega of Japan has announced that there will be no maintenance this week, despite the fact that the Japanese PC/PS2 servers are starting their fourth anniversary event this week. Players do not seem to be taking the news too well, as evidenced in this thread on the official forums.
In the days after the PC/PS2 server shutdown, we blogged a little about the blind faith that some members of the Xbox 360 community had in Sega to deliver on the pledge to catch up to the Japanese servers. It should be mentioned that PSU GMs never actually promised to do such a thing. So I'm not sure why players are expressing anger and frustration now about something that was never going to happen anyway.
The Xbox 360 servers will never catch up to the Japanese servers before closing -- I'm almost certain of that, and if I'm wrong (not likely), then so be it. Before long, the next Phantasy Star console game will be released, and the Xbox 360 PSU servers will vanish into nothing, leaving behind all of the unreleased content. If you don't think that won't happen, consider the fact that Sega of America did it once already with PSO: Blue Burst. It will happen.
That's the new reality of playing Phantasy Star games online in the West. Welcome, Xbox 360 community.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Is Phantasy Star Online 2 Coming?
It's no secret to those in the Phantasy Star community that Sega is planning a special announcement for the tenth anniversary of the release of Phantasy Star Online. However, nobody really knows what the announcement will be.
Last week, the rumor mill was set churning again after somebody noticed that the domain name registration for pso2.jp had been recently renewed by Sega. This news from Japanese fansite Shougai PSO and reported on PSO World cites the whois page for the pso2.jp domain, which was first registered last year.
A true sequel to Phantasy Star Online does not seem all that unlikely. Details of Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity announced recently seem to indicate that the PSP series is leaning further and further back towards the Phantasy Star Online style of gameplay. Phantasy Star Zero, released for the Nintendo DS last year in the United States, also plays similarly to PSO. The series appears to be returning to its online roots, which is a good thing.
Don't forget the fact that Sega's big announcement just happens to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the release of PSO. Phantasy Star Universe is celebrating its fourth anniversary today in Japan, and will have most likely reached its fifth by the time a new Phantasy Star console game is released. Sega was already planning Phantasy Star Universe at this stage in PSO's life, so it would be surprising if a successor to PSU is not in the works now.
At any rate, it would be nice to see a true sequel to Phantasy Star Online. It would be the perfect opportunity to combine the best gameplay elements of PSO and PSU into a modern, current-generation game that reinvigorates the series. Between the various incarnations of Phantasy Star Online, Phantasy Star Universe, and related games, hopefully Sega learned valuable lessons on how to effectively run a pay-to-play game (as well as how not to run one). Regardless of whether or not the big announcement is in fact Phantasy Star Online 2, this is Sega's chance to bring players back to the Phantasy Star online gaming community. Let's just hope they don't screw it up.
Last week, the rumor mill was set churning again after somebody noticed that the domain name registration for pso2.jp had been recently renewed by Sega. This news from Japanese fansite Shougai PSO and reported on PSO World cites the whois page for the pso2.jp domain, which was first registered last year.
A true sequel to Phantasy Star Online does not seem all that unlikely. Details of Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity announced recently seem to indicate that the PSP series is leaning further and further back towards the Phantasy Star Online style of gameplay. Phantasy Star Zero, released for the Nintendo DS last year in the United States, also plays similarly to PSO. The series appears to be returning to its online roots, which is a good thing.
Don't forget the fact that Sega's big announcement just happens to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the release of PSO. Phantasy Star Universe is celebrating its fourth anniversary today in Japan, and will have most likely reached its fifth by the time a new Phantasy Star console game is released. Sega was already planning Phantasy Star Universe at this stage in PSO's life, so it would be surprising if a successor to PSU is not in the works now.
At any rate, it would be nice to see a true sequel to Phantasy Star Online. It would be the perfect opportunity to combine the best gameplay elements of PSO and PSU into a modern, current-generation game that reinvigorates the series. Between the various incarnations of Phantasy Star Online, Phantasy Star Universe, and related games, hopefully Sega learned valuable lessons on how to effectively run a pay-to-play game (as well as how not to run one). Regardless of whether or not the big announcement is in fact Phantasy Star Online 2, this is Sega's chance to bring players back to the Phantasy Star online gaming community. Let's just hope they don't screw it up.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Phantasy Star Portable 2 stuff
Old news: Last week the PSPo2 demo was released on the Playstation Store. It's pretty nice, and you can transfer your character from the first game and get a few bonuses. Although there are a few things translated that are inconsistent with the previous games like: Partner Machinery is now "MySynth" and Line Shields are now "Shield Weaves." It even has an online mode; although I didn't try it yet since I was distracted from the demo by Ys Seven (also an awesome game you guys should check it out).
In other PSPo2 related news it seems Japan is getting an expansion called "Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity." Looks like it will add a new story line, a new race called "dumans", bring back a few old PSO monsters (seems to be Garanz, Dark Bringer and Olga Flow so far), and the ability to take screenshots along with other changes. It sounds interesting, hopefully PSPo2 does well enough here so this gets an English release.
According to this topic we should be angry about this announcement because even though the Japanese version was out for a year already we haven't even played the game yet and will know that it is horribly outdated and therefore it sucks. While I normally enjoy complaining about things I'd have to disagree with this. Just from playing the demo I can tell PSPo2 is a huge upgrade over PSU/PSPo1. Yeah the new stuff for the expansion sounds great but I can easily wait for it while playing PSPo2.
In other PSPo2 related news it seems Japan is getting an expansion called "Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity." Looks like it will add a new story line, a new race called "dumans", bring back a few old PSO monsters (seems to be Garanz, Dark Bringer and Olga Flow so far), and the ability to take screenshots along with other changes. It sounds interesting, hopefully PSPo2 does well enough here so this gets an English release.
According to this topic we should be angry about this announcement because even though the Japanese version was out for a year already we haven't even played the game yet and will know that it is horribly outdated and therefore it sucks. While I normally enjoy complaining about things I'd have to disagree with this. Just from playing the demo I can tell PSPo2 is a huge upgrade over PSU/PSPo1. Yeah the new stuff for the expansion sounds great but I can easily wait for it while playing PSPo2.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Slowdown? Impossible
Recently, a topic popped up on the official PSU forums asking players what they would like to see Sega fix in the game.
Not surprisingly, it seems that many players are hoping that Sega might address the slowdown that plagues the Xbox 360 version of the game. Unfortunately for these players, Sega will probably never fix the graphical slowdown problem, and this is one of the many reasons I lamented the shutdown of the PC/PS2 servers back in April.
As everyone knows, the Xbox 360 version of PSU is the only one you can play online in English (for now). Ever since the game's release, the Xbox 360 version suffered from a serious slowdown problem that affected many graphical areas of the game, the most infamous of which was the "robot lag" slowdown. The PS2 version also suffered from many of the same problems, though some PS3 owners have reported that PSU runs very well on that console with few of the slowdown problems that the game has on PS2. (I've never tried this so I can't confirm it.)
The Xbox 360 version of PSU seems to be the most poorly optimized of all three versions of the game. Fixing the game's graphical problems at this stage would likely require a lot of additional debugging and coding, followed by a large patch to release the changes. With the game coming up on its fourth anniversary in a few months, I personally don't think Sega will want to bother making any large-scale changes to the game such as this. That means that Xbox 360 players will most likely have to deal with the slowdown for the remainder of the game's lifetime. Nevertheless, debate in the forum has gone on for almost 100 posts, with the majority asking Sega to examine the issue and come up with a fix.
These kinds of discussions come up every once in a while on the official forums, and every time I see them I end up asking myself how the Xbox 360 version of PSU became the most popular. The PS2 version performs about on par with (and in some cases, better than) the Xbox 360 version, and the PC version of PSU has none of these issues! So forgive me if I still fail to understand why players chose the technically and graphically inferior Xbox 360 game over the PC/PS2 one.
I suppose I never will figure that out.
Not surprisingly, it seems that many players are hoping that Sega might address the slowdown that plagues the Xbox 360 version of the game. Unfortunately for these players, Sega will probably never fix the graphical slowdown problem, and this is one of the many reasons I lamented the shutdown of the PC/PS2 servers back in April.
As everyone knows, the Xbox 360 version of PSU is the only one you can play online in English (for now). Ever since the game's release, the Xbox 360 version suffered from a serious slowdown problem that affected many graphical areas of the game, the most infamous of which was the "robot lag" slowdown. The PS2 version also suffered from many of the same problems, though some PS3 owners have reported that PSU runs very well on that console with few of the slowdown problems that the game has on PS2. (I've never tried this so I can't confirm it.)
The Xbox 360 version of PSU seems to be the most poorly optimized of all three versions of the game. Fixing the game's graphical problems at this stage would likely require a lot of additional debugging and coding, followed by a large patch to release the changes. With the game coming up on its fourth anniversary in a few months, I personally don't think Sega will want to bother making any large-scale changes to the game such as this. That means that Xbox 360 players will most likely have to deal with the slowdown for the remainder of the game's lifetime. Nevertheless, debate in the forum has gone on for almost 100 posts, with the majority asking Sega to examine the issue and come up with a fix.
These kinds of discussions come up every once in a while on the official forums, and every time I see them I end up asking myself how the Xbox 360 version of PSU became the most popular. The PS2 version performs about on par with (and in some cases, better than) the Xbox 360 version, and the PC version of PSU has none of these issues! So forgive me if I still fail to understand why players chose the technically and graphically inferior Xbox 360 game over the PC/PS2 one.
I suppose I never will figure that out.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Life After the Supplemental Update (Updated)
Mid-July was an exciting time for US/EU PSU players. In a short period of time, Sega of America did a lot to increase the accessibility of the game for current players as well as former players looking to pick the game up again. The release of the supplemental update was followed by the appearance of vanilla PSU on Games on Demand, and the Ambition of the Illuminus expansion pack was made free for all users.
