Sega of Japan has announced that on December 27, 2010, the Japanese PSO: Blue Burst servers will be shutting down for good.
The shutdown of these servers marks the official end of Phantasy Star Online. This comes after a ten-year run on four platforms, beginning with the Dreamcast in 2000. It's been a remarkable run for the game, and although the official final shutdown of PSO is a sad moment for many, it should also be noted that there is a silver lining here as well.
In the shutdown announcement, it was also announced that Sega / Sonic Team is considering ways to give players the opportunity to beta test Phantasy Star Online 2. The common belief is that the PSO: Blue Burst servers are being shut down to prepare for PSO2, and if this is in fact the case, perhaps a release is not as far off as we all originally thought. However, no firm release date has been announced for either the United States or Japan.
The sale of Hunters Licenses ends on November 29, and free play begins on November 30th. After that, things could get interesting.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
"New" Content This Week (Updated)
Last week, the Japanese PC/PS2 PSU servers began their fourth anniversary celebration with a new event while the regional Xbox 360 servers skipped regular maintenance. A lot of players were annoyed and frustrated at the lack of updates and expressed it loudly on the official forums.
Fear not, everyone! Sega does in fact care about its Xbox 360 players and doesn't want them to quit.
In fact, Sega of Japan cares so much that it has rewarded the US/EU community with rehashed content. Four Parum missions -- Train Rescue, Endrum Remnants, Dual Sentinel, and Duel in the Ruins -- will be receiving S3 difficulties this week to go along with the Parum GBR that begins after Friday morning's maintenance.
The news was somehow posted on the Sega of America site first, so we're not sure how long this GBR will last, but odds are it will stick around until sometime in mid-October.
UPDATE: The Japanese site has been updated and it looks like this GBR will run for a ridiculous five weeks, until Friday, October 29. I guess the folks at Sega of Japan are planning some long vacations next month!
Fear not, everyone! Sega does in fact care about its Xbox 360 players and doesn't want them to quit.
In fact, Sega of Japan cares so much that it has rewarded the US/EU community with rehashed content. Four Parum missions -- Train Rescue, Endrum Remnants, Dual Sentinel, and Duel in the Ruins -- will be receiving S3 difficulties this week to go along with the Parum GBR that begins after Friday morning's maintenance.
The news was somehow posted on the Sega of America site first, so we're not sure how long this GBR will last, but odds are it will stick around until sometime in mid-October.
UPDATE: The Japanese site has been updated and it looks like this GBR will run for a ridiculous five weeks, until Friday, October 29. I guess the folks at Sega of Japan are planning some long vacations next month!
Keep PSO2 PC-Only, Please
With Phantasy Star Online 2 just recently announced and having no set release date in the United States, the debate on the official Sega forums has turned to whether or not console versions of the game will be developed.
This thread in particular should be held up as the prime example of why there should not be any console versions of PSO2. In that thread, console players of Phantasy Star Universe (primarily those on Xbox 360, where the servers are still active) try to make a case for a console PSO2, arguing that a PS3 or Xbox 360 would be a good fit for the next-generation game. Towards the end it pretty much turns into a fight between the PC PSU players and the Xbox 360 PSU players. Been there, done that.
I strongly believe that Sega should keep PSO2 far, far away from the consoles. A console version of the game would only help to split up the community. The US/EU version of PSU demonstrated that very nicely. Also, no console versions means that Sega has to maintain only the PC version, meaning that it would be easier and quicker to roll out content updates. (And for you Xbox 360 PSU players that would like to claim otherwise, don't forget that Sega of Japan is also handling PC/PS2 content updates in addition to the Xbox 360's updates.)
Of course, a PC-only PSO2 has other advantages. It'll probably look nicer and run better; right now, it appears that PSO2 is actually being developed specifically for PCs, which is good. A PC-only game also keeps the door open for future expansion, since personal computers aren't limited by expensive proprietary storage (see: Xbox 360). The PC can also do voice chat, so it's not like anybody would be losing that functionality without a console.
