Don't Panic Just Yet

If you've been following the development of Phantasy Star Online 2 and have been hoping for a Western release (who hasn't been?) then you probably panicked yesterday following a wave of bad news from Sega.

First, news of massive losses prompted the company to announce that it would be canceling some games in the United States and Europe. The list of games was not provided, though Sega did state that profitable franchises such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Football Manager, Total War, and Aliens would not be canceled.

Second, following this announcement, Sega of America was hit with massive layoffs. According to IGN, the majority of layoffs were QA-related, though other positions also got axed. Obviously, it's never good to see things like this happen and we hope the people affected can get back on their feet quickly.

As you might expect, this news made Phantasy Star Universe players uneasy. On the official PSU forums, GM Edward assured players that near-term events would go on as planned, but couldn't provide any insight as to what the future holds for the remaining regional servers. We'll be watching this situation unfold in the coming weeks to see if Sega considers the Xbox 360 version profitable enough to continue. Stay tuned.

As for PSO2, the game has not been canceled in Japan (and likely won't be). The closed beta test is scheduled to begin at the end of April, with an open beta and final release likely to follow in June or July. The game has not currently been announced for the United States or Europe. However, I don't think this means that the game should be considered "canceled". The four "surviving" franchises that Sega listed in its press release should not be considered an all-inclusive list of titles that have not been canceled.

In fact, no definitive list of canceled titles was even provided (parts bolded for emphasis):

We conducted detailed reviews of earnings projections for titles targeted toward the U.S. and European markets and decided to narrow down sales titles from the following period and after to strong IPs, such as “Sonic the Hedgehog,”, “Football Manager”, “Total War” and “Aliens” which are expected to continue posting solid earnings. In accordance with this, we are canceling the development of some game software titles.

In other words, anything said about specific canceled games right now is pure speculation, so until Sega actually says that the Western markets won't be getting PSO2, there's no reason to panic.

Also consider the fact that Sega appears to be considering mostly digital distribution for PSO2, which could save a lot of money that would otherwise be spent on packaging and pressing discs. Hopefully Sega could recoup the costs of localization and other maintenance expenses through the sale of items in the cash shop.

If all else fails, we'll just have to play PSO2 on the Japanese servers—but right now we just don't know what the fallout will be from this news. All we can do is sit tight and hope for the best!

More Cash Shop Details

After revealing that Phantasy Star Online 2 would be free to play, Sega today expanded on some of the details of the "Arks Cash" system that will be used in place of a monthly subscription fee.

Some folks at PSO World spotted a post on the official PSO2 blog which elaborated on the kinds of things for which players will be forced to shell out real money. Among the items listed are Scape Dolls, drop rate boosts, and clothing/appearance changes.

Also listed as part of the cash shop are "system" upgrades. These include (but will probably not be limited to) expansion of storage space, the ability to open a room and shop, and the ability to trade items.

The "system" category of items is intriguing because it essentially means that the "premium" version of the game will not be free to play. This is a reasonable decision—Sega has to recoup development and server costs somehow—yet it depends on how the developers choose to implement these items that determines whether the pay model for PSO2 will do little more than resemble the current model for Phantasy Star Universe in Japan.

If the "system" items are offered up as typical DLC (download once and you have them forever), then players will wind up paying a small amount up front to enjoy the game free forever (at least until Sega finds more "system" related items to charge for). That wouldn't be such a bad deal, though it really depends on how much they wind up charging for everything.

Another possibility is that the items are offered as timed DLC, meaning you'll have to periodically buy them again to continue enjoying the "premium" features of the game. This is pretty much the "free course" and "premium course" model used by PSU at the moment. Don't be surprised if Sega chooses this model for the final product.

On the subject of subscription fees, today's blog posting makes it a point to mention that PSO2 will be free to play and free to download. Based on that premise, I can't understand how the game will survive in the United States and Europe with regional servers. Of course, it really doesn't matter if players choose not to use the cash shop—in which case Sega's got much bigger problems.

