Initial PSO2 System Requirements Revealed

The official Phantasy Star Online 2 Web site has been updated with the system requirements needed to play the game when the alpha test starts later this year. This is quite possibly the most interesting piece of PSO2 news to hit so far this year (other than the alpha test announcement, I guess!)

For those of you who don't feel like clicking through, here are the system specs you'll need to play:

Operating System
Windows XP SP3 x86 (32-bit)
Windows Vista SP2 x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit)
Windows 7 SP1 x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit)

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 or better (see this page for processor specs)

Memory (RAM)
At least 1.5 GB (2 GB for Windows Vista / 7 systems)

Hard Drive
At least 8GB free space required

Monitor Resolution
1280 x 720 (minimum)

Graphics Card
nVidia GeForce 7800GT (or equivalent) or better

Sound Card
DirectSound compatible (requires at least DirectX 9.0c)

DirectX Version
9.0c or higher

This news bodes well for those of us hoping for a PC-only release. PSO2's system requirements are already significantly higher than PSU's in several important categories. Here are some of the key system requirements for Phantasy Star Universe, taken straight from the back of the box:

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.6 GHz (2.6 GHz recommended)
Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 4 series / ATI Radeon 8500 series (64MB video RAM required)

Maybe this is an indication that consoles could have a hard time running the game at a decent frame rate. Of course, it could just be that Sega / Sonic Team are arbitrarily increasing the system requirements right now so that players with pieces of shit for computers don't register them to play the alpha test. Without any screenshots it's hard to tell what this information really means!