Phantasy Star Online 2 is a modern reboot of the Phantasy Star Online series, an online franchise that originally started on the Dreamcast. PSO2 has previously been released, in Japan, for Windows PC in 2012, PS Vita in 2013, iOS & Android (in spinoff form) in 2014 and now PlayStation 4 in 2016.
Check out the opening for Phantasy Star Online 2.
This news was revealed at the Japan Arks Festival. It will be published by Sega, naturally. Sega also revealed that a new “revolutionary” Reborn: Episode 4 for PSO2 will be released in 2016.
And more heavy promotion is coming for PSO2 in the Land of the Rising Sun, where Sega will be holding a “fan appreciation festival” in six cities across the island nation in celebration of Phantasy Star Online’s 15th Anniversary. These PSO festivals will run from December 23rd to March 21st, and an anime will begin airing in Japan soon as well.
Here is a trailer for the PSO2 anime.
Phantasy Star Online 2 has over 3 million registered users across Japan & Asia, but the game has yet to be given a Western release in any capacity. Even with that, English gamers CAN play the game as Sega released an Phantasy Star Online 2 official English patch for PC.
With PSO2 now coming to PlayStation 4, and with the huge sales of Sony’s next-generation console, as well as the gradual but ever-increasing release of both free & paid MMO’s to the PS4 & Xbox One, there is a much better chance that Sega may deem the West with an official PSO2 release now that the game is officially coming to PS4.
If you want the game, be sure to contact Sega of America and demand it! Remember, game companies can’t know how many people are interested unless you let them know!
Here’s a video of PSO2 running in English.
Wow. I didn’t even know there WAS a Phantasty Star Online 2 until I wrote this story.
I never played the PSO games, but I heard a great many things about Phantasy Star Online in the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly, and I know it has a pretty huge cult-following.
It’s a bit bewildering that Sega has never simply re-released Phantasy Star Online for modern consoles. Particularly the GameCube/Xbox compilation, “Phantasy Star Online I&II”, along with the even-lesser-played but critically acclaimed GameCube sequel, Phantasy Star Online III: C.A.R.D. Revolution.
You’d think with the popularity of MMO’s, and the cult-status of PSO, that someone would have seen the light & re-released them for a new generation of gamers by now.
Maybe now that PSO2 is coming to PS4, Sega will wise-up and re-release the old titles, followed by the new one. It seems to me that there’d be a huge amount of gamer-interest if they did.
Am I right?
Do you hope to see Phantasy Star Online 2 released in the West?