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.