Advocates for a console PSO2 claim that it would be a safe haven against the evils of PC hacking. I'm a professional software engineer, so I think I can call bullshit on that one; any programmer that's worth a damn should be able to write server code good enough to stop those things from happening in most cases. Not to mention that Sega should care enough about the game to remove those people as quickly as possible.
Finally, I'll single out the Xbox 360 specifically because a version of PSO2 developed for that console would surely result in console-separated servers. And we all saw how well that turned out for the US/EU version of PSU. I personally think that a PC-only PSO2 increases the likelihood of international servers, though it's way too early to tell if that will happen. If we get console versions of the game, I'm not holding my breath.
We still don't know much about PSO2. As I said before, there's still a long way to go before we get to play it. However, everybody is hoping that Sega gets this one right. Let's start by making PSO2 PC-only.
This thread in particular should be held up as the prime example of why there should not be any console versions of PSO2. In that thread, console players of Phantasy Star Universe (primarily those on Xbox 360, where the servers are still active) try to make a case for a console PSO2, arguing that a PS3 or Xbox 360 would be a good fit for the next-generation game. Towards the end it pretty much turns into a fight between the PC PSU players and the Xbox 360 PSU players. Been there, done that.
I strongly believe that Sega should keep PSO2 far, far away from the consoles. A console version of the game would only help to split up the community. The US/EU version of PSU demonstrated that very nicely. Also, no console versions means that Sega has to maintain only the PC version, meaning that it would be easier and quicker to roll out content updates. (And for you Xbox 360 PSU players that would like to claim otherwise, don't forget that Sega of Japan is also handling PC/PS2 content updates in addition to the Xbox 360's updates.)
Of course, a PC-only PSO2 has other advantages. It'll probably look nicer and run better; right now, it appears that PSO2 is actually being developed specifically for PCs, which is good. A PC-only game also keeps the door open for future expansion, since personal computers aren't limited by expensive proprietary storage (see: Xbox 360). The PC can also do voice chat, so it's not like anybody would be losing that functionality without a console.
Advocates for a console PSO2 claim that it would be a safe haven against the evils of PC hacking. I'm a professional software engineer, so I think I can call bullshit on that one; any programmer that's worth a damn should be able to write server code good enough to stop those things from happening in most cases. Not to mention that Sega should care enough about the game to remove those people as quickly as possible.
Finally, I'll single out the Xbox 360 specifically because a version of PSO2 developed for that console would surely result in console-separated servers. And we all saw how well that turned out for the US/EU version of PSU. I personally think that a PC-only PSO2 increases the likelihood of international servers, though it's way too early to tell if that will happen. If we get console versions of the game, I'm not holding my breath.
We still don't know much about PSO2. As I said before, there's still a long way to go before we get to play it. However, everybody is hoping that Sega gets this one right. Let's start by making PSO2 PC-only.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Phantasy Star Online 2 Announced
Sega's live stream from its presentation last night at the Tokyo Game Show produced an interesting image. The Phantasy Star community had been speculating about this for awhile, and recent developments had seemed to indicate it was coming, but it's now official.
Phantasy Star Online 2 is on the way. Right now the game is announced only for Japan, and PSU GM Edward stated as much in the new official PSO2 forum, but I think it would be absolutely ridiculous if the game did not eventually make its way to the West.
As of now, the game is scheduled to be released in 2011 for the PC. Some preliminary details of the game were translated and posted over at fansite PSO World. Based on the information provided, it almost seems as if Sega is looking to blend the best elements of PSO and PSU into a single game, which is something the community seems to be clamoring for. Apparently, PSU gameplay elements such as item synthesis and photon arts will also be making their way over to PSO2, although significantly overhauled (according to the translated information). It will be interesting to see how that works.
This announcement seems to have gotten the community very excited, as you might be able to imagine. A discussion of the new game is underway over at the new Sega PSO2 forums. Obviously, there's still a long way to go before anybody gets to play anything, but this is certainly a great start!
