SEGA recently announced Phantasy Star Online 2, giving us just a glimpse, at TGS last year. What they did show disappointed some console owners, it was only listed for Windows PC. Now its time for use to tell you why this game needs to be on consoles.
SEGA has starved the console fanbase
Phantasy Star Universe came out in 2006, almost five years ago. Even though the game had a lot of hype and lots of old fans were super excited, the game mostly received negative marks and lots of fans decided to stick with the original on private servers.
In those five years since Universe came out, SEGA have found a strong market in Japan for the franchise with their Phantasy Star Portable games on the PSP. Both of which have sold over one million units in Japan alone. The third game in the series Phantasy Star Portable 2:Infinity will release this year.
It is obvious that most of SEGA’s Phantasy Star userbase now-a-days owns a handheld and most handheld owners will probably find it easier to move to a console than a full gaming PC. Just makes sense and is an easier upgrade, if the fans have to, to get into the new ‘big’ Phantasy Star game.
Final Fantasy XIV sucked and is delayed on PS3
Square Enix has already released their popular MMO franchise on PC, but it received really low ratings, thus the publisher delayed the PS3 one even further and has even issued an apology. Lots of fans got angry at Square-Enix over the game and moved on to other games, at least PC gamers.
I remember playing Phantasy Star Universe, the month it came out and most of the users on the game were Final Fantasy XI regulars who bought the game to try something new. I actually played the game regularly with them, but sadly they did not last. They said that even though they had fun, there was not enough content to warrant the monthly price tag.
So yes, they left back to FFXI, but this time SEGA is in the position to deliver a bigger, better game with more content to draw in crowds from underwhelming games, like Final Fantasy XIV. Since Final Fanatasy XI was the biggest MMO from Japan, striking them on all platforms when they are down is something SEGA should really do.
Console gamers hungry for MMOs
Yes, I know that technically Phantasy Star Online and Phantasy Star Universe isn’t ‘considered’ an MMO, but most users feel that it is. It might not have the big over world like World of Warcraft, but most publications still consider it a ‘MMO game’. Who knows, maybe Phantasy Star Online 2 will feature a massive over world. If so, I think its the right move for the franchise because console gamers want these type of games.
Sony recently released the first big ‘MMO’ on consoles this generation, DC Universe Online. The game was delayed so long, that I just assumed it would fail horribly when it did come out, quite the opposite happen. Sony braced servers for big traffic, when the game came out, users reported that all servers where full. What happens now? Sony has to put up more servers. If that was not enough, the game sold out in most Europe shops.
The best part is that DC Universe Online tries to play like an action game, just like a game I’m writing an article about. (hint: Phantasy Star Online)
Pay-to-play PC games are failing
[Lord of the Rings Online recently went Free-to-play]
Yes, you have your smashing success stories like World of Warcraft, but sadly, lots of big budgeted MMOs, which are pay-to-play are failing terribly. Most of them have a big IP to back them up and have turned into free to play titles or canceled all together.
The obvious is that most games just can’t compete with World of Warcraft. Sure some MMOs find success, but they will just be a speck compared to the behemoth that is WOW’s userbase.
If SEGA thinks they can pull PC users, to come and pay for their game on PC, they are delusional. Maybe they will get a good following in Japan, but in America? I wouldn’t count on it. Not after big titles like Lord of the Rings Online and many others have fallen victim to WOW. Not to mention, the only reason Phantasy Star Universe had a fallowing was because they released it on PS2 and 360, the 360 only servers being the biggest.
Phantasy Star fans owns consoles, which leads me to my next point…
Phantasy Star Online was created for consoles
How can you have a sequel only on PC, when the original game was made to run on the Dreamcast, a console? It was a console game, from the first day it came out. This is probably the number one reason SEGA should release it on a console, how are you going to release an anniversary game for a game that changed online gaming on consoles, exclusively to the PC?
Most users will say that the game should come out for a SEGA console then, since the Dramcast was a SEGA console. I agree, but won’t happen. Nothing wrong with having a Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 port of the game. I’m sure many fans will appreciate this. Not only that, it will rake in more sales, as proven above that the PC market is flooded with MMOs and console games want their fix of these types of games.
If SEGA ignores all of this, just read this “3 platforms > 1 platform”. Thank you.
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Yes, console ports please. The PC master race can have their version too, but don't forget where your larger SEGA fan base resides. Just make sure to keep it PS3/360. They already have the infrastructure and HDDs to handle a game like PSO well.
Agreed whole heartedly… BUT I do think that the game should be designed with PC in mind then ported to console, downscaling for the limitations. Not the other way around.
