News Item: AOTI Free To Download Starting June 30th!

[Max B]

Attention, GUARDIANS!

I’d like to be the first to let you know about a special announcement – starting on Wednesday, June 30th, the Ambition of the Illuminus will be a FREE download over Xbox Live !

No voucher code is needed, and no rebate will be required. Anyone who needs it will simply be able to download it for free (although it will still require the original game to play). This is a thank-you to our loyal players for their years of support, and it also helps us to advance PSU into the future. Consider it the first step in lining up much more for Phantasy Star Universe down the line!

Stay tuned – we have lots more news to come, and good things just around the corner!
Bon appétit.

[Dhylec]

It could have been earlier, but hopefully, this will help attract new & returning PSU players. ;]

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

It didn't hit front page PSU Official English site news yet, for whatever reason, but here it is:

http://forums.sega.com/showthread.php?t=332736

[Max B]

It could have been earlier, but hopefully, this will help attract new & returning PSU players. ;]

It will.I see an announcement soon saying we are glad to announce Psu will be added to Games on Demand.


This is a thank-you to our loyal players for their years of support

I do not understand this. Wouldn't all the loyal players already have this?

[str898mustang]

not bad, nice going Sega (I'm saying this in a good way)

[Hiero_Glyph]

meh.

Without the digital distribution of PSU the problem of limited game discs is not resolved. I'm glad to see SEGA taking a step in the right direction but as was already stated most of us already have the AotI content so this is the same as rewarding new customers while giving nothing to the loyal ones. This seems to be a case of 'too little, too late' for me. To be fair though, it would take a lot of effort on the part of SEGA to win back my faith in them and at this point they still seem quite inept, just not completely.

[NeonaPulsar]

YYYYAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!

... but i have one question, how long will this last?

I'm not sure when i'll be able to get wi-fi to get the download

[CJ Johnny]

From business point of view.

This is bad.... very bad.

Free Expansion download.
Meaning they don't care is there really any bodies plays it any more.

800 points or not.
For us that was 2+ years ago.

Just happen I was at ebgames yesterday. Checking for wrong pricing on games. (see If I can get lucky)
And guess what I've found. Yes, PSU copies.
And are more then 1. 8 to be excat.
But, they are at the bottom of the shelfs. 2 inches above the ground, that shelfs.

Then I play stupid.
Ask 1 of the workers if they have any available.
They say
"No, we all sold out of them long time ago. And it is very hard to find. You may be better of order it on-line".

oK. Thank You for your business.

Of course, this is only 1 store.
Then again. We have no ideal how many may reply with the same answer.

Hiero are right.
It is way too little too late for every one.

To be honest. With this rate.
I am not too sure that we will see the real Level Cap at all.

[Sinue_v2]

I do not understand this. Wouldn't all the loyal players already have this?

I think they mean their loyal demo players... which seems a bit silly since it's not the price of the expansion they're shackling themselves to the demo to avoid, it's the monthly fee.

[xBULLYDOGG]

"This is a thank-you to our loyal players for their years of support"
The loyal players already have the AOTI client, like what Max said.
All this will do is open doors for more demo folly, like what Sinue said
And i feel like i've been shafted again, I payed the original price twice of 1600, or 1800, or 1200 one of them. Still, good news for the population number wise I guess.

[AOI_Tifa_Lockhart]

hiya,

I can understand people being excited about this, the prospect of returning players etc. But surely it should be more worrying? Why are they making it free? Could this be a possible warning? Remember free PC/PS2 play for the last few months. I'm not saying it's the last few months of Xbox servers at all but I just wonder why they're being so generous when I'm sure Sega isn't exactly rolling in money? Surely they should try and find a way to get all the people who play the demo onto playing the full game? My ex plays the demo all the time and it seems the population is around the same as people who play the proper game on Xbox, surely they should concentrate on perhaps 3+ months free sub for all, it'd easily double the population playing the full game.

Tifa

[GoingFullGamer]

It's not like I'm not happy about this but I wish I new sooner since I just downloaded it 6 hours ago... -_-

[XenithFlare]

I would take advantage and buy a copy of PSU for $7 to play again, buut... PSP2 comes out soon, along with KH:BBS, Halo Reach, Spiderman: SD, Front Mission: Evolved, and SW:FU2 the month after that. Then FFXIV sometime soon, on top of all that! I just don't have the time in me for an MMO :P Can't say I'm not tempted to get back into it, though

[Hiero_Glyph]

So let's do some simple math...