Personally, I thought that Sega's efforts in the last few weeks of July might be able to turn the game around for awhile. Their service in August has made me think otherwise.
Since the supplemental update landed on the US/EU servers one month ago, exactly one new mission has been added. That content update was followed by a week of no maintenance, and Sega of Japan has already announced that there will not be any maintenance this week, either.
I understand that it's the summer and a lot of people might be away on vacation or whatever. However, the frequency of updates post-supplemental update seems about the same as it did before the update appeared. It seems that Sega continues to express no interest in catching up to the JP servers as they pledged they would back when the PC/PS2 servers closed.
Of course, the supplemental update was pretty significant and there's a fair amount of new content to experience, but many players are beginning to run out of things to do and Sega is not doing anything to keep them playing. Let's hope that changes in the next couple of weeks.
UPDATE: Turns out Sega changed their mind and decided to do maintenance this week to fix a bug with the AMP feature. I don't think that really changes the content of this post, though!
Personally, I thought that Sega's efforts in the last few weeks of July might be able to turn the game around for awhile. Their service in August has made me think otherwise.
Since the supplemental update landed on the US/EU servers one month ago, exactly one new mission has been added. That content update was followed by a week of no maintenance, and Sega of Japan has already announced that there will not be any maintenance this week, either.
I understand that it's the summer and a lot of people might be away on vacation or whatever. However, the frequency of updates post-supplemental update seems about the same as it did before the update appeared. It seems that Sega continues to express no interest in catching up to the JP servers as they pledged they would back when the PC/PS2 servers closed.
Of course, the supplemental update was pretty significant and there's a fair amount of new content to experience, but many players are beginning to run out of things to do and Sega is not doing anything to keep them playing. Let's hope that changes in the next couple of weeks.
UPDATE: Turns out Sega changed their mind and decided to do maintenance this week to fix a bug with the AMP feature. I don't think that really changes the content of this post, though!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Overpriced PSU now available on Games on Demand
Well I was worried when this whole thing was announced without the price mentioned but today the Xbox website has confirmed my fear and lists PSU for $20. I'm not surprised it end up like this after all I did predict the price back in April.
It's quite a ridiculous price point considering I was able to pick up a new copy of PSU from Amazon for the same price back in 2006. Seriously the game should have been $10 or less. The game is too old and the whole update situation doesn't really seem to be changing to bother spending $20 on the original client.
Anyway I still can't see the game at this price bringing in many new players. Well enjoy your overpriced download of the worst PSU client. :V
It's quite a ridiculous price point considering I was able to pick up a new copy of PSU from Amazon for the same price back in 2006. Seriously the game should have been $10 or less. The game is too old and the whole update situation doesn't really seem to be changing to bother spending $20 on the original client.
Anyway I still can't see the game at this price bringing in many new players. Well enjoy your overpriced download of the worst PSU client. :V
Monday, July 26, 2010
PSU Coming to Games on Demand
For a few weeks, PSU GMs have been hinting that PSU would be coming to Microsoft's Games on Demand service. Today, GM Edward made the official announcement.
Beginning next Tuesday (August 3), version 1.0 of Phantasy Star Universe will become available for download on Xbox Live Games on Demand.
This is certainly an interesting announcement now that Ambition of the Illuminus is a free download. In theory, former PC/PS2 players that happen to have an Xbox 360 will now be able to buy PSU, install the expansion pack alongside it, and experience the supplemental update content that they were denied when the PC/PS2 servers were shut down in April.
That said, I won't be taking advantage of this offer despite the fact that I have an Xbox 360. As I've said before, I prefer to play PSU on a system that runs it well. Not to mention I don't really feel like starting over from scratch. However, for those players that were looking to get back into the game, this is undoubtedly some good news!
Beginning next Tuesday (August 3), version 1.0 of Phantasy Star Universe will become available for download on Xbox Live Games on Demand.
This is certainly an interesting announcement now that Ambition of the Illuminus is a free download. In theory, former PC/PS2 players that happen to have an Xbox 360 will now be able to buy PSU, install the expansion pack alongside it, and experience the supplemental update content that they were denied when the PC/PS2 servers were shut down in April.
That said, I won't be taking advantage of this offer despite the fact that I have an Xbox 360. As I've said before, I prefer to play PSU on a system that runs it well. Not to mention I don't really feel like starting over from scratch. However, for those players that were looking to get back into the game, this is undoubtedly some good news!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The Supplemental Update is Live
The regional PSU servers are back online after just over 18 hours of maintenance, and the supplemental update is live.
Instructions for downloading the update have been posted on the official web site and forums. Players will need to completely remove the old Ambition of the Illuminus download from their hard drives before downloading and installing the new version of the expansion. Don't forget that Ambition of the Illuminus is now a free download on Xbox Live.
Amazingly, the update seems to be going smoothly. Although many players are reporting slow load times on the update download, Sega does not seem to have made any announcements regarding bugs, glitches, or other unexpected side effects.
Keep in mind that the update has only been live for a little over an hour (as I type this), so glitches may still yet appear.
Now that the supplemental update has arrived, it will be interesting to see how the community reacts in the weeks and months to come. I would expect the player population to increase for at least the first few weeks, but after that it's largely up to Sega (as it always has been) to keep players interested by providing new content.
Let the comparisons to the Japanese PC/PS2 servers resume!
Instructions for downloading the update have been posted on the official web site and forums. Players will need to completely remove the old Ambition of the Illuminus download from their hard drives before downloading and installing the new version of the expansion. Don't forget that Ambition of the Illuminus is now a free download on Xbox Live.
Amazingly, the update seems to be going smoothly. Although many players are reporting slow load times on the update download, Sega does not seem to have made any announcements regarding bugs, glitches, or other unexpected side effects.
Keep in mind that the update has only been live for a little over an hour (as I type this), so glitches may still yet appear.
Now that the supplemental update has arrived, it will be interesting to see how the community reacts in the weeks and months to come. I would expect the player population to increase for at least the first few weeks, but after that it's largely up to Sega (as it always has been) to keep players interested by providing new content.
Let the comparisons to the Japanese PC/PS2 servers resume!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Your method of updating sucks
So the Supp- er I mean "Guardians Advance Content" was announced. That's all great and everything but how you are going to distribute it absolutely sucks.
The wonderful announcement for the update states:
What? You want me to download 2GB+ again when the players already have most of the data? I would say a patch would be the way to go, for a normal platform like PC or PS3, but Microsoft gimps patches to ~4MB to avoid giving out free content so they can later raep users with DLC. I mean you guys could have at least tried to get it up as a separate free download to avoid re-downloading AOTI for this new update.
The wonderful announcement for the update states:
To receive the new GUARDIANS Advanced Content update (and play online), players will need to DELETE and RE-DOWNLOAD the AOTI expansion.
What? You want me to download 2GB+ again when the players already have most of the data? I would say a patch would be the way to go, for a normal platform like PC or PS3, but Microsoft gimps patches to ~4MB to avoid giving out free content so they can later raep users with DLC. I mean you guys could have at least tried to get it up as a separate free download to avoid re-downloading AOTI for this new update.
Monday, July 12, 2010
"Advanced Content" Arrives July 19
Well, it looks like GM Edward has finally dropped a date for the long-awaited supplemental update. It turns out that our prediction of a mid-July release was spot on.
Maintenance to add the supplemental update, which has been renamed to "Guardians Advanced Content", will begin on Monday, July 19 and is expected to last until sometime on Tuesday, July 20. News of the coming update was announced in this thread on the official forums.
In the meantime, Sega will also be conducting regular Friday maintenance this week to add some themed lobbies and the "rewards" for the Sonic birthday celebration event. I'm sure this is just a very tiny footnote in the minds of most PSU players, though...
Maintenance to add the supplemental update, which has been renamed to "Guardians Advanced Content", will begin on Monday, July 19 and is expected to last until sometime on Tuesday, July 20. News of the coming update was announced in this thread on the official forums.
In the meantime, Sega will also be conducting regular Friday maintenance this week to add some themed lobbies and the "rewards" for the Sonic birthday celebration event. I'm sure this is just a very tiny footnote in the minds of most PSU players, though...
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
No Supplemental Update This Week, Either
Last week, PSU GM Edward stated in the weekly maintenance thread that the supplemental update was nearly upon us, and that it would be "ready likely within a week's time".
One week later, the Japanese PSU Web site states that the maintenance period will be skipped this week. In addition, the removal of PSU version 1.0 support that was originally planned for June 22 has still not been rescheduled.
That didn't stop some people on the official forums from holding out hope for the supplemental update this week, despite the fact that it's Tuesday and we would have heard about the incoming update days ago.
Meanwhile, the 20x casino coin period continues until maintenance on Friday, July 16. Whether or not Sega does anything else during that maintenance period is still up in the air.
One week later, the Japanese PSU Web site states that the maintenance period will be skipped this week. In addition, the removal of PSU version 1.0 support that was originally planned for June 22 has still not been rescheduled.
That didn't stop some people on the official forums from holding out hope for the supplemental update this week, despite the fact that it's Tuesday and we would have heard about the incoming update days ago.
Meanwhile, the 20x casino coin period continues until maintenance on Friday, July 16. Whether or not Sega does anything else during that maintenance period is still up in the air.
Steps to improve PSU
As was mentioned in the previous post: AOTI is now a free download on Xbox Live. I view this as the first minor step to improving PSU. Now we need to focus on the big three problems with the game (ignoring that you need an Xbox to play the game in English online now LOL!).
1) Fix the frame rate issues. The Xbox version has had this problem since launch and it still plays like crap. Sure it was nice of Sega to fix that whole "robot slowdown" bug that was introduced with AOTI but it would be even nicer to fix the rest of the frame rate problems that affect nearly all other missions. Slowdowns in open areas and from multiple people using photon arts or technics is not fun.