Console ports to PC are never quite as good as current PC games.
I also think PSO2 really NEEDS to be free2Play and have in-game cash shops. You'll bring in a much bigger and healthier community if it is free to play and make money off of the 10% of weirdos that spend hundreds buying new outfits.
Finally the game needs to launch with out any hitches, enough servers to take all of the players and enough content to keep them coming back for months, even years… I would suggest some kind of randomly generated levels similar to PSO:Zero, but on a much bigger scale… For example, imagine re-running Forest 1 from PSO multiple times but each time the level lay out, enemy spawn locations are different… Endless fun.
In my opinion, yeah, it should come to consoles, but only one of them, PS3.
While it would be possible for PC and PS3 players to play together, the same can't be said for XBox 360, because of Microsoft policies.
Why leave the 360 out of it just because they can't play with PC gamers? If anything, 360 deserves it more than the PS3 simply because the 360 has such a large PSU fanbase. Not to mention the PS3 is already getting Final Fantasy XIV.
I see both Ezodagrom and Barrys point of view here.
While the biggest PSU fanbase is on 360 having to have a mini fanbase with their own servers and their own updates will be money and time consuming for Sega.
Microsoft are being asshats, there is no good reason they couldn't have 360 and PC servers linked.
I think it could be possible for PC and 360 servers to be linked (through Games for Windows Live), but there's no way the PS3 servers would be linked with the 360.
The biggest PSU fanbase is not on the 360, the biggest PSU fanbase is on the Japanese servers, and on Japan the PS3 is much more popular than the 360.
If there's a console release, and if the servers will be linked, it's much more likely for a PS3+PC release than a 360+PC release, since the online Phantasy Star series are more popular on Japan.
Nice story and one I definitely agree with. I definitely was surprised to PSO2 being PC-exclusive, since this franchise was never PC-exclusive. It developed all its fans on consoles and on portables, and that's quite a different group (especially the portable market) from PC gaming, *especially* in Japan, where PC gaming isn't even all that big, apparently.
So I hope Sega considers these factors and gives us a multiplat release.
I'm not worried at all… I have little doubt that it'll be announced for at least one other HD console and I suspect both.
Games for Windows Live is possible, but unlikely. I think it would be the best way to go though, PlayStation 3's security is ruined and Sony cannot fix it. Plus funding and servers provided free from Microsoft is tempting.
I hope it comes to everything if possible.
It's going to be ported. They just haven't announced it yet.
Agreed with Sanus, when it comes to SEGA games I'm all for releases to everything (except the Wii, jk, Wii could never handle PSO2).
I hope it comes out for consoles since there's no way my out dated computer could handle this game.
I have a feeling that games graphics are going to be really good. Maybe even way too advanced for 360/PS3. Do you really want a downgraded watered down port? Even then, the PC servers are probably going to get updates much more frequently before the console versions do.
I'd support a console release. But in the end, all I will see is "YOU HAVE INFERIOR VERSION!"
The Security on XBOX PSO was great. On Dreamcast it wasn't good at all. I lost my character to some idiot hacker with a game shark on Dreamcast. I had 60 hours into it. That wasn't a lot to some people, but I worked full time and played a little in the evenings. when the XBOX version came out I sold my Dreamcast and bought the XBOX version. That plus the fact that Orta was coming out on XBOX I felt betrayed with the Dreamcast.
Anyway, any platform is fine with me, but I don't have a headset for the PS3.
-Autosaver
Too advanced for 360/Ps3? Are you crazy? Sega could never afford something like that.
Considering its an online game and online games never have the graphical edge over offline games, I don't think that'll be the issue.
Although I'm quite sure we will still be impressed graphically.
About graphics quality, hopefully SEGA won't do the same mistake as Square Enix with Final Fantasy XIV, which even with low graphics settings needs a strong pc.
Since they're making the game for the PC (or I think they are), instead of being a port, it's likely that it will scale well between different configurations (or so I hope).
Ideally the graphics settings would go from very low settings (requiring PCs capable of at least running PSU with frame skip 1 or 2), to medium settings (PCs capable of running PSU with max settings plus shadows, settings used on possible consoles versions), to very high settings (above consoles quality, requiring at least mid-end gaming PCs).
Just as an afterthought here, I don’t really play games because they look nice, but because they are fun. Honestly, if they released PS02 with PS0 graphics just with better gameplay and more features, I would still buy it without hesitation. This is obviously not true for many gamers, particularly PC enthusiasts, but for me it all comes down to the quality of the gameplay. Also, couch co-op is pretty much the only reason I even care about PS0.