Sega snuffing Phantasy Star Universe on PS2, PC

I'm really disappointed with SEGA shutting down the PSU Server.

There were two primary warning signs that forecast this inevitable event. 1) SEGA 2) PAY PER MONTH The franchise in general is incredibly mediocre and not worth much in terms of game play; though I guess the numbers show that. Still, I feel for those who wasted their time, money, and faith on a company that doesn't care. To them, running a server that has little profits or losses to make people happy isn't worth it -- but he backlash it will cause will be much more costly. They should've kept it up and running until the next game where people would simply jump ship and feel less betrayed. Though this should show them the end point of Sega Online games so they don't waste any more time with them. As much as people would probably hate to hear this... If you want online play, stick with Blizzard. Their Battle.net has been up for some 14 years and they're still making improvements on it -- version 2.0 is almost ready to go with their next generation games and the original diablo will still be supported. Oh, yeah... and it's free.

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Chromehounds ... PSU ... Whos gonna have the next servershutdown ? Dont Buy Sega games. They will enjoy themself shutting every good game that kids dont go and adult just have a blast playing it !

lol People who question why anyone would buy a game for an older system are noobs. It's not about the newness of the console or the game, it's about the gameplay of the games themselves, and there are some kickass games on older systems that are as good as anything on newer ones.

Why is everyone hung up on Sega charging people to play. Thats how a business works. PSU was a fun game. Its hack and slash and collect and hunt rares. Very simple formula. People saying they want some effort into the franchise need to play the game first and I dont mean for 5 minutes. I got to level 125 on the Xbox 360 and met some cool people. When I finally quit I bought the PS2 version so i could play offline.

i own a ps2 it a great system and just because it old doesn't give you the right to insult the people that buy it or the system it's self

@ebookerd1 i agree i cant believe people still buy these things

If you purchaed this game on PS2 yesterday, I ask you, "Why not save your money and get a new console instead of playing 5 year old dusty fart cray?" please people we have to move on with our live and games.

I am outraged that they are no longer supporting the Dreamcast. I am even more outraged they are no longer supporting Sega Master system.....

I bought the game shortly after it came out, but I was really disappointed... and the sky-high price of the online play (something like €19.99 per month) was too hefty for me...

Go get a 360 now!

Is this the same SEGA that owns Creative Assembly....? Oh, wait a minute, Empire Total war and next Napoleon Total War.... Yes, it is!!!

"k2theswiss Posted Jan 27, 2010 1:48 am GMT @AjaxsLastStand are you really judging a game off the amount of post it got on a forums. Just wow you must be a sad kid where you feel so lonely you only play games where the whole world is right? no matter how bad or good it is to you even if its not your style of game right? w/e thats your way have fun with that" I am judging it based on its posts. Why? Because an MMO is only going to operate if there is support from players. This means in game and in terms of player generated feedback. If neither are there, the MMO will fail. You can go ahead and criticize me in your own sad way, but you're out of your mind if you want to tell me I'm wrong. Bottom line: an MMO's success is contingent upon the support of players. When an MMO says it's going to shut down a good chunk of its servers due to lack of population and THAT FEW people protest it, the makers of the MMO have very good reason to shut it down. I'm sorry you can't understand the simple logic in that. But hey, that's your problem and not mine, right?

To be expected from Sega, as things were not so good for them lately.

Ummmmmm the servers could be made into one, just throttle users more users of one type means less of another type..or maybe you know....for server side stuff.....a one server fits all kinda deal...maybe? *sigh*

I wish someone would put some effort into this franchise, it has been one of my favorites ever since the dreamcast version. It really is a revolutionary game in terms of its community and trading. If somebody could pick this up and actually do something to it, while also taking that ridiculous 10 dollar fee off it would be one of the most popular mmo's on a console. Oh and a graphics update from dreamcast level wouldnt be a bad idea either.

I stopped playing the game a couple weeks after it's release when Sega said the Japanese players deserve all the new content first, and that North Americans would have to wait as long as Japanese players did for content updates because it makes it "fair" to the Japanese players. That's not how you run a business, you give everyone the content at once.

Paying $10 a month to play this was a joke anyway.

Love phantasy star but i cant stand the whole time hit thing. Lemmi just hack and slash a bit rrrrg! and next time make a true next gen looking game maybe that will bring even some new comers along to play the game. Sega has a bad rep on just dumping its fans and users from left to right. Sad move.

Here is the link its cheap and You can play almost every single quest offline. << LINK REMOVED >>

I have never seen so many negative comments from people that never even played this game. Oh and I love how everyone is now a PSO fan. Give me a break. PSU is a very fun game . Those that want to continue offline you can buy PSU AOTI and get to level 200. Get this game because its becoming rare. On the other hand this is a business. Sega cant support something for free.