2) New billing system please. Microsoft's billing systems sucks; I don't want to EVER use their system for a subscription of any type because not only is canceling a pain in the ass, I then also lose the ability to remove my credit card information. Yeah I know Sega's wasn't perfect but it could have been worse. But I know this won't happen because the game is unfortunately too integrated with Xbox Live. So could you at least let us buy a month using those Microsoft points? It's not much of an upgrade but it's better than having a subscription using Microsoft's billing system.
3) Faster updates / catch up to the Japanese PC/PS2 server. We have been beating this dead horse for a while so I won't go into detail on this.
I guess the last thing would to have the original game easily available. I sort of went over the whole Games on Demand thing before and I stand by my statement that the game should be cheap ($5) or free; if its $20 or more (which it would be) then it's not worth it.
In slightly related news: there is no update for this week, surprise! Yeah bro, those shitty PC/PS2 servers were really holding back all the updates yo.
1) Fix the frame rate issues. The Xbox version has had this problem since launch and it still plays like crap. Sure it was nice of Sega to fix that whole "robot slowdown" bug that was introduced with AOTI but it would be even nicer to fix the rest of the frame rate problems that affect nearly all other missions. Slowdowns in open areas and from multiple people using photon arts or technics is not fun.
2) New billing system please. Microsoft's billing systems sucks; I don't want to EVER use their system for a subscription of any type because not only is canceling a pain in the ass, I then also lose the ability to remove my credit card information. Yeah I know Sega's wasn't perfect but it could have been worse. But I know this won't happen because the game is unfortunately too integrated with Xbox Live. So could you at least let us buy a month using those Microsoft points? It's not much of an upgrade but it's better than having a subscription using Microsoft's billing system.
3) Faster updates / catch up to the Japanese PC/PS2 server. We have been beating this dead horse for a while so I won't go into detail on this.
I guess the last thing would to have the original game easily available. I sort of went over the whole Games on Demand thing before and I stand by my statement that the game should be cheap ($5) or free; if its $20 or more (which it would be) then it's not worth it.
In slightly related news: there is no update for this week, surprise! Yeah bro, those shitty PC/PS2 servers were really holding back all the updates yo.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Lots of News, But No Supplemental Update
Today has been a busy day on the PSU news front, although one piece of information many players were looking for is still unknown.
First, Sega of America announced that the US/EU servers will be receiving compensation for the login server outage that occurred last week. Beginning after the maintenance period on Friday, July 2, players on the regional servers will be able to earn 20 casino coins per day. This compensation period will run for two weeks.
Next, GM Edward hinted at a likely release within the next week or two for the supplemental update. Unfortunately, this still pegs the release date at sometime in mid-July (as I predicted back in May). No further information about this has been provided, so the wait continues.
In the same thread, GM Edward also hinted at a possible release of PSU on Microsoft's Games on Demand service:
We've spent a little bit of time discussing this topic already. I think that this idea would have some benefit if Sega could somehow find a way to modify the PC/PS2 client to connect to the Xbox 360 servers and use the Xbox Live service through Games for Windows Live. However, this will probably never happen so I'm just going to leave it at that.
Finally, GM Edward announced that the Ambition of the Illuminus expansion pack is now a free download on Xbox Live. Players that were afraid of being cut off by the removal of V1.0 support should fear no more! Despite this change, the original game is still required to play online.
If only Sega had done something like this for the PC/PS2 servers...
First, Sega of America announced that the US/EU servers will be receiving compensation for the login server outage that occurred last week. Beginning after the maintenance period on Friday, July 2, players on the regional servers will be able to earn 20 casino coins per day. This compensation period will run for two weeks.
Next, GM Edward hinted at a likely release within the next week or two for the supplemental update. Unfortunately, this still pegs the release date at sometime in mid-July (as I predicted back in May). No further information about this has been provided, so the wait continues.
In the same thread, GM Edward also hinted at a possible release of PSU on Microsoft's Games on Demand service:
Although we cannot announce any details at this time, please stay tuned for more information in the very near future. I would be very surprised if we did not see PSU available on Games on Demand by the end of the Summer.
We've spent a little bit of time discussing this topic already. I think that this idea would have some benefit if Sega could somehow find a way to modify the PC/PS2 client to connect to the Xbox 360 servers and use the Xbox Live service through Games for Windows Live. However, this will probably never happen so I'm just going to leave it at that.
Finally, GM Edward announced that the Ambition of the Illuminus expansion pack is now a free download on Xbox Live. Players that were afraid of being cut off by the removal of V1.0 support should fear no more! Despite this change, the original game is still required to play online.
If only Sega had done something like this for the PC/PS2 servers...
Monday, June 21, 2010
PSU Version 1.0 Removal Postponed
When Sega of America announced that the supplemental update was coming to US/EU PSU back in April, it was also announced that support for PSU players without Ambition of the Illuminus would be cut off during maintenance on June 21.
That maintenance period would have happened tonight, but Sega of Japan announced on Friday that removal of PSU version 1.0 support from the US/EU servers is now postponed indefinitely. Sega of Japan says that a new date for the maintenance can be expected "soon".
This almost certainly means that the supplemental update will not appear until mid-to-late July at the earliest. Many players were expecting that the update would be added before the July 4th holiday weekend, but I think the chances of this happening now are almost zero.
The maintenance period that was originally scheduled for Friday morning has been moved to early Tuesday morning (roughly 3 1/2 hours from the time of this post). The annual Sonic lobbies will be added in preparation for Sega's "Happy Birthday Sonic" event. Awards will also be handed out to the Xbox 360 winners of the second Great Gurhalian Cup event held at the beginning of the year.
The Sonic lobbies will remain up until maintenance on Friday, July 16. If you're expecting to see the supplemental update before then... don't get your hopes up.
That maintenance period would have happened tonight, but Sega of Japan announced on Friday that removal of PSU version 1.0 support from the US/EU servers is now postponed indefinitely. Sega of Japan says that a new date for the maintenance can be expected "soon".
This almost certainly means that the supplemental update will not appear until mid-to-late July at the earliest. Many players were expecting that the update would be added before the July 4th holiday weekend, but I think the chances of this happening now are almost zero.
The maintenance period that was originally scheduled for Friday morning has been moved to early Tuesday morning (roughly 3 1/2 hours from the time of this post). The annual Sonic lobbies will be added in preparation for Sega's "Happy Birthday Sonic" event. Awards will also be handed out to the Xbox 360 winners of the second Great Gurhalian Cup event held at the beginning of the year.
The Sonic lobbies will remain up until maintenance on Friday, July 16. If you're expecting to see the supplemental update before then... don't get your hopes up.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Explain This to Me, Please
Yesterday, PSU GM Edward officially announced that Guardians Cash would not be coming to the US/EU supplemental update. He also mentioned that the PSU team was working with Sonic Team to bring Guardians Cash content to the US/EU game without requiring players to pay extra for it.
I thought this was the best possible decision Sega could make regarding the whole Guardians Cash issue. It keeps the playing field level and allows everyone to earn the content without having to spend lots of extra money.
That didn't stop the idiots from posting complaints on the official forums. The author of this thread whined that Guardians Cash would be a good idea for the US/EU community and that Sega is stupid for dropping it. I've taken the liberty of cleaning up the spelling and grammar of the post so that readers can actually understand it.
Maybe I read this post wrong, but this guy seems to be implying that the game would be better if we could all just buy great weapons and/or armor. I can say with certainty that this person is wrong. The ability to buy weapons and armor with real money would just make everybody look and play like everybody else. If you want to find good weapons and armor, play the game. If the weapon or armor you like doesn't have element percents suitable for you, play the game some more until you find what you want. I thought this was common sense.
Also, nobody has invested in Guardians Cash. I'm not quite sure how this is even possible since Sega has not made Guardians Cash available for purchase in the US or EU. Maybe some players bought low % weapons in anticipation of being able to upgrade them with Guardians Cash, but I wouldn't consider that an investment. (At this point, I would consider that stupid.) By the way, did you read the post that says Guardians Cash isn't coming in the supplemental update?
Sega has already stated that Guardians Cash content would come to the game in other ways, such as in mission rewards. Players that ask for it now are just lazy and don't want to work for the content. You can't have good weapons or armor without playing the game (and getting a little lucky). You can't have a good grinded weapon without taking the risk to grind it. In my opinion, that's how it should be -- even though the system is flawed and probably should be overhauled a little bit. Since Guardians Cash was announced I've always thought that it was a stupid way to cater to the lazy players. Fortunately, Sega has decided against adding it to our game.
I thought this was the best possible decision Sega could make regarding the whole Guardians Cash issue. It keeps the playing field level and allows everyone to earn the content without having to spend lots of extra money.
That didn't stop the idiots from posting complaints on the official forums. The author of this thread whined that Guardians Cash would be a good idea for the US/EU community and that Sega is stupid for dropping it. I've taken the liberty of cleaning up the spelling and grammar of the post so that readers can actually understand it.
I want [GC]. My reasoning is:
1) [It's] optional;
2) [Sega] will make more $$$;
3) [Not everyone] is lucky enough [to] get high % [weapons] and armor and [weapons]/armors that [you] find can only go so high.;
4) [People] want to grind their [weapons] and change their elements and many have already invested in [GC].;
5) [Other] reasons which escape me [at the moment].
Maybe I read this post wrong, but this guy seems to be implying that the game would be better if we could all just buy great weapons and/or armor. I can say with certainty that this person is wrong. The ability to buy weapons and armor with real money would just make everybody look and play like everybody else. If you want to find good weapons and armor, play the game. If the weapon or armor you like doesn't have element percents suitable for you, play the game some more until you find what you want. I thought this was common sense.
Also, nobody has invested in Guardians Cash. I'm not quite sure how this is even possible since Sega has not made Guardians Cash available for purchase in the US or EU. Maybe some players bought low % weapons in anticipation of being able to upgrade them with Guardians Cash, but I wouldn't consider that an investment. (At this point, I would consider that stupid.) By the way, did you read the post that says Guardians Cash isn't coming in the supplemental update?
