Happy Anniversary

On July 9, 2012, Sega of America officially announced that Phantasy Star Online 2 would be getting an English release in the United States and Europe.

Exactly one year later, I don't think anybody really knows how much closer we are to an English release – except Sega, and they aren't saying anything. Even the official PSO2 Web site looks the same as it did last year.

I must admit that Sega of America's silence in the face of withering criticism has been rather puzzling to me. In the time since the initial announcement was made, Sega has said almost nothing about the game (except that it was delayed). When Sega revealed the list of games being shown off at E3, and PSO2 wasn't one of them, their official blog was lit up with posts complaining about the lack of news.

Is there really nothing that Sega can say about the progress of this game's localization? Nothing that has changed since the announcement last year? At the very least Sega could try to offer some sort of explanation for the delay. Any news at this point would help stem the tide of rumors that an official English version of PSO2 is nothing more than high-profile vaporware.

There is some good news in all of this: so much time has passed since the initial announcement that casual fans may have forgotten about it already. Sega may be waiting until they're sure of a release date to announce the game again and bring these people back into the fold. (You never know what kind of crazy plans these marketing people are cooking up.)

For the rest of the community, though, a full year without news is ridiculous. Sega needs to either:

1. Provide some sort of explanation for the delay, or
2. Just say the English version is cancelled already so everyone can go play the Japanese version full-time

...I'm not holding my breath for either of those things to happen, though. Here's (not) hoping for another year of silence from Sega!

More From The PSO2 Rumor Mill

How's this for out-of-control speculation: a thread was posted on PSO-World (and later on the official forums) quoting a series of Twitter posts in which it was claimed that the US/European release of Phantasy Star Online 2 might have been cancelled due to widespread use of the English translation patch.

The speculation was that everyone who wanted to play PSO2 has already played the Japanese version with the English patch, so Sega of America figured that releasing an official translated version of the game may not be worth it.

Of course, this is nothing more than just another rumor. As many posters on the forums have noted, there is no official news from Sega that can even lend credibility to this story. Sega take note: this is what happens when you announce a game and then fail to provide any substantive news about it for months. Rumors like this will continue to crop up every now and again until Sega says something definitive about this game (and reiterating that the game is delayed is not definitive).

Theories and Thoughts

The lack of news regarding the Western version of PSO2 is understandably making some people restless and uneasy. It also seems to be prompting some speculation and ridiculous rumors about why Sega is not saying anything.

One of the more popular theories seems to be that Sega isn't saying anything about US/EU PSO2 because it has been canceled. Here's the bottom line: Sega has announced that the game is coming stateside, and even showed off a demo of the partially-translated game. Until Sega says anything to the contrary, this rumor is completely false. (Sega recently changed the official Phantasy Star Universe site to display the PSO2 site, so they obviously haven't changed their minds about the game lately.)

Some folks have also tried to attribute the lack of news to the recently publicized fiasco between Sega and Gearbox over the widely panned Aliens: Colonial Marines. Somehow, PSO2 isn't being released quickly enough in the West because Gearbox spent too much time working on Borderlands instead of Aliens, prompting Sega to spend too much time and money dealing with the delays. I'm pretty sure most businesses—even video game companies—don't plan projects this way. I highly doubt this is why PSO2 is taking so long.

I imagine that the real cause of the "delay" is that Sega is trying to determine how to best implement the Arks Cash system for a Western audience that may not embrace it the way the Japanese have. Either that, or localization is taking longer than expected – who knows. In any case, it's pretty clear that Sega will not have anything to say until the game is ready for prime time. That's a risky bet to make, in my opinion, but we'll see how it goes.

Now for my Thought of the Day: I think it would be hilarious if Sega of Japan put an IP block on the Japanese PSO2 servers. The volume of posts on the PSO-World forums from players rage-quitting the game forever (then claiming that the US version sucks and that they will never, ever, ever play it, not in a million years even if it was the last game on Earth) would likely knock the site off the Internet!

Everybody Relax

Earlier this week, Sega of Japan apparently updated the Terms of Service for Phantasy Star Online 2 to mention that connections to the game servers from outside Japan were no longer allowed (including via proxy). This sent the PSO-World forums into a panic and caused people to invent all kinds of crazy rumors about IP bans.

To make matters worse, gaming blog Kotaku apparently picked up on this community freak-out and posted their own poorly-worded take on the issue.

Here's the bottom line: despite what Kotaku and the folks on PSO-World would have you believe, nobody has been banned from the game servers for living outside Japan. So log on and play (after downloading the huge content patch), have fun, and RELAX!

The News Trickle Continues

Sega of America finished the Phantasy Star series review today with a posting for Phantasy Star Portable 2. A related post on the official forums mentioned that there would be more news next week, so the speculation will continue for another weekend.

Though we still don't know what the secret is, we're learning more about what it is not. On the Phantasy Star Facebook page, Sega has come out to debunk the theory held by some that Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity is the big announcement:

Right now there aren't plans for Infinity in the West. I know there are fans so I hope some day it is something we can do. I don't want to string anyone along with it though, just letting you know. :) Thank you for the support!