PSU was released for the 360 in late October of 2006 (for North America and a month later for the other regions). We are currently approaching the second half of 2010 so that is almost 4 years since PSU was released. We are by most estimates over a year behind Japan's servers as well. So that puts us at around 5 years since the game was released to get to where Japan is today.

To reward the loyal fans SEGA is giving us something that was originally released on November 20, 2007. They have still not given us a release date for content that Japan's servers got in March of 2009 however. Thanks again SEGA and keep up the good work, er lack of work I guess.

It is a shame that Microsoft keeps killing every other MMO for the 360 because PSU needs to be put out of its misery at this point.

[blazingsonic]

All negative thinking aside, this is really a chance to get PSU V1 users to upgrade, Downloading AOTL won't net the demo players any free online access, but I see this as Sega in general possibly speeding things up......PSP2 is 3 months away and they might be trying to get this update out sooner before PSP2 comes out and people will migrate there.

[RemiusTA]

yippie

they still have to buy the game. If they really want new players, they'll upgrade that poor advertisement they call a demo.

[Max B]

hiya,

I can understand people being excited about this, the prospect of returning players etc. But surely it should be more worrying? Why are they making it free? Could this be a possible warning? Remember free PC/PS2 play for the last few months. I'm not saying it's the last few months of Xbox servers at all but I just wonder why they're being so generous when I'm sure Sega isn't exactly rolling in money? Surely they should try and find a way to get all the people who play the demo onto playing the full game? My ex plays the demo all the time and it seems the population is around the same as people who play the proper game on Xbox, surely they should concentrate on perhaps 3+ months free sub for all, it'd easily double the population playing the full game.

Tifa
1. The universes are a great deal smaller on the demo.
2. They made it free because it is now going to be a necessity to play online.
3.3months free sub would cost them more then making the Ambitions of Illuminus free.

[Max B]

yippie

they still have to buy the game. If they really want new players, they'll upgrade that poor advertisement they call a demo.

How do you propose the upgrade it? I have heard many stories of people coming from the demo so it is still doing it job.

[Lainalil]

Honestly, I think you are all missing the point.

The reason that this is becoming free has nothing (or at least, very little) to do with enticing new players. It has 100% to do with teh upcoming update. According to Sega the new supplemental update will NOT work with version 1.1 of PSU. That means if you do not have AOTI you do not get the update. I'm not sure if Sega has their servers set up to recognize client types and avoid patching everyone. That being said, this was probably the easy way out for an overburdened and shrinking Sega staff.

[blazingsonic]

Honestly, I think you are all missing the point.

The reason that this is becoming free has nothing (or at least, very little) to do with enticing new players. It has 100% to do with teh upcoming update. According to Sega the new supplemental update will NOT work with version 1.1 of PSU. That means if you do not have AOTI you do not get the update. I'm not sure if Sega has their servers set up to recognize client types and avoid patching everyone. That being said, this was probably the easy way out for an overburdened and shrinking Sega staff.

Pretty much the detailed version of what I'm saying.

[Smokey's Princess]

Yeh this means more demo trash on psu.. ._.

[XenoNinjaX]

aoti is online-expansion only right? it won't do anything for offline modes?

[Akumamaru]

aoti is online-expansion only right? it won't do anything for offline modes?

all you get is online no offline content

[Delete]

aoti is online-expansion only right? it won't do anything for offline modes?

Nope, Online only :wacko:

Damn, beat me to it Akumamaru :D

On topic, it's good news, but like stated...makes no sense to the people who already have it. Better pass out the 1600ms points and we'll call it even ;)

[Sapient]

yea sega doing it again fkin even they scam us for points till it benefits them then go free for all nice one SEGA!

[Nagidar]

This is a VERY smart move by SEGA.

[Nagidar]

yea sega doing it again fkin even they scam us for points till it benefits them then go free for all nice one SEGA!

How is that? By you buying AOTI, you have a head start on the people that didn't, those that did not upgrade before, will have to catch up.