Sega has already stated that Guardians Cash content would come to the game in other ways, such as in mission rewards. Players that ask for it now are just lazy and don't want to work for the content. You can't have good weapons or armor without playing the game (and getting a little lucky). You can't have a good grinded weapon without taking the risk to grind it. In my opinion, that's how it should be -- even though the system is flawed and probably should be overhauled a little bit. Since Guardians Cash was announced I've always thought that it was a stupid way to cater to the lazy players. Fortunately, Sega has decided against adding it to our game.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
It's Official: No Guardians Cash
When the supplemental update was announced for the Japanese PC/PS2 servers way back in January of 2009, one of the most controversial aspects of the update quickly became Guardians Cash and the addition of a cash shop to PSU. For many months, debate raged among US/EU players as to whether or not Guardians Cash would be implemented when the supplemental update made its way to the West.
Today, Sega of America confirmed that Guardians Cash is dead on arrival to the US/EU game. It will not be part of the supplemental update coming later this summer.
On the official forums, PSU GM Edward announced the decision not to implement Guardians Cash, stating that the combination of Xbox Live complications and player feedback drove the change:
Despite this, Edward also announced that Sega of America will be working with Sonic Team to try to bring all of the Guardians Cash content to the US/EU version of PSU:
In other supplemental update news, Edward announced that Community Course, the feature that allows Japanese PSU players to play a restricted version of the game for free, will not be coming to the US/EU game. If the PC/PS2 servers were still active, I would have considered this to be surprising. I imagine that Xbox Live was the main factor in deciding to keep Community Course out of the game.
This must be good news for the Xbox 360 players who were afraid that Guardians Cash content would be left out of the supplemental update. For once, we're actually getting better treatment than the Japanese players, though it will probably be short-lived. Meanwhile, for many PC/PS2 players, I have a feeling the wounds of the April server shutdown are reopening...
Today, Sega of America confirmed that Guardians Cash is dead on arrival to the US/EU game. It will not be part of the supplemental update coming later this summer.
On the official forums, PSU GM Edward announced the decision not to implement Guardians Cash, stating that the combination of Xbox Live complications and player feedback drove the change:
From a community standpoint, charging microtransactions for features that affect the game, on top of a monthly subscription, seemed unfair & unwise for our region. I think the community here expressed that, and this was the overall feeling of our team as well.
Also, there were actually a lot of technical challenges involved in the way Microsoft Points and/or Xbox Live functionality worked for small user transactions, particularly for the sorts of things GUARDIANS Cash worked for. This, combined with the overall negative sentiment towards having microtransactions for our version of the game plus the monthly subscription cost, made it a losing proposition to try to bring here. I'm happy with this decision, and I hope the community will be as well -- I think it benefits us in the long run.
Despite this, Edward also announced that Sega of America will be working with Sonic Team to try to bring all of the Guardians Cash content to the US/EU version of PSU:
We have spoken already at length with Sonic Team about this, and the decision has been made to bring content attached to GUARDIANS Cash to our servers. For example, specific GUARDIANS Cash items may be added in as future mission rewards or Casino items. This is just an example of what has been discussed; we have not decided all issues yet.
In other supplemental update news, Edward announced that Community Course, the feature that allows Japanese PSU players to play a restricted version of the game for free, will not be coming to the US/EU game. If the PC/PS2 servers were still active, I would have considered this to be surprising. I imagine that Xbox Live was the main factor in deciding to keep Community Course out of the game.
This must be good news for the Xbox 360 players who were afraid that Guardians Cash content would be left out of the supplemental update. For once, we're actually getting better treatment than the Japanese players, though it will probably be short-lived. Meanwhile, for many PC/PS2 players, I have a feeling the wounds of the April server shutdown are reopening...
Friday, May 21, 2010
Phantasy Star Portable 2 coming Fall 2010
What a surprise Sega just announced PSP2 for the west today. And I was beginning to think that Sega had forgotten about the game. Also in the blog post by Edward he also confirms the game's online mode.
This is great news; now we just have to hope that the content of the Japanese version wasn't cut like in PSP1. I demand to see all content available including DLC (even though I won't buy crap like clothes) and events like Maximum Attack X.
I look forward to playing this later this year; I think it will be nice replacement for PSU.
This is great news; now we just have to hope that the content of the Japanese version wasn't cut like in PSP1. I demand to see all content available including DLC (even though I won't buy crap like clothes) and events like Maximum Attack X.
I look forward to playing this later this year; I think it will be nice replacement for PSU.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Bizarre Surprise from Sega (Updated)
Much to my surprise, Sega has done the unthinkable and managed to string together two consecutive update weeks!
Despite this fact, this week's maintenance won't actually add any new content. Friday's update introduces a Guardians Boost Road period, in which players can run a mission chain to increase drop chances.
The five missions announced for this GBR are System Defense, Desert Terror, Tunnel Recapture, Caves of Ice, and Awoken Serpent. If this sounds familiar, it's because this is a repeat of the US/EU game's very first GBR way back in February 2008. The only real difference this time around is that we have the S3 missions. Exciting.
This maintenance will also add the wedding-themed lobbies and a new casino item rotation.
According to the official JP PSU Web site, all content introduced during this maintenance will remain until Tuesday, June 22, at which time the servers will be taken down to remove PSU V1 support. There's no word right now as to whether or not additional updates will appear during this GBR, or if the first part of the supplemental update will be added in the June 22 maintenance (hint: no).
Speaking of the supplemental update, GM Edward indicated in this thread on the official forums that the first of several articles previewing the update would appear this week. Stay tuned, because I'm sure we'll be posting (and critiquing) that article if it's interesting!
UPDATE: The first of the supplemental update preview articles has been posted at the official Web site. It doesn't detail anything interesting -- just some class and PA balance changes -- so there's not really anything to talk about...
Despite this fact, this week's maintenance won't actually add any new content. Friday's update introduces a Guardians Boost Road period, in which players can run a mission chain to increase drop chances.
The five missions announced for this GBR are System Defense, Desert Terror, Tunnel Recapture, Caves of Ice, and Awoken Serpent. If this sounds familiar, it's because this is a repeat of the US/EU game's very first GBR way back in February 2008. The only real difference this time around is that we have the S3 missions. Exciting.
This maintenance will also add the wedding-themed lobbies and a new casino item rotation.
According to the official JP PSU Web site, all content introduced during this maintenance will remain until Tuesday, June 22, at which time the servers will be taken down to remove PSU V1 support. There's no word right now as to whether or not additional updates will appear during this GBR, or if the first part of the supplemental update will be added in the June 22 maintenance (hint: no).
Speaking of the supplemental update, GM Edward indicated in this thread on the official forums that the first of several articles previewing the update would appear this week. Stay tuned, because I'm sure we'll be posting (and critiquing) that article if it's interesting!
UPDATE: The first of the supplemental update preview articles has been posted at the official Web site. It doesn't detail anything interesting -- just some class and PA balance changes -- so there's not really anything to talk about...
Monday, May 10, 2010
The Slow Trickle Continues
News of this week's update has been posted on the US/EU PSU Web site and official forums.
It seems that Sega will be continuing the theme of the previous two updates by adding a lobby change and one content update. This update brings the Parum Unity lobbies as well as a level cap increase (wait -- I guess that's not really a content update...).
For the folks keeping score at home, it's been over five months since the level cap was last raised. The increase of the cap to level 180 is probably in preparation for the new content coming in July's (prove me wrong!) supplemental update. Other than that, there's no real content to speak of this week. Since this is a seasonal lobby update, I wouldn't expect any additional content for at least the next three weeks, either.
While we're on the subject of level cap increases, I just want to mention how ridiculously stupid PSU's level cap gimmick is. And don't try to use the argument that "all online RPGs do this". Not all online RPGs drip-feed content to their users -- at least not the ones I've played. If Sega would just release all the content, there would be no need for level caps. Then again, if Sega did that at this stage of the game there probably wouldn't be anyone left subscribed after a few months.
Anyway, those are the details, so I'm out. See you in three weeks! (Barring some bizarre surprise from Sega...)
It seems that Sega will be continuing the theme of the previous two updates by adding a lobby change and one content update. This update brings the Parum Unity lobbies as well as a level cap increase (wait -- I guess that's not really a content update...).
For the folks keeping score at home, it's been over five months since the level cap was last raised. The increase of the cap to level 180 is probably in preparation for the new content coming in July's (prove me wrong!) supplemental update. Other than that, there's no real content to speak of this week. Since this is a seasonal lobby update, I wouldn't expect any additional content for at least the next three weeks, either.
While we're on the subject of level cap increases, I just want to mention how ridiculously stupid PSU's level cap gimmick is. And don't try to use the argument that "all online RPGs do this". Not all online RPGs drip-feed content to their users -- at least not the ones I've played. If Sega would just release all the content, there would be no need for level caps. Then again, if Sega did that at this stage of the game there probably wouldn't be anyone left subscribed after a few months.
Anyway, those are the details, so I'm out. See you in three weeks! (Barring some bizarre surprise from Sega...)
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Phishing Scam Targeting Xbox 360 Players
Here's something we haven't really seen in a long while. An announcement has been posted on the official US/EU PSU Web site warning of a phishing scam targeting Xbox 360 players.
In this scam, players are contacted over Xbox Live by a person claiming to be a PSU GM. The player being contacted is threatened with disciplinary action (i.e. suspension or ban). In some cases, players are directed to fake support sites designed to steal account information.
Several players have posted additional information about this scam on the official PSU forums.
This kind of phishing scam is extremely common in MMORPGs, but this is the first time I've seen something like this on a small-scale online game like PSU. I guess that's the risk you run with online communities like Xbox Live, though.
Indications from the official forums are that this little problem won't be resolved until Monday, so for now, just use common sense and don't give out your Xbox Live account name or password to anyone, for any reason! (Of course, you probably shouldn't ever be doing that, anyway!)
