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!