Kotaku story on PSO2 (still delayed)

[aarondrom]

http://kotaku.com/sega-still-says-phantasy-star-online-2-is-delayed-514009932

[HIT0SHI]

You could of posted that link on these threads:

> EP2...possible localization?
http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=208464

> SEGA of America not showing PSO2 at E3
http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=208227

[Kierto]

cancelled

[shagia]

I just don't know what to say at this point. I hope they can get into detail sooner or later, because it's starting to just spread too far...


How do you get in contact with the writers? I wanted to let them know about the patch~

you can always reach Kotaku AU (http://www.kotaku.com.au/contact/). or you can reach their writers separately (http://kotaku.com/tag/about), besides that I'm not too sure if Kotaku has a contact email or form.

also I would of assumed they already knew about it.. :p

EDIT: nevermind, found their tip email and pages with their writers (http://kotaku.com/whats-a-kotaku-who-works-here-458637663).


[email protected]

[Wolf_Asari]

Might as well come out and say "we canceled it" because it's really no different.

[SolRiver]

They can't say cancelled, because they would have to get rid of all the employees working on it. Can't waste money if you can't pay them.

[LordShade]

They can't say cancelled, because they would have to get rid of all the employees working on it. Can't waste money if you can't pay them.

thats IF there is anybody working on it.

knowing Sega, they're probably all warming seats currently

[gigawuts]

They even say this is 3 month old info.

I mean, it's news that they're still spitting out 3 month old info instead of coming up with absolutely anything else to say, but the info itself isn't news.

[shagia]

thats IF there is anybody working on it.

knowing Sega, they're probably all warming seats currently

they actually had a english demo ready at PAX Prime 2012 for it, so they're obviously working on it....they're just not speaking up about it too well....

[AgemFrostMage]

One can say maybe the English is weak, but fans translate so that excuse cannot be accepted. I agree with most of the above, likely canceled, and if not too subpar compared to the Japan version.

[Gardios]

It was playable at PAX, where you were able to fight vs Rockbear in the forest followed by Vol in Caverns. There should be a hands-on report about it somewhere (Kotaku?)...

[MadDemon64]

Well, I just sent an email to Sega. Don't know what I expect to get, but I'm hoping it will at least be more reassuring than what we got now.
Probably won't be.

[Drifting Fable]

It was playable at PAX, where you were able to fight vs Rockbear in the forest followed by Vol in Caverns. There should be a hands-on report about it somewhere (Kotaku?)...

Well theres a vid from game radar, does that count? :-?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaY71eWdyk8

[MadDemon64]

Well theres a vid from game radar, does that count? :-?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaY71eWdyk8

This is the thing that has me scratching my head: the game is fully playable as it is now. It works fine on american computers, so I don't think there is any optimization or coding things to do, and translations should be easy (they could probably just cheat by taking the fan patches and applying them to the game as it is and nobody would know the difference), so what's taking so long?
The only thing that I can think of is voice acting, but lets face it: american voice actors, even if paid, might half-ass it. I think I would rather hear the original japanese voice actors, and will probably do so if given the option unless they get some really good, possibly name voice actors.

[Gardios]

"There's more to localization than just translation."
—Gardios, from the Why is PSO2 not localized yet trilogy

[Noc Codez]

Canceled..

[Yden]

This is the thing that has me scratching my head: the game is fully playable as it is now. It works fine on american computers, so I don't think there is any optimization or coding things to do, and translations should be easy (they could probably just cheat by taking the fan patches and applying them to the game as it is and nobody would know the difference), so what's taking so long?
The only thing that I can think of is voice acting, but lets face it: american voice actors, even if paid, might half-ass it. I think I would rather hear the original japanese voice actors, and will probably do so if given the option unless they get some really good, possibly name voice actors.

I personally think everything related to the localization is complete by this point. My guess is that what's delaying everything is something to do with the server infrastructure.

[gigawuts]

They need to work on branding, how they're going to market it, what promotions they're going to do in it, they need to work on making sure it will be able to compete with the pre-existing F2P games...there is a lot more to bringing a game over than even just localization.

Even if there wasn't, localization itself throws up a surprising number of hurdles that honestly they probably will completely ignore considering what happened with PSU.

[MadDemon64]

I personally think everything related to the localization is complete by this point. My guess is that what's delaying everything is something to do with the server infrastructure.

That...is possibly it.

[ttdestroy]

Sega is evil they hold it back from us because our collective Q.Q IS DELICIOUS.

[MadDemon64]

They need to work on branding, how they're going to market it, what promotions they're going to do in it, they need to work on making sure it will be able to compete with the pre-existing F2P games...there is a lot more to bringing a game over than even just localization.

Even if there wasn't, localization itself throws up a surprising number of hurdles that honestly they probably will completely ignore considering what happened with PSU.

