According to this thread at PSO-World, winners of the Phantasy Star Online 2 alpha test raffle are now receiving their confirmation e-mails.
Despite this, no dates for the alpha test were announced. The e-mail apparently states only that the test dates are "in a state of flux" and that everyone will have to "wait just a little bit longer".
So that's it for now. I think a lot of people were hoping for an alpha test announcement today. Hopefully we won't have to wait too much longer to get it!
Friday, June 24, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
1.3 Million Accounts Affected in Sega Pass Attack
Sega of Japan has announced that Thursday's attack on the Sega Pass system has resulted in the theft of personal information from approximately 1.3 million user accounts, according to Reuters.
While that personal information included names, birth dates, and encrypted passwords of Sega Pass users, it did not include any credit card information, as announced in a statement released Thursday by Sega to the media and Sega Pass account holders.
The Sega Pass system is still down at the time of this posting. Sites that use Sega Pass (such as the official forums) are also down for "essential maintenance". Sega did not say when service would return.
While any server breach is certainly a cause for concern, this theft of information is a far cry from the scope of recent incidents such as the Sony breach last month which resulted in the theft of 77 million user accounts. Don't forget to change your passwords when the Sega Pass system returns!
Sources:
Sega says 1.3 million users affected by cyber attack (Reuters)
While that personal information included names, birth dates, and encrypted passwords of Sega Pass users, it did not include any credit card information, as announced in a statement released Thursday by Sega to the media and Sega Pass account holders.
The Sega Pass system is still down at the time of this posting. Sites that use Sega Pass (such as the official forums) are also down for "essential maintenance". Sega did not say when service would return.
While any server breach is certainly a cause for concern, this theft of information is a far cry from the scope of recent incidents such as the Sony breach last month which resulted in the theft of 77 million user accounts. Don't forget to change your passwords when the Sega Pass system returns!
Sources:
Sega says 1.3 million users affected by cyber attack (Reuters)
Friday, June 17, 2011
PSO2 Alpha Test Winners To Be Announced Next Week
According to this post over at PSO-World, players that submitted their PSO2 alpha test lottery codes to Sega of Japan have received e-mails stating that the winners of the contest will be announced on June 24.
The e-mail apparently states that even if players don't get into the alpha test immediately, Sega will be adding more users as the test continues. Sega of Japan also plans on updating the official Phantasy Star Online 2 Web site with more images.
Hopefully this means that more news about the game is coming shortly. It wasn't immediately clear from the translated e-mail whether winners will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement, though I'm fairly certain that will be the case (there was an NDA for players of the Phantasy Star Universe beta in Japan if I remember correctly). Even if an NDA is put in place, we all know that images and videos will leak out anyway.
That's the latest PSO2 news. Hopefully we'll know more about the test period next week!
The e-mail apparently states that even if players don't get into the alpha test immediately, Sega will be adding more users as the test continues. Sega of Japan also plans on updating the official Phantasy Star Online 2 Web site with more images.
Hopefully this means that more news about the game is coming shortly. It wasn't immediately clear from the translated e-mail whether winners will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement, though I'm fairly certain that will be the case (there was an NDA for players of the Phantasy Star Universe beta in Japan if I remember correctly). Even if an NDA is put in place, we all know that images and videos will leak out anyway.
That's the latest PSO2 news. Hopefully we'll know more about the test period next week!
Sega's Websites Apparently "Hacked"
According to this e-mail sent to Sega Pass account holders (I know because I got one), the Sega Pass Web site was apparently broken into yesterday (June 16):
The e-mail only addresses the Sega Pass outage but as of this posting some other sites such as the Sega forums are down for "essential maintenance". There is no word as to whether the outages are related.
Of course, I use the term "hack" loosely in this case as I have in the past. There are plenty of morons in the world that are unfortunately still smart enough to click a button on a window. Sadly, with the way most public Web servers are designed and configured these days, anyone with two brain cells to rub together can be a script kiddie on the Internet.
In a perfect world, the FBI or NSA would at some point track these kids down and throw them in juvenile hall. Until then, take preventative action and change your Sega account passwords.
As you may be aware, the SEGA Pass system has been offline since yesterday, Thursday 16 June.