Think about it. Real GMs have tools to deal with bad players. Chances are that they can get your PSU account information without your help!
In this scam, players are contacted over Xbox Live by a person claiming to be a PSU GM. The player being contacted is threatened with disciplinary action (i.e. suspension or ban). In some cases, players are directed to fake support sites designed to steal account information.
Several players have posted additional information about this scam on the official PSU forums.
This kind of phishing scam is extremely common in MMORPGs, but this is the first time I've seen something like this on a small-scale online game like PSU. I guess that's the risk you run with online communities like Xbox Live, though.
Indications from the official forums are that this little problem won't be resolved until Monday, so for now, just use common sense and don't give out your Xbox Live account name or password to anyone, for any reason! (Of course, you probably shouldn't ever be doing that, anyway!)
Think about it. Real GMs have tools to deal with bad players. Chances are that they can get your PSU account information without your help!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Sega of America, Europe Employees Laid Off
This is a rather unfortunate bit of news, especially considering the current state of the economy. Seventy-three employees of Sega -- 36 in San Francisco and 37 in London -- were handed pink slips yesterday as part of an effort to "implement a reorganization of its businesses within the American and [European] markets".
In this thread on the official PSU forums, GM Edward quickly confirmed the news and announced that nobody on Sega of America's PSU team was laid off. For now, that's good news for the regional servers, though in my opinion this "reorganization" doesn't exactly paint a picture of a corporation in good financial straits.
Whether or not the PC/PS2 servers were a casualty of the restructuring effort will probably never be known. Nobody knows exactly how much Sega was spending on maintenance of those servers, and Sega will probably never tell. Hopefully the Xbox 360 player population doesn't begin free-falling, because in an economic environment where struggling companies will cut costs any way they can, those servers would probably be first on the chopping block.
The complete story, including a full copy of the e-mail sent to Sega employees, can be read over at Kotaku. Hopefully everyone affected by this layoff will be able to rebound and find work elsewhere.
In this thread on the official PSU forums, GM Edward quickly confirmed the news and announced that nobody on Sega of America's PSU team was laid off. For now, that's good news for the regional servers, though in my opinion this "reorganization" doesn't exactly paint a picture of a corporation in good financial straits.
Whether or not the PC/PS2 servers were a casualty of the restructuring effort will probably never be known. Nobody knows exactly how much Sega was spending on maintenance of those servers, and Sega will probably never tell. Hopefully the Xbox 360 player population doesn't begin free-falling, because in an economic environment where struggling companies will cut costs any way they can, those servers would probably be first on the chopping block.
The complete story, including a full copy of the e-mail sent to Sega employees, can be read over at Kotaku. Hopefully everyone affected by this layoff will be able to rebound and find work elsewhere.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Supplemental Update Announced
Maybe Sega of America has realized that recent content updates aren't doing much to hold the attention of the US/EU PSU audience.
Today, GM Edward took the highly unusual step of announcing a major content update months before it is due on the servers, both on the website and official forums. The PSU "supplemental update", which was announced in Japan last January and released there last March, is finally making its way to the regional game.
In order to prepare for the supplemental update, Sega also announced that players without the Ambition of the Illuminus expansion pack will no longer be able to play the game online after Monday, June 21. Although no official release date was provided for the update, odds are that it will be available 2-3 weeks after the "vanilla" PSU players are cut off.
Honestly, I'm surprised that the supplemental update is making it to the US/EU game. It will be interesting to see how certain aspects of the update are implemented here, especially the special "Guardians Cash" content for which players must shell out real money.
I'm also a little angry that this announcement comes so closely on the heels of the PC/PS2 shutdown. It would have been nice to actually play and enjoy this content, but as we all know, Sega had other ideas.
Anyway, that's it for now. We'll definitely be posting more on this as the content release date approaches.
Today, GM Edward took the highly unusual step of announcing a major content update months before it is due on the servers, both on the website and official forums. The PSU "supplemental update", which was announced in Japan last January and released there last March, is finally making its way to the regional game.
In order to prepare for the supplemental update, Sega also announced that players without the Ambition of the Illuminus expansion pack will no longer be able to play the game online after Monday, June 21. Although no official release date was provided for the update, odds are that it will be available 2-3 weeks after the "vanilla" PSU players are cut off.
Honestly, I'm surprised that the supplemental update is making it to the US/EU game. It will be interesting to see how certain aspects of the update are implemented here, especially the special "Guardians Cash" content for which players must shell out real money.
I'm also a little angry that this announcement comes so closely on the heels of the PC/PS2 shutdown. It would have been nice to actually play and enjoy this content, but as we all know, Sega had other ideas.
Anyway, that's it for now. We'll definitely be posting more on this as the content release date approaches.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Why would anyone want PSU on Xbox 360's Games on Demand?
You guys have seen the type of treatment this game gets right? So why would you monsters want others to suffer the same fate as you?
Not to mention if it were put online it would be overpriced like most of the other crap on Xbox Live probably with an absurd price of 30 or 20 dollars. And we all know PSUv1 isn't worth anything close to that; at most the game should be $5 alone or $10 bundled with AOTI (and while they're at it they can lower the AOTI's price to $5). It's the only way I can see the game sell and have people try network mode. But truthfully I really doubt putting the game up on Live will help the game's community grow since if it were put on Live it would most likely be overpriced so at best you'd probably have achievement whores download it for the easy 1000 points in offline mode.
Seeing how fighting to get PSU on Games on Demand is a lost cause I think you guys should change your focus to getting Deadly Premonition on instead. Sure it was only released a few months ago but it is a much better value than PSU in its current state. Seriously.
Not to mention if it were put online it would be overpriced like most of the other crap on Xbox Live probably with an absurd price of 30 or 20 dollars. And we all know PSUv1 isn't worth anything close to that; at most the game should be $5 alone or $10 bundled with AOTI (and while they're at it they can lower the AOTI's price to $5). It's the only way I can see the game sell and have people try network mode. But truthfully I really doubt putting the game up on Live will help the game's community grow since if it were put on Live it would most likely be overpriced so at best you'd probably have achievement whores download it for the easy 1000 points in offline mode.
Seeing how fighting to get PSU on Games on Demand is a lost cause I think you guys should change your focus to getting Deadly Premonition on instead. Sure it was only released a few months ago but it is a much better value than PSU in its current state. Seriously.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Today's Pointless Thread of the Day
When I read the official forums, I occasionally find a thread that just begs to be posted here.
Today, I offer up this thread for your personal enjoyment as Pointless Thread of the Day. Normally when I decide to post these, I tend to read through the entire thread first -- but this one grabbed my attention from the very first post. I realize that this one post does not summarize the level of intelligence (or lack thereof) of the Xbox 360 community, but still, this was pretty ridiculous.
As if this wasn't bad enough, some of the players that replied thought it would be cool to leave their World of Warcraft macros in the thread for all to read. I swear, for all the bitching Xbox 360 players do about seeing non-Xbox 360 PSU threads in General Discussion, they sure do post a lot of non-Xbox 360 PSU shit in General Discussion.
Today, I offer up this thread for your personal enjoyment as Pointless Thread of the Day. Normally when I decide to post these, I tend to read through the entire thread first -- but this one grabbed my attention from the very first post. I realize that this one post does not summarize the level of intelligence (or lack thereof) of the Xbox 360 community, but still, this was pretty ridiculous.
As if this wasn't bad enough, some of the players that replied thought it would be cool to leave their World of Warcraft macros in the thread for all to read. I swear, for all the bitching Xbox 360 players do about seeing non-Xbox 360 PSU threads in General Discussion, they sure do post a lot of non-Xbox 360 PSU shit in General Discussion.
It's an Update Week! (Updated)
Yes, the regional PSU servers are getting an update this week, but it's not much.
In fact, it's about the same as the previous update in terms of actual new content: one party mission and seasonal lobbies.
The content update, announced on the game's Web page and in the official forums, consists of "A Risky Comeback", a new Neudaiz mission for 2-4 players, and the spring lobbies. MAG+ medal rewards are also being distributed to Xbox 360 players who ranked on the time attack leaderboards during the event last month.
Screenshots of the new mission are once again notably absent from the update information page. However, screenshots of content that was previously available on PC/PS2 (the medals and lobbies) have been posted, so I guess it's still safe to assume that Sega hasn't invested in any capture cards for their precious Xbox 360 consoles. Oh well.
Xbox 360 players seem to be taking this latest update surprisingly well, but apparently that's because most think the supplemental update is coming shortly after. Maybe it will actually arrive soon, but given Sega's track record with the US/EU game, I wouldn't bet the farm on it.
Don't expect it for at least another two three weeks, anyway.
UPDATE: The Japanese update page indicates that the seasonal lobbies will last for the next three weeks. Enjoy your new mission, everyone!
In fact, it's about the same as the previous update in terms of actual new content: one party mission and seasonal lobbies.
The content update, announced on the game's Web page and in the official forums, consists of "A Risky Comeback", a new Neudaiz mission for 2-4 players, and the spring lobbies. MAG+ medal rewards are also being distributed to Xbox 360 players who ranked on the time attack leaderboards during the event last month.
Screenshots of the new mission are once again notably absent from the update information page. However, screenshots of content that was previously available on PC/PS2 (the medals and lobbies) have been posted, so I guess it's still safe to assume that Sega hasn't invested in any capture cards for their precious Xbox 360 consoles. Oh well.
Xbox 360 players seem to be taking this latest update surprisingly well, but apparently that's because most think the supplemental update is coming shortly after. Maybe it will actually arrive soon, but given Sega's track record with the US/EU game, I wouldn't bet the farm on it.
Don't expect it for at least another two three weeks, anyway.
UPDATE: The Japanese update page indicates that the seasonal lobbies will last for the next three weeks. Enjoy your new mission, everyone!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
No Maintenance This Week
GM Edward posted early this morning that there will be no maintenance this week for the US/EU PSU servers.