What happened with PSU? Also, this is Sega we're talking about. They will find some way to market it. Granted E3 would have been perfect for this, but what can you do?

[Zipzo]

(they could probably just cheat by taking the fan patches and applying them to the game as it is and nobody would know the difference)

Good lord no they could not, the kind of legalities involved in something like that would hilarious. Nice for those who work on it, a massive PITA for Sega.

[gigawuts]

At launch, PSU's story was hideously generic anime (young male protagonist gets in over his head and has to save the world from an unseen force that only he and his female companions can stop, oh god get me a bucket).

It was also severely lacking in content, had mediocre balance, and was packed with poorly thought out mechanics - it was also chock full of pretty significant changes from PSO, which had had a spinoff title and 2 expansions after lasting nearly 3 console generations at that point. The art direction went from at least pretending to try to be somewhat almost realistic and not painfully stereotypical japanese to sharp chins and cherry blossoms, sharp chins and cherry blossoms everywhere. Plus crafting, grinding, rares, etc. after coming from a game where grinding never failed and when you found a weapon it worked right out of the box.

I mean, that was just launch. The game got more content, I hear the story massively improved, and of course PSU wasn't PSO so there WERE going to be significant differences in game mechanics and art direction. It's just the launch itself wasn't what a lot of hardcore PSO fans were looking for - what they were really looking for was basically PSO Episode 5.

And that shouldn't be a surprise. When you change things, older fans might not like it. But since Sega has relied on the pre-existing fanbase to jumpstart its PS titles for a while now, as opposed to actually investing into advertising to a decent degree like any other normal company does, all of this added up to a rather "surprising" backlash where a whole lot of fans wanted none of it and in turn did not tell their friends to play it. So the launch was underwhelming at best, both in what was offered to new players but also in what was offered to many long time fans.

Which is something that does need to be considered when discussing PSO2's western launch. PSU's western launch was underwhelming for a lot of reasons, and they can either learn from that or try it again. Many of those reasons won't be present in PSO2's launch - for instance, PSO2 has more in common with PSU than PSU did with PSO. But yeah.

[BIG OLAF]

Sega is evil they hold it back from us because our collective Q.Q IS DELICIOUS.

Well, can't say I blame them. Have you seen some of the bitching around here? I'm all

[SPOILER-BOX]http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/BIGOLAF/Delicious%20Drama/delicioustears.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

[shagia]

Sega is evil they hold it back from us because our collective Q.Q IS DELICIOUS.

I don't know, my tears don't taste too well.. q_q

[MadDemon64]

Sega is evil they hold it back from us because our collective Q.Q IS DELICIOUS.

Sega ain't evil. Well, not as evil as EA is anyway...

[Rekku]

Well, I just sent an email to Sega. Don't know what I expect to get, but I'm hoping it will at least be more reassuring than what we got now.
Probably won't be.They won't answer you. Do you know how many complaints they get? It's cute that people think it's worth it to try.

When they do answer after months of badgering, it's the same thing as stated in that article: "No word on the game. Delayed. Fuk u."

[gigawuts]

Maybe they only have one marketing guy, and he's marketing Sonic Lost Worlds right now so he can't do PSO2.

Or, well, no.

Maybe it's a girl.

[MadDemon64]

Maybe they only have one marketing guy, and he's marketing Sonic Lost Worlds right now so he can't do PSO2.

Or, well, no.

Maybe it's a girl.

Maybe whoever said that it would be playable earlier this year had no idea what they were talking about and now Sega has found itself in a position where they can't just say, "The guy who said when PSO2 would be playable in the US didn't know what he was talking about", and can only just say, "Sorry for the delay".

I will not be surprised if the US release coincides or is close to the Southeast Asia English release (notice how they are being quiet about the release dates of both).

[shagia]

"Does the difficulty scale based on your skill?" SEGA rep responds with "Sure... Uh, I mean, yeah, it does."

Love it!

he was focused hard as hell on that hahaha, it was so cringeworthy

[Metalsnake27]

I remember them stating somewhere in a blog awhile back, about how they wanted to wait until PSO2 JP was at a certain point, before they decide to release it in the west, having to do with better end-game content or something, and hopefully keep a good balance between JPN updates vs English Updates..... if they will actually go with this.... I doubt it.

[Rekku]

I remember them stating somewhere in a blog awhile back, about how they wanted to wait until PSO2 JP was at a certain point, before they decide to release it in the west, having to do with better end-game content or something, and hopefully keep a good balance between JPN updates vs English Updates..... if they will actually go with this.... I doubt it.Gosh, I would love to see where this came from... do you remember anything about the blog? This is potentially note-worthy news. Then again, if it was last year it's probably too late and they gave up on that idea.