Over the last 24 hours we have identified that unauthorised entry was gained to our SEGA Pass database.
We immediately took the appropriate action to protect our consumers’ data and isolate the location of the breach. We have launched an investigation into the extent of the breach of our public systems.
We have identified that a subset of SEGA Pass members emails addresses, dates of birth and encrypted passwords were obtained. To stress, none of the passwords obtained were stored in plain text.
Please note that no personal payment information was stored by SEGA as we use external payment providers, meaning your payment details were not at risk from this intrusion.
If you use the same login information for other websites and/or services as you do for SEGA Pass, you should change that information immediately.
We have also reset your password and all access to SEGA Pass has been temporarily suspended.
Additionally we recommend you please take extra caution if you should receive suspicious emails that ask for personal or sensitive information.
Therefore please do not attempt to login to SEGA Pass at present, we will communicate when the service becomes available.
We sincerely apologise for this incident and regret any inconvenience caused.
We are contacting all our members with these recommendations.
If you have any further questions please contact SEGA customer support on csescalations@sega.com
The e-mail only addresses the Sega Pass outage but as of this posting some other sites such as the Sega forums are down for "essential maintenance". There is no word as to whether the outages are related.
Of course, I use the term "hack" loosely in this case as I have in the past. There are plenty of morons in the world that are unfortunately still smart enough to click a button on a window. Sadly, with the way most public Web servers are designed and configured these days, anyone with two brain cells to rub together can be a script kiddie on the Internet.
In a perfect world, the FBI or NSA would at some point track these kids down and throw them in juvenile hall. Until then, take preventative action and change your Sega account passwords.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Today's Lesson: Be Careful What You Wish For
Guardians Cash was a point of contention among many members of the community when the supplemental update was implemented on the Xbox 360 servers. Sega of America announced at the time that the Guardians Cash system would not be coming to the regional servers, and many players worried that the content would never be seen outside of Japan. However, they were reassured by Sega that the content would make its way into the game in some form.
Recently, PSU GM Edward made the announcement that Guardians Cash content would be worked into an upcoming event, though he didn't provide further details. The upcoming event turned out to be The Great Arms Race, which started today. Players apparently forgot about the Guardians Cash comment when the event announcement was made earlier this week.
Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a shock when the event Web site showed that the manufacturer weapons being distributed were actually completely different than those handed out during the Japanese event. Oddly enough, the three reward weapons for the US/EU version aren't even produced by the participating manufacturers -- they're Kubara weapons!
How could Sega have overlooked this fact? How could they have replaced the weapons everyone was looking forward to with three Kubara weapons?
Oh, right -- the substituted weapons are Guardians Cash weapons in Japan. This is just an example of Sega doing what everyone wanted... right?
No. In fact, this is exactly what the community didn't want. The community wanted the event to be exactly the same as the Japanese one. It expected a certain type of content (namely, the three reward weapons), and it didn't get it. Sega is doing the right thing by trying to get the Guardians Cash content to the Western servers, but this was clearly not the time or place to do it. As a result, three functional reward weapons were replaced with what are essentially novelty items. Perhaps Sega should have asked the community if this was something it wanted. If they had, they might have been able to avoid the shitstorm that is now brewing on the official PSU forums.
On the flip side, the US/EU PSU community has learned a valuable lesson: be careful what you wish for, because Sega might give it to you when you want it the least.
Recently, PSU GM Edward made the announcement that Guardians Cash content would be worked into an upcoming event, though he didn't provide further details. The upcoming event turned out to be The Great Arms Race, which started today. Players apparently forgot about the Guardians Cash comment when the event announcement was made earlier this week.
Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a shock when the event Web site showed that the manufacturer weapons being distributed were actually completely different than those handed out during the Japanese event. Oddly enough, the three reward weapons for the US/EU version aren't even produced by the participating manufacturers -- they're Kubara weapons!
How could Sega have overlooked this fact? How could they have replaced the weapons everyone was looking forward to with three Kubara weapons?
Oh, right -- the substituted weapons are Guardians Cash weapons in Japan. This is just an example of Sega doing what everyone wanted... right?
