Many players were clinging to a shred of hope that Sega would make the right decision in this case, but it was not to be.
Gaming website 4gamer.net has posted an extensive interview with Phantasy Star Online 2 producer Satoshi Sakai regarding the development of the game and its future in Japan and abroad.
The unfortunate news comes at the end of the interview, where Sakai mentions that players in the United States and Europe will be on the same servers, which will not be linked to the Japanese servers.
This is definitely disappointing, but I suppose that it might not be much of an issue if the regional servers get regular content updates and proper support from Sega. A repeat of Phantasy Star Universe will be unacceptable; the players that went through that mess know better now, and will surely jump ship at the first sign of neglect. If Sega wants PSO2 to be successful in the West, it simply cannot afford to treat its US/EU players like second-class citizens.
Of course, Sega may be able to handle PSO2 differently thanks to the lack of console support (especially Xbox 360, which would have been a major stumbling block). But we won't know for sure until the game actually goes live.
This news isn't all that bad, though. When the US/EU PSO2 servers inevitably close prematurely, we can all just go back to playing the Japanese version of the game!
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