Though, now is as good a "certain point" as any, EP2 is coming out. This is the time to do stuff, the time to market and get the word out.

I should just stop waiting and play the old games that are in perfect English and just forget about the MMO for a while

:cry:

[Ghalion]

Gosh, I would love to see where this came from... do you remember anything about the blog? This is potentially note-worthy news. Then again, if it was last year it's probably too late and they gave up on that idea.

Though, now is as good a "certain point" as any, EP2 is coming out. This is the time to do stuff, the time to market and get the word out.

I should just stop waiting and play the old games that are in perfect English and just forget about the MMO for a while

:cry:


IIRC I heard that too 6-12 months ago from someone who wasn't even an official source of info, and when asked to show where they heard the news, never responded again.

[PrinceBrightstar]

I should just stop waiting and play the old games that are in perfect English and just forget about the MMO for a while
:cry:

Ya you should go play the remakes Generat...wait a second...

Alright if we're going to complain like this, at least let's admit to ourselves that it's nothing new. We've missed out on at least 14 Phantasy Star games at this point.

[MegaMettaurX]

Loltaku

[MuzicFreq]

I remember them stating somewhere in a blog awhile back, about how they wanted to wait until PSO2 JP was at a certain point, before they decide to release it in the west, having to do with better end-game content or something, and hopefully keep a good balance between JPN updates vs English Updates..... if they will actually go with this.... I doubt it.

This make logical sense due to that today's EN MMO players will gripe about a lack of content and then abandon the game and slathering on a bad name to the title and telling the world on how bad it is.

Asian players are alot more willing and patient for sitting out through problems and waiting for good stuff to come... I mean look at them still in ques on FF14. . . yeahhhh, that's some patience.

As for the English majority, we tend to rush through content and then ask, "What Content is there?" And then quickly become bored and leave the game since you have nothing else to do and are hopping through MMOs like they were going out of style.
Most people expect World of Warcraft, Rift, or some other MMO's worth of "Content" that can take them on for hours and hours and hours of grinding dungeons and raids.
Lacking those things tends to look bad for other regions since ... well :-? what else is there for you to do when you have rushed through and now have the best gear?

I do however like the thought of being able to work on your character and mastering all the classes so you can choose however you want to play and it wont be easy to rush through.

[Yden]

Come to think of it, I'd imagine they'd want to put PSO2 on Steam (which is pretty much marketing in of itself), but gameguard has a major beef with the Steam overlay thing so hopefully they're also doing something about gameguard.

[MadDemon64]

Come to think of it, I'd imagine they'd want to put PSO2 on Steam (which is pretty much marketing in of itself), but gameguard has a major beef with the Steam overlay thing so hopefully they're also doing something about gameguard.

And there's another possible explanation as to why it is taking so long: gameguard.

[Rekku]

Ya you should go play the remakes Generat...wait a second...

Alright if we're going to complain like this, at least let's admit to ourselves that it's nothing new. We've missed out on at least 14 Phantasy Star games at this point.I don't think we've missed out on them, I mean, all but one came Stateside (and a lot of people still play Infinity, even though it's in Japanese, just like PSO2).

Maybe what I'm saying is that it's not the end of the world if we don't get PSO2. We have the original PSO, we have PSU offline, we have the handhelds, and the classic games on various consoles (y'all should get PSIV on Steam). So if the franchise dies following this game, well, we had a good run.

[Dan Maku]

Calling it: western PSO2 goes the way of Duke Nukem Forever.

[Kion]

Since the "why hasn't Sega released the game yet?" horse has been beat to death. Try a different approach? How about a 'what is required for Sega to release the game in NA?' list.


Translation
Player Servers
Functional Sign Up Web Site
Payment Management System
Database Servers for player data/items
Code to be reworked and fixed
Programmers to port game code on each update
Game Masters
A functional message board for players to comment on
Giving a Damn
Voice Acting
Copyright permission in new areas
File Servers for updates/Downloads
Staff with creative control over the medium
Representative in charge to promote the game
Regular communication with other parts of the company working on different parts of the game


Of the top of my head, this is what I came up with for what's needed. Looking at it, I'd be pretty amazed if Sega had even 3 of these, "Giving a damn" not even on the radar at all.

[ShinMaruku]

I can't say the market deserves it either. Sega could be giving the West a good gift of not playing their bullshit. Silver-linings. :E

[Kion]

It kind of goes both ways in that respect. I think playing on the Japanese servers and being able to play in English is one of the better outcomes that could happen for most players. All of the content is current and up to date, Sega responds to hackers and imbalances, and fan translations are for the most part on par if not better than what SoA has offered in previous games.