The pieces are slowly coming together. In addition to the hints given so far, many people in the community have now noticed that pso2.com, the presumed official site for Phantasy Star Online 2 in the United States and Europe, redirects to the Sega website.

We'll be watching closely for more next week.

PSO2 Announcement Possible This Week

For the last week, Sega of America has been publishing a Phantasy Star series retrospective of sorts on Facebook, Twitter, and the official Phantasy Star Universe forums.

Today, the trip back in time continued with Phantasy Star Portable. Sega's Twitter posting for this game included a not-so-subtle message and another possible hint:

PSP on the PSP! http://bit.ly/Q6c6lh If you're keeping track that's one PS game every day, in order, starting from the first. Hmmm.....

If Sega sticks to the Phantasy Star games released in the US, then there should be only two left in the retrospective: Phantasy Star Zero (tomorrow) and Phantasy Star Portable 2 (on Wednesday). Players with an interest in an English version of Phantasy Star Online 2 should keep an eye on the official forum thread beginning Thursday afternoon.

Of course, even if PSO2 does get an official English release, there are still some details that will affect whether people actually play it. Will the game have international servers? Will it receive regular, consistent content updates? Will it be given the same level of support as the Japanese game? Many players will probably stay away unless these questions are answered (or unless they're answered correctly). Hopefully Sega will provide the answers later this week.

And for those of you that aren't so sure Sega is building up to a PSO2 announcement... do you really think they would go to all this trouble to promote the shutdown of the PSU servers?

Is This Another Hint?

Last week, PSU GM Edward announced that the Xbox 360 Phantasy Star Universe servers would be shutting down in September. It was hinted at the time that despite this news, there was more in store for Phantasy Star in the near future.

Now, a thread has appeared in the official PSU forums chronicling the history of the series and providing links to Sega's Phantasy Star Facebook and Twitter pages.

There seems to be a purpose behind this. Call me crazy, but I think an English Phantasy Star Online 2 announcement is imminent. I don't see any reason why Sega would do anything like this right now unless the end result was an announcement of some kind. And as I mentioned before, PSO2 is probably the only Phantasy Star game that Sega could announce (or even hint at) that players would even care about at this point.

We'll be watching for developments over the next few days (and probably playing some of the PSO2 open beta too, come Thursday).

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.

Event Speculation Time

Something struck me as odd on the second read through the rollback compensation announcement. Specifically, this line --

[Compensation] will not be part of this week's maintenance, although [it] will likely be implemented by the end of this year. These bonuses will last until January 16th.

This seemed unusual because while no specific start date is given for the compensation, we know an exact end date of January 16. The implication seems to be that the compensation will end on the 16th regardless of when Sega actually gets around to rolling it out.

Therefore, I'm starting a rumor right here on this blog. It's just my own personal prediction, and it may or may not come to pass, so take it with a grain of salt:

The next event (probably the Lightning Carnival) will begin on Friday, January 16, 2009.

Think about it -- when was the last time Sega announced a specific end date for a timed event without providing a specific start date as well? Sega has to have big plans for the 16th. Otherwise, they could have given a specific time period for the compensation event. For example, "Once the compensation is implemented, it will run for two weeks."

With the current wording, though, the bonuses could last three weeks, two weeks, or even just one week depending on when they get added to the servers.

In any case, keep your eyes on the official PSU site in early January. It wouldn't surprise me if they announced something big.

Rollback Compensation?

It looks like the character-destroying glitch that occurred at the end of the past weekend's downtime was more serious than originally believed.

At approximately 11:00 PM EST Sunday evening, the Xbox 360 PSU servers were taken down for maintenance after players reported their characters and equipment gone. Unfortunately, Xbox 360 players got the short end of the stick here: not only did their maintenance last for a full six hours, server data was rolled all the way back to Friday morning, meaning that two days' worth of gameplay was lost.

By comparison, PC/PS2 server maintenance lasted only one hour, and servers were rolled back to Saturday evening's backup. PC/PS2 players lost approximately one hour of gameplay.

Now players on all of the servers are looking for compensation, and according to GM Edward, Sega of America may be willing to provide it:

We will be using what we cull from this thread to help fuel our discussion with Sonic Team on ways to compensate all players for this.

We will be posting something more official in a little bit regarding what happened & what we'd like to do. We'll be repeating there what I'm going to say here -- 3* luck will NOT be the only compensation awarded. That was something immediate & easy to do, so we did it.

Considering the fact that the PC/PS2 rollback was almost a complete non-issue, any compensation we get is just a bonus. I'll be eagerly awaiting this announcement!

Update Finally Coming?

The PSU GMs certainly seem confident that a content update is coming.

In yet another "lack of updates" complaint thread on the PSU forums, GM Edward had this to say:

Info from that [update feedback] thread has been gathered, formatted, and sent along. It is to help us organize things going forward with SOJ & content updates in general.

