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!
Monday, July 26, 2010
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.
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