Though it definitely has the draw backs of being able to be refused service just for playing outside of Japan, not being able to appeal, having little input and no way to contact the developers, and an annoying markup on Arks Cash. Over all I think the problem is mostly an emotional one, that they're not even communicating, or reaching out to the fans. And there's really no accountability or even a sign of anyone really caring. Personally, no matter how much the NA version sucks, it would still be nice to see Sega at least making an attempt.

But I'm not sure I'm the one to talk as I could and probably should make a firefox plugin for the EQ alert extension. Except I don't use firefox, or really give a damn, and it wasn't really the intended target. So right now I'm kind of in the same boat as Sega going, "meh, this is good enough right?".

[shagia]

Since the "why hasn't Sega released the game yet?" horse has been beat to death. Try a different approach? How about a 'what is required for Sega to release the game in NA?' list.


Translation
Player Servers
Functional Sign Up Web Site
Payment Management System
Database Servers for player data/items
Code to be reworked and fixed
Programmers to port game code on each update
Game Masters
A functional message board for players to comment on
Giving a Damn
Voice Acting
Copyright permission in new areas
File Servers for updates/Downloads
Staff with creative control over the medium
Representative in charge to promote the game
Regular communication with other parts of the company working on different parts of the game


Of the top of my head, this is what I came up with for what's needed. Looking at it, I'd be pretty amazed if Sega had even 3 of these, "Giving a damn" not even on the radar at all.

this is exactly why I'm trying to keep faith, localization is a lot to handle with video games, including with games like PSO2 in the first place. though, I'm not too sure what'll happen once they manage to pull all of that off. I'm glad they pulled PSU off, but it wasn't as fun and up to date as it's counterpart server.

I'm hoping they can manage to pull all of this off while managing to keep the NA servers up to date with the JP servers.

[blace]

It never really hit me until I saw that video/interview with someone at PAX last year, but there really seems to be a lack of proper communication between the people showcasing the game and the developers.

[ShinMaruku]

I think it's obvious Sega Japan treats Sega America like shit.

[Kion]

This is exactly why I'm trying to keep faith, localization is a lot to handle with video games, including with games like PSO2 in the first place. though, I'm not too sure what'll happen once they manage to pull all of that off. I'm glad they pulled PSU off, but it wasn't as fun and up to date as it's counterpart server.

The problem with this is that Arks-Layer could probably run the game if we actually had permission from Sega and the resources. Not to mention that we've already implemented quite a few things (most notably AIDA's launcher) that make it an almost legit operation. After this amount of time, there's really not a techno-babble excuse that I would acknowledge as enough of a good reason for their extremely delayed release. I would, however, welcome it.



I'm hoping they can manage to pull all of this off while managing to keep the NA servers up to date with the JP servers.

At this point the game coming out in NA at all, is a pipe dream. If episode 2 is coming out in Japan in less than a month and there's still no word of any fragment of information about the NA release, then hope for any kind of timely updates is probably the last thing anyone should be expecting. Have fun hoping though.


I think it's obvious Sega Japan treats Sega America like shit.

This is extremely worrisome for me, as Edward@Sega has posted that he really doesn't have any say in the game and tries to pass along what he sees fans saying to... well I have no fucking idea who he passes the info onto. Also, i don't know the link, but someone posted an employer rating site where SoA employees often sited bad management, political promotions (not merit) and decisions being passed over SoA onto SoE. So I do think SoA has any say in this at all. And above that, what could be happening is there is no leadership from SoJ at all in terms of making a team in order to get the game produced in other areas. If SoA had creative control over the game in the West, at the very least i think they'd be posting on the message boards and on Facebook. What I think happened is that SoJ announced a worldwide release, but never really set up channels for the game to actually be released. As such, they made a facebook page and a website as an announcement, but the game itself is actually an empty shell.

[shagia]

The problem with this is that Arks-Layer could probably run the game if we actually had permission from Sega and the resources. Not to mention that we've already implemented quite a few things (most notably AIDA's launcher) that make it an almost legit operation.

I think a lot of us at PSOWorld would love if this happened, but seeing what has happened this past year with "foreigners" and what not, I just don't see it as a realistic type thing? you're gonna have to change my mind on that one, I tend to think about past problems when it comes to things like this..


After this amount of time, there's really not a techno-babble excuse that I would acknowledge as enough of a good reason for their extremely delayed release. I would, however, welcome it.

very agreeable! they haven't gave us a single piece of information besides the demo at Pax East last year, and that demo wasn't really too detailed compared to the Arks-Layer translation patch, which concerns me very much. at this rate, I don't even think they'd announce anything else about PSO2.


Have fun hoping though.

you're right really, there's absolutely no excuse, I can't even say much about it in the first place, I just really would love if they pulled this off. their lack of update is really pushing it off though sadly....


what could be happening is there is no leadership from SoJ at all in terms of making a team in order to get the game produced in other areas.

wasn't this a concern in the past with SoJ and SoA?