Oh, and so long, PSU.
Phantasy Star Online 2 is on the way. Right now the game is announced only for Japan, and PSU GM Edward stated as much in the new official PSO2 forum, but I think it would be absolutely ridiculous if the game did not eventually make its way to the West.
As of now, the game is scheduled to be released in 2011 for the PC. Some preliminary details of the game were translated and posted over at fansite PSO World. Based on the information provided, it almost seems as if Sega is looking to blend the best elements of PSO and PSU into a single game, which is something the community seems to be clamoring for. Apparently, PSU gameplay elements such as item synthesis and photon arts will also be making their way over to PSO2, although significantly overhauled (according to the translated information). It will be interesting to see how that works.
This announcement seems to have gotten the community very excited, as you might be able to imagine. A discussion of the new game is underway over at the new Sega PSO2 forums. Obviously, there's still a long way to go before anybody gets to play anything, but this is certainly a great start!
Oh, and so long, PSU.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Welcome to Reality
When the PC/PS2 servers closed back in April, PSU GMs offered the suggestion that the closure would actually be better for the game in the long run. With Sega focusing resources on just one version of the game, maybe the US/EU servers could catch up to the Japanese servers. The remaining Xbox 360 players were thrilled.
Almost six months have passed since then, and the Xbox 360 PSU landscape looks very different. Aside from the release of the supplemental update in July, there have been few, if any, glimmers of hope to even suggest that the US/EU servers are catching up. Since the release of the supplemental update, the regional servers have received exactly two new (conditional) missions and a few updates to the GAS feature. There have been no content updates in September.
Now it looks like players are starting to wake up and face reality.
Sega of Japan has announced that there will be no maintenance this week, despite the fact that the Japanese PC/PS2 servers are starting their fourth anniversary event this week. Players do not seem to be taking the news too well, as evidenced in this thread on the official forums.
In the days after the PC/PS2 server shutdown, we blogged a little about the blind faith that some members of the Xbox 360 community had in Sega to deliver on the pledge to catch up to the Japanese servers. It should be mentioned that PSU GMs never actually promised to do such a thing. So I'm not sure why players are expressing anger and frustration now about something that was never going to happen anyway.
The Xbox 360 servers will never catch up to the Japanese servers before closing -- I'm almost certain of that, and if I'm wrong (not likely), then so be it. Before long, the next Phantasy Star console game will be released, and the Xbox 360 PSU servers will vanish into nothing, leaving behind all of the unreleased content. If you don't think that won't happen, consider the fact that Sega of America did it once already with PSO: Blue Burst. It will happen.
That's the new reality of playing Phantasy Star games online in the West. Welcome, Xbox 360 community.
Almost six months have passed since then, and the Xbox 360 PSU landscape looks very different. Aside from the release of the supplemental update in July, there have been few, if any, glimmers of hope to even suggest that the US/EU servers are catching up. Since the release of the supplemental update, the regional servers have received exactly two new (conditional) missions and a few updates to the GAS feature. There have been no content updates in September.
Now it looks like players are starting to wake up and face reality.
Sega of Japan has announced that there will be no maintenance this week, despite the fact that the Japanese PC/PS2 servers are starting their fourth anniversary event this week. Players do not seem to be taking the news too well, as evidenced in this thread on the official forums.
In the days after the PC/PS2 server shutdown, we blogged a little about the blind faith that some members of the Xbox 360 community had in Sega to deliver on the pledge to catch up to the Japanese servers. It should be mentioned that PSU GMs never actually promised to do such a thing. So I'm not sure why players are expressing anger and frustration now about something that was never going to happen anyway.
The Xbox 360 servers will never catch up to the Japanese servers before closing -- I'm almost certain of that, and if I'm wrong (not likely), then so be it. Before long, the next Phantasy Star console game will be released, and the Xbox 360 PSU servers will vanish into nothing, leaving behind all of the unreleased content. If you don't think that won't happen, consider the fact that Sega of America did it once already with PSO: Blue Burst. It will happen.