For some reason, this seemed to shock a few players in this thread on the official forums. I'm not sure why, but it did.
The best shot at new content for awhile appears to be next week, when the Easter lobbies are scheduled to come down. After that, who knows what will happen...
For some reason, this seemed to shock a few players in this thread on the official forums. I'm not sure why, but it did.
The best shot at new content for awhile appears to be next week, when the Easter lobbies are scheduled to come down. After that, who knows what will happen...
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Maybe Our Billing Wasn't So Bad
For all the complaints about Sega's billing system for PC/PS2, including the infamous Error 65, consider that things could have been a lot worse.
Electronic Arts reports that its billing system for the MMORPG Warhammer Online erroneously charged some players for their monthly payment an average of 22 additional times. At $14.99/month, that means that players would have been charged an additional $329.78 (or possibly more) for a single month of gameplay!
Sega's billing system may have been bad, but the worst thing it did was block access to the servers for a few weeks. Most players that were hit with the error even got some free play time out of it!
Warhammer Online players weren't so lucky. I imagine that there are a lot of people that got hit with overdraft charges as a result of this screw-up. EA says that they are going to correct the mistake, but what will they do about the people that are being penalized by their banks for overdrawing their accounts?
Read the full story over at Kotaku. And remember that we didn't have it so bad!
Electronic Arts reports that its billing system for the MMORPG Warhammer Online erroneously charged some players for their monthly payment an average of 22 additional times. At $14.99/month, that means that players would have been charged an additional $329.78 (or possibly more) for a single month of gameplay!
Sega's billing system may have been bad, but the worst thing it did was block access to the servers for a few weeks. Most players that were hit with the error even got some free play time out of it!
Warhammer Online players weren't so lucky. I imagine that there are a lot of people that got hit with overdraft charges as a result of this screw-up. EA says that they are going to correct the mistake, but what will they do about the people that are being penalized by their banks for overdrawing their accounts?
Read the full story over at Kotaku. And remember that we didn't have it so bad!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
No Maintenance This Week
GM Edward posted this afternoon that there will be no maintenance this week for the US/EU PSU servers.
For some reason, this seemed to shock a few players in this thread on the official forums. I'm not sure why, but it did.
I expect to see everyone right back here next week so I can make this exact same post again. Until then...
For some reason, this seemed to shock a few players in this thread on the official forums. I'm not sure why, but it did.
I expect to see everyone right back here next week so I can make this exact same post again. Until then...
Saturday, April 3, 2010
More Post-Shutdown Musings
I'm not sure why I didn't notice this before... but it was pointed out on the official forums that the information page for this week's content update was missing screenshots of the new party mission.
Evidently, Sega uses the PC/PS2 test servers to get screenshots of all new content, according to GM Edward:
Normally, there would be screenshots posted on the page, but one minor detail prevented that from happening this time around.
So instead, Edward offered this solution:
Oops. Sounds like Sega doesn't have a way to take screenshots of new content on their Xbox 360s. If only PSU was available on a platform where users could easily take pictures and upload them... but alas, it is not.
What a shame.
Evidently, Sega uses the PC/PS2 test servers to get screenshots of all new content, according to GM Edward:
...[We] have always pulled screenshots for updates from the PC/PS2 update servers and are in the process of switching over.
Normally, there would be screenshots posted on the page, but one minor detail prevented that from happening this time around.
So instead, Edward offered this solution:
In fact, if any Xbox 360 users have capture cards and want to post mission pictures of themselves in the New Challengers mission, I will add them to the site. Sound good?
Oops. Sounds like Sega doesn't have a way to take screenshots of new content on their Xbox 360s. If only PSU was available on a platform where users could easily take pictures and upload them... but alas, it is not.
What a shame.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
And it's dead
Well last night was the end of PSU. I wasn't really planning to get on last night but ended up seeing the game off with the GM's and other players that showed up.
My last day of PSU started off with everyone's favorite mission; yes that's right White Beast. I did two runs with some friends from PSO and a few randoms. I only did it cause Edward was in that area. I swear!
Oh my level 40 Boma Diga! Not like it matters now!
My last day of PSU started off with everyone's favorite mission; yes that's right White Beast. I did two runs with some friends from PSO and a few randoms. I only did it cause Edward was in that area. I swear!
Oh my level 40 Boma Diga! Not like it matters now!After the second run we were trolled by the game and received a chance to run one of the rare missions, unfortunately I forgot to take a screen shot of this horrible moment.
It's the first and last time I'll play this mission.
Luckily nothing good dropped or I'd probably would have rage quit right there. Anyway, there was some more lobby hopping after the mission and the final stop was the Falz Memoria lobby.
Oh hey 3 stars! I can't remember the last time I saw that many.
Crowding around GMs is fun.
Along with Edward, Clumsyorchid (aka Human M) and RubyEclipse (aka Melchior) came to say goodbye to everyone. The end came with horrible spam then all was quiet with just an error 057 message box.
The PC/PS2 servers got PSU's bad ending.
It's the first and last time I'll play this mission.Luckily nothing good dropped or I'd probably would have rage quit right there. Anyway, there was some more lobby hopping after the mission and the final stop was the Falz Memoria lobby.
Oh hey 3 stars! I can't remember the last time I saw that many.
Crowding around GMs is fun.Along with Edward, Clumsyorchid (aka Human M) and RubyEclipse (aka Melchior) came to say goodbye to everyone. The end came with horrible spam then all was quiet with just an error 057 message box.
The PC/PS2 servers got PSU's bad ending.Well that was the somewhat short version of the last day of PSU. It was great to see and play with friends one last time and it was nice to see some activity on the server itself. It was fun while it lasted and I'd like to thank everyone I played with for the good times I had on PSU.
As for the blog: things might be slow for awhile but I'm sure I'll find a few things to talk about. Like that faster update promise for the Xbox 360 servers or if Phantasy Star Portable 2 makes it way west I could complain about its lame DLC; that is if we even get the option for it. Well only time will tell, so long for now.
As for the blog: things might be slow for awhile but I'm sure I'll find a few things to talk about. Like that faster update promise for the Xbox 360 servers or if Phantasy Star Portable 2 makes it way west I could complain about its lame DLC; that is if we even get the option for it. Well only time will tell, so long for now.
Well, That's It
At approximately 3 AM EDT this morning, the PC/PS2 PSU servers were shut down.
A thread immortalizing the moments leading up to the server shutdown has been started on the official forums. Several screenshots of the final seconds have been posted there -- maybe you were in one! (I wasn't, because I can't function on 3 hours of sleep during the week. Maybe next time.)
Oddly enough, as many people noted on the forums, the PC/PS2 server population skyrocketed in the hours leading up to the shutdown. By the end of the whole thing Universe 1 showed 3 full stars! The question on my mind, and maybe many others, is this: Where have these people been? I can't remember the last time the PC/PS2 servers had 3 full stars of players. If just some of these players had stuck around for the long haul, would this server shutdown have happened?
On the other hand, I see last night's sudden increase in population as a damning criticism of Sega's management of this game. Obviously there are a lot of players out there who decided that it wasn't worth $10/month to be treated like second-class citizens by Sega of Japan. I do tend to agree with that, and in a way, I think Sega probably got what it deserved.
Worse, the poor management of this game may have turned a lot of players off to future Phantasy Star online titles. Hopefully Sega learned some lessons from the last 3 1/2 years of PC/PS2 PSU and will use them to create a better experience for players of the next game.
Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 PSU servers remain up on this Thursday afternoon, with the servers scheduled to go down for maintenance at 2 AM EDT Friday morning. As previously posted, a new mission and Easter lobbies will be added in this maintenance.
Despite the fact that the PC/PS2 servers may be gone, there's still plenty to talk about. There may be a glimmer of hope left for those players who weren't ready to abandon PSU just yet. On the Xbox 360 side, there will still be update news to post and discuss, and I have a feeling that in a few short months we'll see whether or not Sega's handling of the game will bring about the demise of those servers.
One final note before I close out this post: I did manage to get online for a few hours last night, and it was awesome to see (and run missions with) some old familiar friends and faces. It was fun while it lasted. Hopefully we'll all see each other again on the next Phantasy Star game -- whenever that happens!
A thread immortalizing the moments leading up to the server shutdown has been started on the official forums. Several screenshots of the final seconds have been posted there -- maybe you were in one! (I wasn't, because I can't function on 3 hours of sleep during the week. Maybe next time.)
Oddly enough, as many people noted on the forums, the PC/PS2 server population skyrocketed in the hours leading up to the shutdown. By the end of the whole thing Universe 1 showed 3 full stars! The question on my mind, and maybe many others, is this: Where have these people been? I can't remember the last time the PC/PS2 servers had 3 full stars of players. If just some of these players had stuck around for the long haul, would this server shutdown have happened?
On the other hand, I see last night's sudden increase in population as a damning criticism of Sega's management of this game. Obviously there are a lot of players out there who decided that it wasn't worth $10/month to be treated like second-class citizens by Sega of Japan. I do tend to agree with that, and in a way, I think Sega probably got what it deserved.
Worse, the poor management of this game may have turned a lot of players off to future Phantasy Star online titles. Hopefully Sega learned some lessons from the last 3 1/2 years of PC/PS2 PSU and will use them to create a better experience for players of the next game.
Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 PSU servers remain up on this Thursday afternoon, with the servers scheduled to go down for maintenance at 2 AM EDT Friday morning. As previously posted, a new mission and Easter lobbies will be added in this maintenance.
Despite the fact that the PC/PS2 servers may be gone, there's still plenty to talk about. There may be a glimmer of hope left for those players who weren't ready to abandon PSU just yet. On the Xbox 360 side, there will still be update news to post and discuss, and I have a feeling that in a few short months we'll see whether or not Sega's handling of the game will bring about the demise of those servers.