[Aki03]

Is there anyone who cares about PSU?

Seriously, I wasted so many time and money by playing PSU, the add-on (free or not) didnt changed anything. Its a good thing, that AOI is now free, but couldnt that be free 2 years ago?
10 bucks per month for playing PSU online is very expensive, especially when you must pay Xbox Live, too.
To be honest, I dont understand SEGA. They should shut down 25 servers (because only 2-3 are used) and make the GUARDIAN LICENSE free, not the add-on instead o_O

Never mind... AOI is now free... good for "newcomers", but as a little PSO-fan, I dont care about it. Its sad, what happend with the PS-series, so I dont want to stick very deep in the topic "how much bad PSU could be".

[Max B]

Is there anyone who cares about PSU?

Seriously, I wasted so many time and money by playing PSU, the add-on (free or not) didnt changed anything. Its a good thing, that AOI is now free, but couldnt that be free 2 years ago?
10 bucks per month for playing PSU online is very expensive, especially when you must pay Xbox Live, too.
To be honest, I dont understand SEGA. They should shut down 25 servers (because only 2-3 are used) and make the GUARDIAN LICENSE free, not the add-on instead o_O

Never mind... AOI is now free... good for "newcomers", but as a little PSO-fan, I dont care about it. Its sad, what happend with the PS-series, so I dont want to stick very deep in the topic "how much bad PSU could be".
1.You do not have to have a gold account to play PSU.
2.Obviously you still care about PSU because you posted about it.
3.If they made the sub free how do you suggest they pay for the servers and manpower needed to support PSU because AOTI Download will not cover it.

[Alpal]

Is there anyone who cares about PSU?

Seriously, I wasted so many time and money by playing PSU, the add-on (free or not) didnt changed anything. Its a good thing, that AOI is now free, but couldnt that be free 2 years ago?
10 bucks per month for playing PSU online is very expensive, especially when you must pay Xbox Live, too.
To be honest, I dont understand SEGA. They should shut down 25 servers (because only 2-3 are used) and make the GUARDIAN LICENSE free, not the add-on instead o_O

Never mind... AOI is now free... good for "newcomers", but as a little PSO-fan, I dont care about it. Its sad, what happend with the PS-series, so I dont want to stick very deep in the topic "how much bad PSU could be".

Lolwut?

[pikachief]

Is there anyone who cares about PSU?

Seriously, I wasted so many time and money by playing PSU, the add-on (free or not) didnt changed anything. Its a good thing, that AOI is now free, but couldnt that be free 2 years ago?
10 bucks per month for playing PSU online is very expensive, especially when you must pay Xbox Live, too.
To be honest, I dont understand SEGA. They should shut down 25 servers (because only 2-3 are used) and make the GUARDIAN LICENSE free, not the add-on instead o_O

Never mind... AOI is now free... good for "newcomers", but as a little PSO-fan, I dont care about it. Its sad, what happend with the PS-series, so I dont want to stick very deep in the topic "how much bad PSU could be".

Did you know that if twice a week u got a can of soda from a vending machine for $1.50 thats $12 a month for 2 sodas a week D:

1 chocolate bar a week for a dollar is $4 a week and u wont even notice. its really hard to go out and get a meal for less than $10.

$10 a month isnt that much, really... when i first started playing i payed off PSU with the $5 a week allowance my parents gave me before lol

[Vickie]

Kinda sucks for us, for people who already have AOTI, shit they should let the people who bought AOTI download PSU from Games on Demand for free when it happens, im on my 8th Psu Disc 0.o lol. But whatever I have other more important shit to worry about than this so whatever.

btw i spent almost 80$ a couple months ago for a Factory Sealed copy of PSU for 360 wtf

[Alpal]

Kinda sucks for us, for people who already have AOTI, shit they should let the people who bought AOTI download PSU from Games on Demand for free when it happens, im on my 8th Psu Disc 0.o lol. But whatever I have other more important shit to worry about than this so whatever.

This does not "suck" for people who already had AOTI. This is a great thing for people who had AOTI because this being free can only mean more players which will keep our server around longer and make the economy and game stronger.

[Vickie]

I was not talking about Population, i could care less about population I Solo.

I'm talking about us Having to PAY for something Important, That is Now Free.