That's the new reality of playing Phantasy Star games online in the West. Welcome, Xbox 360 community.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Is Phantasy Star Online 2 Coming?
It's no secret to those in the Phantasy Star community that Sega is planning a special announcement for the tenth anniversary of the release of Phantasy Star Online. However, nobody really knows what the announcement will be.
Last week, the rumor mill was set churning again after somebody noticed that the domain name registration for pso2.jp had been recently renewed by Sega. This news from Japanese fansite Shougai PSO and reported on PSO World cites the whois page for the pso2.jp domain, which was first registered last year.
A true sequel to Phantasy Star Online does not seem all that unlikely. Details of Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity announced recently seem to indicate that the PSP series is leaning further and further back towards the Phantasy Star Online style of gameplay. Phantasy Star Zero, released for the Nintendo DS last year in the United States, also plays similarly to PSO. The series appears to be returning to its online roots, which is a good thing.
Don't forget the fact that Sega's big announcement just happens to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the release of PSO. Phantasy Star Universe is celebrating its fourth anniversary today in Japan, and will have most likely reached its fifth by the time a new Phantasy Star console game is released. Sega was already planning Phantasy Star Universe at this stage in PSO's life, so it would be surprising if a successor to PSU is not in the works now.
At any rate, it would be nice to see a true sequel to Phantasy Star Online. It would be the perfect opportunity to combine the best gameplay elements of PSO and PSU into a modern, current-generation game that reinvigorates the series. Between the various incarnations of Phantasy Star Online, Phantasy Star Universe, and related games, hopefully Sega learned valuable lessons on how to effectively run a pay-to-play game (as well as how not to run one). Regardless of whether or not the big announcement is in fact Phantasy Star Online 2, this is Sega's chance to bring players back to the Phantasy Star online gaming community. Let's just hope they don't screw it up.
Last week, the rumor mill was set churning again after somebody noticed that the domain name registration for pso2.jp had been recently renewed by Sega. This news from Japanese fansite Shougai PSO and reported on PSO World cites the whois page for the pso2.jp domain, which was first registered last year.
A true sequel to Phantasy Star Online does not seem all that unlikely. Details of Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity announced recently seem to indicate that the PSP series is leaning further and further back towards the Phantasy Star Online style of gameplay. Phantasy Star Zero, released for the Nintendo DS last year in the United States, also plays similarly to PSO. The series appears to be returning to its online roots, which is a good thing.
Don't forget the fact that Sega's big announcement just happens to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the release of PSO. Phantasy Star Universe is celebrating its fourth anniversary today in Japan, and will have most likely reached its fifth by the time a new Phantasy Star console game is released. Sega was already planning Phantasy Star Universe at this stage in PSO's life, so it would be surprising if a successor to PSU is not in the works now.
At any rate, it would be nice to see a true sequel to Phantasy Star Online. It would be the perfect opportunity to combine the best gameplay elements of PSO and PSU into a modern, current-generation game that reinvigorates the series. Between the various incarnations of Phantasy Star Online, Phantasy Star Universe, and related games, hopefully Sega learned valuable lessons on how to effectively run a pay-to-play game (as well as how not to run one). Regardless of whether or not the big announcement is in fact Phantasy Star Online 2, this is Sega's chance to bring players back to the Phantasy Star online gaming community. Let's just hope they don't screw it up.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Phantasy Star Portable 2 stuff
Old news: Last week the PSPo2 demo was released on the Playstation Store. It's pretty nice, and you can transfer your character from the first game and get a few bonuses. Although there are a few things translated that are inconsistent with the previous games like: Partner Machinery is now "MySynth" and Line Shields are now "Shield Weaves." It even has an online mode; although I didn't try it yet since I was distracted from the demo by Ys Seven (also an awesome game you guys should check it out).
In other PSPo2 related news it seems Japan is getting an expansion called "Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity." Looks like it will add a new story line, a new race called "dumans", bring back a few old PSO monsters (seems to be Garanz, Dark Bringer and Olga Flow so far), and the ability to take screenshots along with other changes. It sounds interesting, hopefully PSPo2 does well enough here so this gets an English release.