PSO2 Closed Beta Signups Underway

Sega has announced that they are now accepting signups for the closed beta test of Phantasy Star Online 2 in Japan. Interested players can sign up at the official site, which also provides a brief overview of the next round of testing. Players who registered for the previous alpha tests don't need to register again.

The closed beta test itself is scheduled to begin sometime at the end of April. For those who want to get a head start on creating characters, the character creator will be made available for download beginning next Thursday (April 5). This standalone application will apparently also provide benchmarking tools for those people interested in tuning their PC to play nice with PSO2. The system requirements do not appear to have changed since the alpha tests.

In addition to general gameplay and balance testing, the developers also plan to test their implementation of the "Arks Cash" system by giving players 10,000 AC to play with once the test begins. As we previously mentioned, Sega has announced that Phantasy Star Online 2 will be free-to-play, with "Arks Cash" being the method by which players can blow their real-life money on the game. I'll reserve judgment on this feature for another day; needless to say we probably need to see more details on how "Arks Cash" will work.

The official closed beta signup site also provides some information about a potential release date. According to Sega, official service is scheduled to begin in the "early summer", so we're probably not more than three months away from the release (assuming Sega keeps their word). Of course, this is only for Japan. No release date has been announced yet for the United States or Europe.

Despite the lack of news on a stateside release, there may be indications that Sega is planning for one. Some groups datamining the latest PSO2 alpha client have found media files possibly intended for a US version. Could Sega already be working on a localization of the game?

PSO2 on PS Vita, iOS, and Android + Free to Play

We are a little late to the party here with the PS Vita news. And there isn't much to say on it. All I really care about is that as long as the Vita version does not delay updates to the PC version I'm fine with it. I'll wait for more information before saying anything more. If you can't wait for more information I guess you could get mad and try "protesting the vita" if you want; I haven't fully read that topic but I'm sure it's a fun read.

Now I think the iOS/Android announcement is pretty interesting. Sounds like it will be a single player game that has community features that link to the PC/Vita versions. I didn't really expect Sega to do something like this; I'll be sure to keep an eye out for it.

Lastly there is that free to play thing. It's also the thing that worries me the most. I just hope it isn't one of those games that gimp the game so much where you are forced to use the cash shop (and spend more than what a monthly fee would be). I hate those games that have tokens or some sort of currency required to even play missions, they give you some for free that may only last a few hours then you have to pay or wait a day to get more for free. I guess it could be worse if they even require cash shop purchases to craft or upgrade equipment as well.

I'm sure Guardian's Cash on the Japanese version of PSU gave us a glimpse of what PSO2 cash shop could sell. I just hope it says more towards optional things like costumes, room objects etc. I'm expecting some missions to require payment but I'd rather not see it at all. I'll wait to see what Sega announces for the whole free to play thing but I still have a bad feeling about it.

Moving towards the future

Yes, we are still alive. Even If there haven't been many posts as of late. Anyway you may have noticed the lack of PSU related posts and I can easily explain: neither of us play PSU anymore. Plus I think it's safe to say outside of Japan PSU is dead (you know with being a year and a half behind the JP version, etc).

Moving on from that: this blog with change a bit to focus on the future online Phantasy Star games, starting with PSO2. Although things may be still be slow until I actually get a chance to play the game although once I do I'm sure I'll find many things to complain about and if you are anything like me you should be looking forward to that.

And finally to signify the change: for the first time since July 2008 when I created this blog I shall change the theme to a different yet similar theme. Also our glorious blog description: "Up to date complaints about everything that's wrong with the online game Phantasy Star Universe", shall be updated to reflect this change as well.

Update: I'm sure no one cares but I've condensed some PSU specific labels. I'm adding a general "Phantasy Star Universe" label as well as a new condensed label for the old PSU events. 

PSU: Events label replaces: Absolute Zero, "GBR, Great Gurhalian Cup, MAG, Maximum Attack X, Mission Spotlight (even though I am sure we can all agree this hardly qualifies as an event), Shred the Darkness, The Great Arms Race, and Winter Mission Carnival. 
The "Guardian types" label was removed and filed under Phantasy Star Universe.
Also I've (finally?) added a search box to the blog which might make it easier to find some old posts, probably.