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Tag: Sega
Phantasy Star Online 2 Heads Westward on Xbox and PC
Phantasy Star Online 2. Most of you have probably given up hope of this 2012 title ever coming to the west, but those who kept up their hopes have been handsomely rewarded. Today’s E3 conference brought the announcement that Sega will finally be bringing the MMORPG to the west.
Players of PSO2 become a member of a research expedition called “Arks,” which belong to a fleet of interplanetary cruising ships, setting out to a research a variety of different planets. Visiting places for the mission (quest) always evolves into a fresh and surprising adventure, including auto-generated maps, sudden events, and a Multiplayer Party Area, where up to 12 players can play together simultaneously.
PC and Xbox gamers will finally be able to get their hands on the free to play title in 2020 with crossplay between the two platforms.
[NM] Sonic Mania Gets Review Bombed Over Unannounced DRM
Sonic Mania is the latest target of Steam review bombing as users leave frustrated, negative reviews to protest unannounced design decisions.
Launched on PC just yesterday, Sonic Mania is currently on the receiving end of a number of negative reviews in response to Sega’s decision to use Denuvo DRM. While Denuvo has shown to be quite divisive among the community, the news of its presence in Sonic would likely have not drawn as much controversy were it not for Sega omitting it from any advertising prior to release.
Sega has stated that the omission was a mistake and that the game being unplayable offline was entirely unintended and would be investigated along with reports of issues with controller setups. Sega Europe released a statement earlier today, deploying a patch to fix offline mode.
Denuvo is a form of Digital Rights Management that has been employed by a number of developers over the years. Its goal is to prevent piracy by performing regular checks on the copy’s legitimacy. For many titles, this protection translates to an inability to play offline, as the game will not function without a solid connection to the Denuvo servers. It appears that Sonic Mania was an unintended victim of this protection, as Sega has patched the game to function offline.
Sonic Mania still has a mostly positive rating, despite the aggravated customers.
PSO2 Delayed, Not Cancelled
Is Phantasy Star Online 2 coming to the west? Some say yes, some say no, and I’m just referring to Sega on different days of the week. We learned from sources last October that Sega didn’t think that the game would be profitable enough to launch in North America and Europe. As it stands, however, Sega recently replied to a tweet for information with a note that they are still working on bringing the game westward.
PSO2 is still delayed. SEGA is currently working on bringing PSO2 to the West and will update as soon as we know more.
More news as it appears.
(Source: VG247)
Is Relic Localizing Phantasy Star Online 2?
Earlier this year, gamers were dismayed to hear that Phantasy Star Online 2 would likely not be making it to the west, despite the game being fully translated into English for certain Asian regions. The news wasn’t a definite no, but allegedly Sega doubts the game’s ability to gain traction in Europe and the Americas. Luckily, that may not be the case. At the beginning of the year, Relic Entertainment was sold to Sega as part of THQ’s bankruptcy. A job listing has popped up on Relic’s website for a programmer/engineer to work on a live MMO from Japan.
Among the list of duties and requirements are:
- Ramp up and perform due diligence on an existing live MMO project in development in Japan, embedded with the live team
- 5+ years’ engineering experience from PC client/server based MMO development
It could be Phantasy Star Online 2, or it could be some other property.
(Source: Relic Careers)
Phantasy Star Online 2 Isn't Coming Westward
The good news is that Phantasy Star Online 2 is fully localized in English and ready to go for a launch in the west. The bad news? It will likely never launch here. According to an undisclosed source in an article by Tristan Oliver over at TSSZ, Phantasy Star Online 2’s localization will only be rolling out to English speaking Asian countries. Sega hasn’t officially shot down any prospects of the title coming to the Americas and Europe, however the source speculates that there may be enough doubt that the game would be profitable in the west to prevent the game from ever making its way overseas.
Sega has been silent about a western launch since their appearance at the Penny Arcade Expo last year. Some gamers are already playing PSO2 on the Japanese servers with English patches, and you can too with this handy guide from Kotaku.
(Source: TSSZ)
Phantasy Star Online 2 Isn’t Coming Westward
The good news is that Phantasy Star Online 2 is fully localized in English and ready to go for a launch in the west. The bad news? It will likely never launch here. According to an undisclosed source in an article by Tristan Oliver over at TSSZ, Phantasy Star Online 2’s localization will only be rolling out to English speaking Asian countries. Sega hasn’t officially shot down any prospects of the title coming to the Americas and Europe, however the source speculates that there may be enough doubt that the game would be profitable in the west to prevent the game from ever making its way overseas.
Sega has been silent about a western launch since their appearance at the Penny Arcade Expo last year. Some gamers are already playing PSO2 on the Japanese servers with English patches, and you can too with this handy guide from Kotaku.
(Source: TSSZ)
Phantasy Star Universe Sunsets
For Western players, the Phantasy Star Universe has already been over. Originally launched in 2006, Sega first began the MMO’s eventual closure by shutting down the North American and European servers on the PC and Playstation 2 in March 2010. Following, PS2 support in Japan was discontinued in April 2011, and just this month we saw the closure of the Xbox360 servers. Well, yesterday the game has finally come to a close with the closure of Japan’s remaining Phantasy Star Universe servers.
Any remaining Guardian Cash for players will be refunded as Phantasy Star Online 2 credit or as Webmoney AC. The shut down was originally announced at the end of July, and for the last month of service, players were granted access to PSU’s premium course for free.
Phantasy Star Universe Sunsetting For Good In September
While Playstation and PC users already had their experience cut short two years ago, 360 gamers who enjoy a bit of Phantasy Star Universe will be sorely disappointed to hear that the game will be shutting its last doors later this year. In an announcement on the Sega forums, Edward@Sega detailed that servers will come down September 7th, 2012, and that while “network mode” will no longer be available, Phantasy Star Universe will still be playable in single player.
This was not an easy decision but there comes a time when we must consider the level of service and support we can provide for an ongoing game, and balance those concerns against preparing for the future, and providing you with new opportunities and new experiences.
Players with subscriptions extending past September will be refunded by Microsoft on a pro-rated basis. You can read Edward’s notes and his eulogy at the link below. Phantasy Star Online 2 is due for release in Summer 2012 as a free to play title for PC, with versions out for the iOS and Android devices by the end of 2012, and a version for Playstation Vita coming in early 2013.
(Source: SCEA Forums)
MMO Fallout 