• Xbox 360 Demo Servers to Shutdown on March 7th

    Edward, a Sega GM, posted a notice on the Sega forums announcing that the Phantasy Star Universe Xbox 360 Demo servers will be shutdown permanently on March 7th. The reasons cited for shutting down the demo servers include the feasibility of maintaining the servers and the staff's desire to focus on the full version of the game. Demo players are encouraged to purchase the full version of the game from Microsoft Games on Demand and take advantage of the free Ambition of the Illuminus upgrade. At the moment, no official events have been planned in anticipation of the shutdown.

    Having been online for 1,606 days (4 years, 4 months, and 22 days), the sudden shutdown of the demo servers does come as a surprise. Still, the demo version are hardly representative of the current state of the full game. Having never been updated, the demo version represents the highly restricted, unpolished launch version of Phantasy Star Universe from 2006. Even though occasional events were held on the demo servers during the first year, it has received little formal attention since then.

    Credit goes to Amaury for bringing us this news. You can discuss this story in this on-going forum thread.

    Comments 14 Comments
    1. Zarode's Avatar
      Zarode -
      And don't let the door hit you on the way out.
    1. goldbrease's Avatar
      goldbrease -
      It took longer then i thought really.
      i'm curious as to what will happen next, i mean they haven't updated it so that means they have just let it run pretty much. i don't see how them taking it down will let them focus solely on the full version when they didn't do anything to the demo as it is. an omen of sega getting ready to close the plug? or maybe they are simply killing it to save a few bucks on the power bill?
    1. DieannaKill's Avatar
      DieannaKill -
      Hahaha finally!! :P
    1. PSU Phere's Avatar
      PSU Phere -
      wow... that took long enough. now all of the beginners will have to PAY in order to get on, at least this'll put an end to all of the "demo noobs".... maybiblic... xP
    1. JCGamer's Avatar
      JCGamer -
      XD Indeed man about time too XD
    1. JCGamer's Avatar
      JCGamer -
      maybe that can be the case. but look at the positive of what Sega might gonna do.
      1.More update for the full version
      2.Lag switch problem can be fixed
      3.maybe see more of the gm doing there jobs XD
    1. BanF's Avatar
      BanF -
      If anyone really thinks we'll see improvements in the full game due to shutting down the demo (thank God for that, tho) I have a People's Republic of China I can sell you.
    1. goldbrease's Avatar
      goldbrease -
      for
      1. well.... how will this allow them to focus on updates more when they did nothing to the beta in the first place? it sat there with no one tending to it.
      2. lag switch problem? only way to stop lag switchers is to ban them. also they don't do special patches for the us version, they directly bring over the jp patches in the exact order they were released in jp. so if jp had a fix you will have to wait for every update that occurred before it to be implemented before its released.
      3. again the gms had nothing to do with the demo, if the gms were not doing anything before they wont be doing anything now.
    1. bupjo's Avatar
      bupjo -
      i thought the demo was shut down a long time ago. focus on the full version? i know we all got excited thinking Sega would catch us up to the japanese version when they shut down the PS2 version, what makes anyone think they will "focus" on the 360 version with any serious updates and new content. i give the 360 version maybe another year before they officially shut it down. but what do i know...
    1. Jin wonder's Avatar
      Jin wonder -
      I just found out yesterday they shut down the demo lol. I was gunna ask someone if anything interesting like an event was happening on the real game but it seems to me like the same ol' same ol'.... I agree on how some you guys cant see a change within the game at all, seriously focus on the game now? right..... i dont think demo people gunna pay to come at all, maybe a few, but not most of em thats for sure. And the ones that will come straight from the demo will be either 1. be tempted to pay cause a friend hyped him/her up bout it or 2. they really like the game and have the money and time to put in the game
    1. stark096's Avatar
      stark096 -
      If you ask most of the people playing the game now Iwill bet that over 50% played the demo before they purchased the whole game.Now you buy the game from xbox in competition with 100 other games that do have demos.Most people will buy something they have taken for a test drive.The result in my opinion does not look good.fewer newbies meen less revenues and we all know what that means.
    1. goldbrease's Avatar
      goldbrease -
      sega wants to kill the game?
    1. Lacen's Avatar
      Lacen -
      They killed the demo after the PC/PS2 servers were shutdown like over a year prior to that... That's sad... Pathetic and sad... =.=; What do I know? I played from like the first month of PSU launch on the PC till the end of the lifespan of that server... Seems like if you want the FULL Phantasy Star Universe experience... Play on the JP server... Can't believe how much stuff they've added so far... Even from Portable 2 like maps and stuff. @.@;;; Crazy.
    1. Zimbabwe's Avatar
      Zimbabwe -
      Like the demo or not, you can't deny the fact that if Sega had never maintained the PSU demo for such a long time, there would be a lot less paying customers playing the full version now.
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