One final note before I close out this post: I did manage to get online for a few hours last night, and it was awesome to see (and run missions with) some old familiar friends and faces. It was fun while it lasted. Hopefully we'll all see each other again on the next Phantasy Star game -- whenever that happens!
Monday, March 29, 2010
New Content Coming Your Way Fast
The PSU community may be changing, but Sega's level of service doesn't seem to be.
Edward has posted the content update announcement for this Friday on the official Sega forums. This will be the first update after the imminent Thursday morning shutdown of the official PC/PS2 servers.
Not surprisingly, Sega is treating its Xbox 360 players to a single new mission this week. The Easter lobbies will also be going up, but I've said before that this hardly qualifies as a content update.
I realize that it's still a little premature to say how Sega will handle future updates for the US/EU servers. However, I'd be willing to bet that it's been weeks since they last developed any content for the PC/PS2 side of things. This update announcement wouldn't make me too confident.
Edward has posted the content update announcement for this Friday on the official Sega forums. This will be the first update after the imminent Thursday morning shutdown of the official PC/PS2 servers.
Not surprisingly, Sega is treating its Xbox 360 players to a single new mission this week. The Easter lobbies will also be going up, but I've said before that this hardly qualifies as a content update.
I realize that it's still a little premature to say how Sega will handle future updates for the US/EU servers. However, I'd be willing to bet that it's been weeks since they last developed any content for the PC/PS2 side of things. This update announcement wouldn't make me too confident.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Welcome to the Last Week
...for PC/PS2 users, anyway. In case you've been living under a rock for the last two months, the PC/PS2 PSU servers are scheduled to be shut down forever at midnight PDT (3AM EDT) next Thursday. In the meantime, Sega has implemented pointless bonuses for the final stretch.
GM Edward has also announced that Sega staff will be logging on during PC/PS2's final week to run missions with players. Something tells me that there won't be many people around to play with, though.
When the topic of discussion in the designated PC/PS2 complaint thread turns from server shutdown to an argument over PSO PvP, you know there's not much time left.
GM Edward has also announced that Sega staff will be logging on during PC/PS2's final week to run missions with players. Something tells me that there won't be many people around to play with, though.
When the topic of discussion in the designated PC/PS2 complaint thread turns from server shutdown to an argument over PSO PvP, you know there's not much time left.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Quality over Quantity
While I was busy writing up the last post, GM Edward posted an announcement on the official forums that this week's maintenance period would be skipped.
He also basically finalized the winners of MAG+, indicating that those players would get their medal rewards soon. I haven't looked at the MAG+ TA leaderboards lately, but I did after reading this announcement.
I was delighted to see that players of the soon-to-be-dead PC/PS2 servers claimed the top two team spots in the Time Attack rankings (including a team of two which beat out the top Xbox 360 team, a group of four, by more than 20 seconds.)
Well done, PC/PS2 players. It just goes to show you that the platform with the most players doesn't necessarily have the best players (or community).
He also basically finalized the winners of MAG+, indicating that those players would get their medal rewards soon. I haven't looked at the MAG+ TA leaderboards lately, but I did after reading this announcement.
I was delighted to see that players of the soon-to-be-dead PC/PS2 servers claimed the top two team spots in the Time Attack rankings (including a team of two which beat out the top Xbox 360 team, a group of four, by more than 20 seconds.)
Well done, PC/PS2 players. It just goes to show you that the platform with the most players doesn't necessarily have the best players (or community).
Friday, March 5, 2010
PC/PS2 bonuses start next week
Today GM Edward@Sega has announced that the bonuses for the PC/PS2 servers will start next week once MAG+ ends. Also in the post he states that the server will shut down midnight on March 31st.
Anyway here is a list of the bonuses:
I hope you weren't getting your hopes up for something interesting. I know I wasn't!
Anyway here is a list of the bonuses:
- Super Holy / Three Star Luck -- All Players
- Weapon/Armor Synth Rate +20%
- Weapon Grind Boost +15%
- Vol Coins boost x10
- Free Beauty Salon / 50% discount clothes and parts
- Photon Art Experience Boost
I hope you weren't getting your hopes up for something interesting. I know I wasn't!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
PC/PS2 "Thank You" Bonuses Coming
In a short posting on the official forums, GM Edward hinted at the fact that the PC/PS2 players will be seeing some bonus rewards after MAG+ ends. The bonuses will be offered as "thank you" gifts for playing the game.
It's a nice gesture, but one that seems rather empty and meaningless at this point. Any rewards that go into effect for the 2 1/2 weeks after MAG+ will ultimately be met with a server shutdown. Anything gained as a result of the rewards will be gone forever.
Found a super-rare weapon thanks to increased drop rates? It's gone at the end of March. Did you make it to LV170 thanks to the EXP boost? Sorry, your character's been deleted. Did you level that last Photon Art to 50? Too bad, it's been wiped out.
Of course, we don't know what the rewards will actually be, but why does it matter?
The best reward Sega could have given PC/PS2 players is better service and management of the game. They didn't, though, and here we are.
It's a nice gesture, but one that seems rather empty and meaningless at this point. Any rewards that go into effect for the 2 1/2 weeks after MAG+ will ultimately be met with a server shutdown. Anything gained as a result of the rewards will be gone forever.
Found a super-rare weapon thanks to increased drop rates? It's gone at the end of March. Did you make it to LV170 thanks to the EXP boost? Sorry, your character's been deleted. Did you level that last Photon Art to 50? Too bad, it's been wiped out.
Of course, we don't know what the rewards will actually be, but why does it matter?
The best reward Sega could have given PC/PS2 players is better service and management of the game. They didn't, though, and here we are.
Are We Finished Yet?
Edward has announced that the PC/PS2 and Xbox 360 servers will be undergoing Friday morning maintenance to fix a number of bugs that surfaced in previous updates.
In addition, Edward also announced that the Photon Art boost that was supposed to have been in effect for the duration of MAG+ was not applied as planned. Rather than add the boost in Friday's maintenance period, Sega of Japan will be waiting until Friday, March 12 to put it into effect.
This means that for the remaining PC/PS2 players, whose days are already numbered, the PA boost will be in effect for approximately 2 1/2 weeks before the servers get axed. That's considerably less time than had previously been announced. I guess you could say that it's Sega's final "fuck you" to the PC/PS2 players.
It's not like it really matters anymore, though. Most PC/PS2 players (including this one) appear to have accepted the fate of the servers and have moved on to something else. Of course, that doesn't mean we're all happy about what's going on, but is there really any point in beating that dead horse again?
In addition, Edward also announced that the Photon Art boost that was supposed to have been in effect for the duration of MAG+ was not applied as planned. Rather than add the boost in Friday's maintenance period, Sega of Japan will be waiting until Friday, March 12 to put it into effect.
This means that for the remaining PC/PS2 players, whose days are already numbered, the PA boost will be in effect for approximately 2 1/2 weeks before the servers get axed. That's considerably less time than had previously been announced. I guess you could say that it's Sega's final "fuck you" to the PC/PS2 players.
It's not like it really matters anymore, though. Most PC/PS2 players (including this one) appear to have accepted the fate of the servers and have moved on to something else. Of course, that doesn't mean we're all happy about what's going on, but is there really any point in beating that dead horse again?
Monday, February 8, 2010
MAG+ is Bored
...according to this thread on the official forums.
But I suppose that's what happens when you stage an event with content we've already seen twice before. I wouldn't expect any updates until after MAG+ is over, and with the PC/PS2 server shutdown coming at the end of March, there's probably not much (if anything) coming until after those servers close.
Personally, I wouldn't expect much in the way of new content even after the PC/PS2 servers do close, so enjoy your bored MAG+ while you can!
But I suppose that's what happens when you stage an event with content we've already seen twice before. I wouldn't expect any updates until after MAG+ is over, and with the PC/PS2 server shutdown coming at the end of March, there's probably not much (if anything) coming until after those servers close.
Personally, I wouldn't expect much in the way of new content even after the PC/PS2 servers do close, so enjoy your bored MAG+ while you can!
Friday, January 22, 2010
Free play details clarified
GM Edward@Sega has posted today that PC/PS2 servers free play is available to anyone who had a subscription to PSU during its lifetime. This clears up Edward's original post where it was oddly worded to sound like you needed an active subscription to play for free until the servers closed.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Sega Blew It
There's not much more that can be done about this. Posted on the official forums, and discussed earlier right here on this blog, is the disappointing news that the PC/PS2 servers will be shut down at the end of March. Sega of America argues that there aren't enough players left to justify the cost of maintaining PC/PS2 servers.
I don't deny that there are very few players left on the PC/PS2 servers. How did we get to this point, though? How is it that the Xbox 360 community continued to thrive (and I'm using that term loosely) while the PC/PS2 servers continued to die?
People come and go from online games all the time, and this was to be expected with PSU, but the answer to this question is actually simpler than that: Sega of America killed the PC/PS2 servers. They blew it. Let's take a look back at some of the notable missteps:
Leaving Moatoob locked at release. For three weeks after the game's initial release, the planet Moatoob remained unavailable while players ran around in just a handful of missions on Parum, Neudaiz, and the Guardians' Colony. Over that three weeks, the population declined from multiple full universes (at release) to just one or two. Yes, the Xbox 360 community also had to deal with this, but you can't argue the fact that this had a negative effect on the game right from the start.
Rampant item duping. Shortly after the Moatoob fiasco, some PC/PS2 players discovered a glitch that allowed them to dupe Scape Dolls and sell them for ridiculous amounts of money. The money soon spread to the rest of the community through the sale of elemental photons. The economy was permanently ruined, and Sega sat back and did nothing. Some players jumped ship.
Room hacking. Later in the game's first year, another exploit surfaced on the PC/PS2 servers that allowed a player to enter another player's room and access it as if it was their own. Players reported valuable items stolen from their shops. Sega acknowledged the problem and tried to fix it, and although the script kiddies were eventually banned, most players were never adequately compensated for their losses.