I do want to thank everyone who posted there, it was a terrific collection of your thoughts on the game and it was very helpful for all involved.

Content updates: Stay frosty, GUARDIANS. Silence to be broken very shortly.

If the past is any indicator of the future, I wouldn't count on Sega of Japan to change a damn thing in regards to how the NA/EU game is run. But is an update really coming?

We'll probably know what (if anything) is coming this week by the end of the day tomorrow. Only Sega knows if there's definitely a content update on the way, though this much is certain: we were promised new content within the next three weeks, and if it's not delivered, Sega will have hell to pay. (Or maybe everyone will just quit -- who knows?)

Stealth Maintenance Changes (and Breaks)

As is often the case in update weeks, Sega has managed to sneak a number of changes (besides the Halloween lobbies) into the game.

First and foremost, there seems to be a rumor floating around that the LV150+ Rappy Latan rare drop, the Pumpkin Trick, may not be findable due to a bug. Whether or not this bug is exclusive to the US/EU servers remains to be seen, but somehow it doesn't shock me that Sega would find a way to screw up even the very tiny Halloween update.

On the bright side, boss boxes in Bladed Legacy are fixed, according to this announcement on the official forums. That should draw people away from White Beast -- for at least a little while.

Finally, a few players have reported that boss box item drops in Electronic Brain S have been adjusted, and apparently a new ridiculous typo has been introduced to the game.

Joining the ranks of "Jigo Booma", "Go Bajilla", "Stag Cutralli", etc. is "Nel's Soul", a botched reference to Nei of classic Phantasy Star fame. With references to Nei (spelled correctly) already existing in the game, I honestly have no idea how that could have slipped past Sega's translators. Maybe they've been reading/watching too much Bleach lately -- but that's no excuse -- fix it!

One more bit of potential disappointing news before closing out this post: the fact that the Halloween update is sticking around for three weeks (until Nov. 21) can't be a good sign for future updates. If in fact no new content is released until then, expect all hell to break loose.

The Sliding Updates Continue

Looks like Sega's prediction of an event in October won't come to pass.

According to a post on the official PSU forums by GM ChillAura, the estimated date of the next event (which was the Dengeki "Lightning Carnival" on the JP servers) has slid out past the 24th of October due to "delays".

Although he didn't specify when the event would arrive on the US/EU servers, I estimate that we'll probably see it running from mid-November until the second week of December. If it's not here by then... Heaven help the US/EU PSU servers.

In the meantime, the next few weeks are shaping up to be boring as hell.

What? There's More?

The outlook for Phantasy Star Universe might be bleak in the United States and Europe, but that doesn't seem to be the case in Japan as of yet.

In fact, things are apparently so good over there that Sonic Team may have decided to begin work on another expansion pack for PSU! According to this article on Shougai PSO (untranslated), this news was revealed yesterday in a press conference at the Tokyo Game Show. Of course, very little information was provided about this "update", but it's interesting news nonetheless.

If this expansion or update actually happens, though, I'm skeptical that it will ever see the light of day in the United States. The game is on life support at the moment, and I just don't know if Sega of America will want to risk working on another expansion for a niche game. A lot of people said the same thing about the Ambition of the Illuminus expansion, though, and look where we are now.

This is still a long way off, so don't worry too much about it just yet.

(This news was first reported stateside in this thread over at PSO-World. A discussion on the official Sega PSU forums can also be found here.)

Server Shutdown Rumors Abound

Yesterday, a popular PSU fansite posted a translation of an article from Famitsu.com in which Sonic Team discusses the successes and failures of Phantasy Star Universe and Phantasy Star Online.

At the end of the article is a very interesting piece of information. Sonic Team compiled a graph showing the server population trends for the JP PC/PS2, NA PC/PS2, and XBox 360 game servers. What it shows is that while the JP PC/PS2 and XBox 360 server populations have stabilized over the last few months, the NA PC/PS2 servers have posted a slow 9-month decline.

Apparently, this information has been translated into some sort of nasty rumor that Sega is planning to pull the plug on the NA/EU PC/PS2 servers sometime in the future. I'm not sure how that happened, but it certainly seems baseless right now. Sega of America reps have stated on at least one occasion that they would not shut down the PC/PS2 servers if the game remained profitable overall in the United States and Europe. I interpret that to mean that if both the PC/PS2 and XBox 360 servers are pulling in enough combined money to keep things afloat, then everything will be fine.

However, if the PC/PS2 servers were to shut down, I think a lot of people would quit for good. Getting started in this game can be difficult, and many people might not want to put in the effort again. Plus, the XBox 360 version of PSU is still plagued with various performance problems that might make some PC players go crazy.

The bottom line, though, is that there's no reason to panic yet. Sega of America has not provided any indications that they plan to shut down the servers now or in the future. The PSU community seems to eat these kinds of rumors up, and I still can't understand why that is. Just keep on playing, and deal with the problems when (and if) they arise.