PSU turned me off when I learned there was no four-player offline mode. My friends and I still play PSO offline on Gamecube (well, through the Wii) to this day just because of how much fun it is. But the franchise is still moving...after all, Phantasy Star Portable 2 is out in Japan and hopefully coming to America, and PSZero was recently released for DS, so shutting down the servers for an older game to free up money to develop newer ones is a good thing. People complaining about the shutdown don't realize that they must be in the minority, since the servers were obviously sparsely populated... meaning that people weren't playing anymore, at least not on PS2.

This is cruddy. Could see it coming when they made it on PS2. Glad i'm on the 360 servers. =-)

I stopped playing after a couple weeks. I was surprised to hear it was still running at all when I heard about it a couple months back.

Bull, man, I went and bought this game just yesterday.

Well, their servers lasted way longer than Resident Evil Outbreak. And especially Outbreak File #2. File 2's servers must have went down a month or two after the games release!

i tried playing this online for about a day. it was just like the one player mode but with the cut scenes removed

I think it has to do with sega refocusing its online structures/etc. for this new rumored console they may be releasing this year.

@FriendBear It wasn't THAT great.

I'm actually shocked there were a good number of people who still play PSU. I remember there was a lot of hype for this game before it came out, but it turned out to be a lackluster compared to PSO.

Sega just down the servers pretty fast on PSO now their new game. I guess people didn't learn. Even SE has FFXI running after 8 years still. You could play something like WoW now that won't shut down for awhile.

I think it serves as a good reminder to not overly invest our lives into online gaming. Too many players cheat/hack/argue over virtual prizes that, at the end of the day, cannot be taken with any of us when game ends. A good journey in itself is the reward. Gaining loots and levels by ways of cheating just ruins that reward.

Good thing servers like Xbox Live is far from over. :)

I can't beleive people are suprised by this. Look at what they did to Phantasy Star Online on Dreamcast. It ran smooth even on a 56k (at least it did for me I never had lag). I will tell you something else PSO was FREE on Dreamcast. Then it hit PS2 and all the sudden its 15 bucks a month. How does the game go from free to 15 dollars a month. Pure greed thats how. History repeats itself. I say if you really want SEGA to know how you feel just forget PSO and the 15 a month and let em lose thier franchise.. Maybee after losing a valued franchise they will wake up. Probably not though.

The biggest problem that affected PSU was the rampant hackers in the early days, shops/items/money was stolen, deleted - accounts hacked and characters deleted. Sega of which did next to nothing to stop them, this is why so many people quit PSU...as if Sega didn't learn from PSO which has similar hacker issues. Overall, it was a great game just destroyed by jerks, I'm sad to see it die but it was coming..

I'm not into this game but it's still sad to see things that people like go away forever.

I played PSO for a while, it was great before the era when SWG and WoW existed. But in all reality, this game is beyond its time. I look forward to what Sega might have up their sleeve next.

saw it coming. They never advertised the game one time to the public. the only reason i even heard about it was because i happened to see a friend play it. Word of Mouth for a MMO hack slash isn't really the greatest way to get your game out there. -1 for you, Sega.

Monthly fee for a half baked mmo sort of hack and slash. No thank you, whatever happen to having just that 4 player coop experience instead of having to hook up with other people in a hub.

this is the kinda thing that has me shy away from games i dont play 100% on my own console (server side freaks me out!), imagine if Valve goes under... i know i know... but weirder things have happened, i would be out so much $$ from Steam... If you like a game enough that you'll want to play it years from now (I still love games like bushido blade, incredible crisis, and super tecmo bowl), then i still say get a hard copy, digital is just too easy to lose. Such is the fate of ALL mmo's.... although everquest is still going huh? and boy i really wanna try star trek online.....

wow thats rare isnt it an MMO continuing on the 360 and not pc. Well the game had a good run i guess. Maybe a psu private server will pop up because i know theres a psobb one.

Such a great MMO...Why do you have to end it Sega? :(

I kinda wonder if they're even gonna put forth the effort to make an offline version this time. That way at least ps2 owners get to play episode 3 if they haven't yet.

I was a big fan of PSO and hated PSU and this isn't the first time sega has hinted at new phantasy star games,I'm excited to see what is coming. Also phantasy star portable 2 is online,if it comes to the US I'll be happy.

This aren't bad news at all, this could mean a new Phantasy Star. That would be very sweet.

Marcusraitor i wholeheartedly agree. Looks like the psp is the foreseeable future for this series.

They should have just made the game with shared servers across all three platforms. Seriously. The whole reason I didn't get this game is because I couldn't play it on my 360 with my friends who had the PC version.

I Hate Online Games And Digital Distribution. You Never Own The Game.

This is exactly why I protest these on-line games. You put out so much money for it but you never "own" it. Your fate solely rests in the hands of the developer.