Error 65. Perhaps the most legendary screw-up in the history of the PC/PS2 servers began in April 2008, shortly after the start of Maximum Attack G, the latest in-game event. Sega's billing system for PSU had been fairly unreliable to this point, but during this event it finally kicked the bucket for good. Players whose subscriptions were up for renewal found themselves unable to log in for weeks. The situation got so bad that Sega decided to let PC/PS2 players into the servers for free while they tried to solve their billing server problems. Unfortunately, this left locked-out players with about one week to enjoy the event.
Sega responded by promising that MAG would be extended, but shocked players when the event was removed at the end of the originally allotted time period. The event came back nearly three months later. For many, this was too little, too late.
Lack of updates. The months following the second MAG event brought virtually no new content. Canceled server maintenance periods were a common occurrence. We bitched about the lack of updates on this blog for most of November 2008. There's not much motivation to play when the content you've got is getting old and overly repetitive.
The Xbox 360 demo. One of the perks arguably keeping the Xbox 360 community alive is a demo server that is available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers. Sega of America held various "demo weekend" events to get players to try the game out, and even offered rewards to subscribers as thanks for doing so. Xbox 360 players received a Tails statue, a Knuckles statue, Real Handgun and Real Handspear weapons, and a NiGHTS statue during some of these "demo weekends". PC/PS2 players eventually got most of these rewards, but not until months later.
These certainly aren't the only issues the PC/PS2 servers faced over the last few years, but they are the most notable. Now, as the servers are scheduled to shut down in the next couple months, Sega of America will likely lose a number of PSU subscriptions permanently. Many players (including myself) invested a lot of time in the PC/PS2 game and are not interested in rerolling on Xbox 360.
In addition, the majority of PC/PS2 players are most likely playing PSU on a PC. The PC version of PSU is, without a doubt, technically superior to the Xbox 360 and PS2 versions. I imagine that there are a lot of PC players that do not want to go to the Xbox 360 and suffer the lag and slowdown problems that were not present on their PCs.
I understand Sega's reasons for deciding to shut down the PC/PS2 servers, but there is no way to spin this news in a way that will make players see Sega of America in a positive light. It would be nice if Sega could just patch the client to connect to the Japanese servers... but everyone knows that Sonic Team would never allow that.
In the meantime, free play for PC/PS2 players begins January 29 with the final event, Maximum Attack G+. After that, I guess it's back to Phantasy Star Online...
Who knew PSO would outlast the game that was designed to replace it, anyway?
I don't deny that there are very few players left on the PC/PS2 servers. How did we get to this point, though? How is it that the Xbox 360 community continued to thrive (and I'm using that term loosely) while the PC/PS2 servers continued to die?
People come and go from online games all the time, and this was to be expected with PSU, but the answer to this question is actually simpler than that: Sega of America killed the PC/PS2 servers. They blew it. Let's take a look back at some of the notable missteps:
-----------------------------------------
Leaving Moatoob locked at release. For three weeks after the game's initial release, the planet Moatoob remained unavailable while players ran around in just a handful of missions on Parum, Neudaiz, and the Guardians' Colony. Over that three weeks, the population declined from multiple full universes (at release) to just one or two. Yes, the Xbox 360 community also had to deal with this, but you can't argue the fact that this had a negative effect on the game right from the start.
Rampant item duping. Shortly after the Moatoob fiasco, some PC/PS2 players discovered a glitch that allowed them to dupe Scape Dolls and sell them for ridiculous amounts of money. The money soon spread to the rest of the community through the sale of elemental photons. The economy was permanently ruined, and Sega sat back and did nothing. Some players jumped ship.
Room hacking. Later in the game's first year, another exploit surfaced on the PC/PS2 servers that allowed a player to enter another player's room and access it as if it was their own. Players reported valuable items stolen from their shops. Sega acknowledged the problem and tried to fix it, and although the script kiddies were eventually banned, most players were never adequately compensated for their losses.
Error 65. Perhaps the most legendary screw-up in the history of the PC/PS2 servers began in April 2008, shortly after the start of Maximum Attack G, the latest in-game event. Sega's billing system for PSU had been fairly unreliable to this point, but during this event it finally kicked the bucket for good. Players whose subscriptions were up for renewal found themselves unable to log in for weeks. The situation got so bad that Sega decided to let PC/PS2 players into the servers for free while they tried to solve their billing server problems. Unfortunately, this left locked-out players with about one week to enjoy the event.
Sega responded by promising that MAG would be extended, but shocked players when the event was removed at the end of the originally allotted time period. The event came back nearly three months later. For many, this was too little, too late.
Lack of updates. The months following the second MAG event brought virtually no new content. Canceled server maintenance periods were a common occurrence. We bitched about the lack of updates on this blog for most of November 2008. There's not much motivation to play when the content you've got is getting old and overly repetitive.
The Xbox 360 demo. One of the perks arguably keeping the Xbox 360 community alive is a demo server that is available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers. Sega of America held various "demo weekend" events to get players to try the game out, and even offered rewards to subscribers as thanks for doing so. Xbox 360 players received a Tails statue, a Knuckles statue, Real Handgun and Real Handspear weapons, and a NiGHTS statue during some of these "demo weekends". PC/PS2 players eventually got most of these rewards, but not until months later.
-----------------------------------------
These certainly aren't the only issues the PC/PS2 servers faced over the last few years, but they are the most notable. Now, as the servers are scheduled to shut down in the next couple months, Sega of America will likely lose a number of PSU subscriptions permanently. Many players (including myself) invested a lot of time in the PC/PS2 game and are not interested in rerolling on Xbox 360.
In addition, the majority of PC/PS2 players are most likely playing PSU on a PC. The PC version of PSU is, without a doubt, technically superior to the Xbox 360 and PS2 versions. I imagine that there are a lot of PC players that do not want to go to the Xbox 360 and suffer the lag and slowdown problems that were not present on their PCs.
I understand Sega's reasons for deciding to shut down the PC/PS2 servers, but there is no way to spin this news in a way that will make players see Sega of America in a positive light. It would be nice if Sega could just patch the client to connect to the Japanese servers... but everyone knows that Sonic Team would never allow that.
In the meantime, free play for PC/PS2 players begins January 29 with the final event, Maximum Attack G+. After that, I guess it's back to Phantasy Star Online...
Who knew PSO would outlast the game that was designed to replace it, anyway?
PC/PS2 servers = dead
GM Edward@Sega has announced some bad news today: the PC/PS2 servers will be closing March 31st.
Apparently January 29th is the last day to subscribe and the beginning of free play on the servers but sadly you can only have access to the free play if you subscribe by the 29th. So I doubt there will be any change in the activity of the server during the free play period before the shutdown.
Update (1/22): Free play is available to anyone who had a subscription to PSU.
It's a shame to see the servers go but with the way the population was the last few months I'm not surprised that this finally happened. I'm annoyed to see it end this way because PSU it pretty much dead to me even with the Xbox version still around. Unless Sega offers some sort of character transfer I won't even consider playing it.
Also before I go: I found part of Edward's second post funny...
...because this will not happen.
Apparently January 29th is the last day to subscribe and the beginning of free play on the servers but sadly you can only have access to the free play if you subscribe by the 29th. So I doubt there will be any change in the activity of the server during the free play period before the shutdown.
Update (1/22): Free play is available to anyone who had a subscription to PSU.
It's a shame to see the servers go but with the way the population was the last few months I'm not surprised that this finally happened. I'm annoyed to see it end this way because PSU it pretty much dead to me even with the Xbox version still around. Unless Sega offers some sort of character transfer I won't even consider playing it.
Also before I go: I found part of Edward's second post funny...
While sad, this is also a huge opportunity for the Xbox 360 version of the game. Players here are well aware that the Western version of the game has fallen behind the content schedule for the Japanese version of the game, but in focusing our resources on just a single version now, we do have the chance to actually close that gap.
...because this will not happen.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
(New?) Content: MAG+ Begins January 29th
Happy New Year! It's been nearly two months since anything has been posted on this blog, but that's not without good reason. Since the last post on November 23, Phantasy Star Universe has seen a new party mission, a new story mission, and difficulty updates to The Egg Thieves and The Dark God.
A small patch to fix some bugs was also released in December.
Not much else has really happened, other than the GM-run Great Gurhalian Cup time attack competition. There hasn't been much true "new" mission content to hit the US/EU servers in the last few months.
It doesn't look like that will be changing within the next two months, either. GM Edward announced today on the official forums that the first event of 2010, Maximum Attack G+, will begin on January 29. This has been hotly anticipated by the US/EU community for some time now.
However, MAG+ isn't really itself new: think MAG with an additional difficulty level and some small new bonuses. There will be only one event mission (not counting the boss), as was the case the first (and second) time around. I understand that it will be a nice diversion from grinding the same old mission locales, at least for a little while. How long will the community's interest in this version last, though?
In any case, while I'd rather see Sega implement some other things (like the new "expansion" content -- minus the cash shop), it's nice to see that the US/EU community continues to get the content the Japanese got -- even if it is months/years later.
A small patch to fix some bugs was also released in December.
Not much else has really happened, other than the GM-run Great Gurhalian Cup time attack competition. There hasn't been much true "new" mission content to hit the US/EU servers in the last few months.
It doesn't look like that will be changing within the next two months, either. GM Edward announced today on the official forums that the first event of 2010, Maximum Attack G+, will begin on January 29. This has been hotly anticipated by the US/EU community for some time now.
However, MAG+ isn't really itself new: think MAG with an additional difficulty level and some small new bonuses. There will be only one event mission (not counting the boss), as was the case the first (and second) time around. I understand that it will be a nice diversion from grinding the same old mission locales, at least for a little while. How long will the community's interest in this version last, though?
In any case, while I'd rather see Sega implement some other things (like the new "expansion" content -- minus the cash shop), it's nice to see that the US/EU community continues to get the content the Japanese got -- even if it is months/years later.
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