According to this topic we should be angry about this announcement because even though the Japanese version was out for a year already we haven't even played the game yet and will know that it is horribly outdated and therefore it sucks. While I normally enjoy complaining about things I'd have to disagree with this. Just from playing the demo I can tell PSPo2 is a huge upgrade over PSU/PSPo1. Yeah the new stuff for the expansion sounds great but I can easily wait for it while playing PSPo2.
In other PSPo2 related news it seems Japan is getting an expansion called "Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity." Looks like it will add a new story line, a new race called "dumans", bring back a few old PSO monsters (seems to be Garanz, Dark Bringer and Olga Flow so far), and the ability to take screenshots along with other changes. It sounds interesting, hopefully PSPo2 does well enough here so this gets an English release.
According to this topic we should be angry about this announcement because even though the Japanese version was out for a year already we haven't even played the game yet and will know that it is horribly outdated and therefore it sucks. While I normally enjoy complaining about things I'd have to disagree with this. Just from playing the demo I can tell PSPo2 is a huge upgrade over PSU/PSPo1. Yeah the new stuff for the expansion sounds great but I can easily wait for it while playing PSPo2.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Slowdown? Impossible
Recently, a topic popped up on the official PSU forums asking players what they would like to see Sega fix in the game.
Not surprisingly, it seems that many players are hoping that Sega might address the slowdown that plagues the Xbox 360 version of the game. Unfortunately for these players, Sega will probably never fix the graphical slowdown problem, and this is one of the many reasons I lamented the shutdown of the PC/PS2 servers back in April.
As everyone knows, the Xbox 360 version of PSU is the only one you can play online in English (for now). Ever since the game's release, the Xbox 360 version suffered from a serious slowdown problem that affected many graphical areas of the game, the most infamous of which was the "robot lag" slowdown. The PS2 version also suffered from many of the same problems, though some PS3 owners have reported that PSU runs very well on that console with few of the slowdown problems that the game has on PS2. (I've never tried this so I can't confirm it.)
The Xbox 360 version of PSU seems to be the most poorly optimized of all three versions of the game. Fixing the game's graphical problems at this stage would likely require a lot of additional debugging and coding, followed by a large patch to release the changes. With the game coming up on its fourth anniversary in a few months, I personally don't think Sega will want to bother making any large-scale changes to the game such as this. That means that Xbox 360 players will most likely have to deal with the slowdown for the remainder of the game's lifetime. Nevertheless, debate in the forum has gone on for almost 100 posts, with the majority asking Sega to examine the issue and come up with a fix.
These kinds of discussions come up every once in a while on the official forums, and every time I see them I end up asking myself how the Xbox 360 version of PSU became the most popular. The PS2 version performs about on par with (and in some cases, better than) the Xbox 360 version, and the PC version of PSU has none of these issues! So forgive me if I still fail to understand why players chose the technically and graphically inferior Xbox 360 game over the PC/PS2 one.
I suppose I never will figure that out.
Not surprisingly, it seems that many players are hoping that Sega might address the slowdown that plagues the Xbox 360 version of the game. Unfortunately for these players, Sega will probably never fix the graphical slowdown problem, and this is one of the many reasons I lamented the shutdown of the PC/PS2 servers back in April.
As everyone knows, the Xbox 360 version of PSU is the only one you can play online in English (for now). Ever since the game's release, the Xbox 360 version suffered from a serious slowdown problem that affected many graphical areas of the game, the most infamous of which was the "robot lag" slowdown. The PS2 version also suffered from many of the same problems, though some PS3 owners have reported that PSU runs very well on that console with few of the slowdown problems that the game has on PS2. (I've never tried this so I can't confirm it.)