No. In fact, this is exactly what the community didn't want. The community wanted the event to be exactly the same as the Japanese one. It expected a certain type of content (namely, the three reward weapons), and it didn't get it. Sega is doing the right thing by trying to get the Guardians Cash content to the Western servers, but this was clearly not the time or place to do it. As a result, three functional reward weapons were replaced with what are essentially novelty items. Perhaps Sega should have asked the community if this was something it wanted. If they had, they might have been able to avoid the shitstorm that is now brewing on the official PSU forums.
On the flip side, the US/EU PSU community has learned a valuable lesson: be careful what you wish for, because Sega might give it to you when you want it the least.
The Great Arms Race is Under Way
PSU's latest event, The Great Arms Race, is live as of this morning's maintenance.
An event Web site has been posted here. It lists all of the overall rewards as well as the manufacturer weapons received for participating. It should be noted that the advertised manufacturer weapons are apparently different than those distributed in the Japanese event, so head over and check out what's what before you choose sides!
As mentioned in the previous post, Sega has announced that the event will run until maintenance on Friday, July 15.
An event Web site has been posted here. It lists all of the overall rewards as well as the manufacturer weapons received for participating. It should be noted that the advertised manufacturer weapons are apparently different than those distributed in the Japanese event, so head over and check out what's what before you choose sides!
As mentioned in the previous post, Sega has announced that the event will run until maintenance on Friday, July 15.
Monday, June 6, 2011
The Great Arms Race Begins Friday
The last two months have been rather devoid of PSU news. In fact, the last piece of PSU-related news on this blog was posted exactly two months ago, and it wasn't even a major update!
So what's been going on? The 3rd Anniversary Thanks Festa event ended just over three weeks ago, and since then, the regional servers have seen a new mission and a Parum GBR. The next event, The Great Arms Race, will hit the servers this Friday, June 10th. This appears to be one of the rare moments where the Western community got the news before Japan (it hasn't been posted on the official Japanese Xbox 360 PSU Web site as of this writing), so it's not known how long the event will last. (Update 6/8: The Japanese Web site has listed July 15th as the end date, meaning the event will run for a standard five weeks.)
Based on GM Edward's post on the official forums, it appears that this event will play out similarly to prior events, with enemy kills unlocking reward panels and so forth. In addition, the event will have a pseudo-PvP element to it in which players register with one of the major weapons manufacturers—GRM, Yohmei, or Tenora—and earn points for that manufacturer. Players will receive a weapon from their manufacturer for participating in the event, but the "team" that wins the event will have their weapon's stats boosted to their maximum values.
A Web site for the event will be posted at some point before it starts. This looks like it will be an interesting event; the competitive aspect certainly hasn't been tried so far in PSU, and I would assume that it alone would boost player enthusiasm. It seems like a lot of players have been clamoring for this event in recent months, anyway.
That's all from the PSU front for now. Stay tuned for more!
So what's been going on? The 3rd Anniversary Thanks Festa event ended just over three weeks ago, and since then, the regional servers have seen a new mission and a Parum GBR. The next event, The Great Arms Race, will hit the servers this Friday, June 10th. This appears to be one of the rare moments where the Western community got the news before Japan (it hasn't been posted on the official Japanese Xbox 360 PSU Web site as of this writing), so it's not known how long the event will last. (Update 6/8: The Japanese Web site has listed July 15th as the end date, meaning the event will run for a standard five weeks.)
Based on GM Edward's post on the official forums, it appears that this event will play out similarly to prior events, with enemy kills unlocking reward panels and so forth. In addition, the event will have a pseudo-PvP element to it in which players register with one of the major weapons manufacturers—GRM, Yohmei, or Tenora—and earn points for that manufacturer. Players will receive a weapon from their manufacturer for participating in the event, but the "team" that wins the event will have their weapon's stats boosted to their maximum values.
A Web site for the event will be posted at some point before it starts. This looks like it will be an interesting event; the competitive aspect certainly hasn't been tried so far in PSU, and I would assume that it alone would boost player enthusiasm. It seems like a lot of players have been clamoring for this event in recent months, anyway.
That's all from the PSU front for now. Stay tuned for more!
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