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.