The Xbox 360 version of PSU seems to be the most poorly optimized of all three versions of the game. Fixing the game's graphical problems at this stage would likely require a lot of additional debugging and coding, followed by a large patch to release the changes. With the game coming up on its fourth anniversary in a few months, I personally don't think Sega will want to bother making any large-scale changes to the game such as this. That means that Xbox 360 players will most likely have to deal with the slowdown for the remainder of the game's lifetime. Nevertheless, debate in the forum has gone on for almost 100 posts, with the majority asking Sega to examine the issue and come up with a fix.
These kinds of discussions come up every once in a while on the official forums, and every time I see them I end up asking myself how the Xbox 360 version of PSU became the most popular. The PS2 version performs about on par with (and in some cases, better than) the Xbox 360 version, and the PC version of PSU has none of these issues! So forgive me if I still fail to understand why players chose the technically and graphically inferior Xbox 360 game over the PC/PS2 one.
I suppose I never will figure that out.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Life After the Supplemental Update (Updated)
Mid-July was an exciting time for US/EU PSU players. In a short period of time, Sega of America did a lot to increase the accessibility of the game for current players as well as former players looking to pick the game up again. The release of the supplemental update was followed by the appearance of vanilla PSU on Games on Demand, and the Ambition of the Illuminus expansion pack was made free for all users.
Personally, I thought that Sega's efforts in the last few weeks of July might be able to turn the game around for awhile. Their service in August has made me think otherwise.
Since the supplemental update landed on the US/EU servers one month ago, exactly one new mission has been added. That content update was followed by a week of no maintenance, and Sega of Japan has already announced that there will not be any maintenance this week, either.
I understand that it's the summer and a lot of people might be away on vacation or whatever. However, the frequency of updates post-supplemental update seems about the same as it did before the update appeared. It seems that Sega continues to express no interest in catching up to the JP servers as they pledged they would back when the PC/PS2 servers closed.
Of course, the supplemental update was pretty significant and there's a fair amount of new content to experience, but many players are beginning to run out of things to do and Sega is not doing anything to keep them playing. Let's hope that changes in the next couple of weeks.
UPDATE: Turns out Sega changed their mind and decided to do maintenance this week to fix a bug with the AMP feature. I don't think that really changes the content of this post, though!
Personally, I thought that Sega's efforts in the last few weeks of July might be able to turn the game around for awhile. Their service in August has made me think otherwise.
Since the supplemental update landed on the US/EU servers one month ago, exactly one new mission has been added. That content update was followed by a week of no maintenance, and Sega of Japan has already announced that there will not be any maintenance this week, either.
I understand that it's the summer and a lot of people might be away on vacation or whatever. However, the frequency of updates post-supplemental update seems about the same as it did before the update appeared. It seems that Sega continues to express no interest in catching up to the JP servers as they pledged they would back when the PC/PS2 servers closed.
Of course, the supplemental update was pretty significant and there's a fair amount of new content to experience, but many players are beginning to run out of things to do and Sega is not doing anything to keep them playing. Let's hope that changes in the next couple of weeks.
UPDATE: Turns out Sega changed their mind and decided to do maintenance this week to fix a bug with the AMP feature. I don't think that really changes the content of this post, though!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Overpriced PSU now available on Games on Demand
Well I was worried when this whole thing was announced without the price mentioned but today the Xbox website has confirmed my fear and lists PSU for $20. I'm not surprised it end up like this after all I did predict the price back in April.
It's quite a ridiculous price point considering I was able to pick up a new copy of PSU from Amazon for the same price back in 2006. Seriously the game should have been $10 or less. The game is too old and the whole update situation doesn't really seem to be changing to bother spending $20 on the original client.
Anyway I still can't see the game at this price bringing in many new players. Well enjoy your overpriced download of the worst PSU client. :V
It's quite a ridiculous price point considering I was able to pick up a new copy of PSU from Amazon for the same price back in 2006. Seriously the game should have been $10 or less. The game is too old and the whole update situation doesn't really seem to be changing to bother spending $20 on the original client.
Anyway I still can't see the game at this price bringing in many new players. Well enjoy your overpriced download of the worst PSU client. :V
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