Sega lists new jobs for possible PSO3 development

[zandra117]

Earlier this year Sega was hiring a UI designer for a "new project" in the Phantasy Star series that was not a mobile game. Now they are looking for 3D motion designers, Item Designers, Character Modelers, and Event Designers. All for Phantasy Star.

http://blog.esuteru.com/archives/9226083.html
https://www.creativevillage.ne.jp/jobsearch/job_detail/?job_id=351622066
https://www.creativevillage.ne.jp/jobsearch/job_detail/?job_id=351621666
https://www.creativevillage.ne.jp/jobsearch/job_detail/?job_id=351619039
https://www.creativevillage.ne.jp/jobsearch/job_detail/?job_id=351618669

[TakemiShinnosuke]

PSO3 ?? jobs listed but where is the mention of PSO3 ??

[zandra117]

PSO3 ?? jobs listed but where is the mention of PSO3 ??

the "new project"
プランナー_新規企画
in the ui planner listing

[Zorak000]

it'll likely be a few years before we see anything from this; but if that's the case I pray that they are finally going to make a new engine from the ground up here. I imagine that there's lots of old design decisions leftover here in PSO2 that they've long since regretted, but cannot do anything more than simply work around them *cough*quest instances being bound to lobby instances due to the block system*cough*

[Sirius-91]

Could be PSU2 or a new IP altogether.

[LordKaiser]

Yeah, the title misinforms.

[ArcaneTechs]

with the minimal amount of content even happening in this game right now, i have zero doubts they aren't already working on the game already. Ya they mentioned extending PSO2's lifespan but i think a 3-5yr development time seems about right for PSO3 or I guess taking a shot at PSU2 which I don't think will happen. Who knows until we get at least 1-2yrs before its release or on PSO2's 10yr birthday announcement that PSO3/PSU2 will happen

[modoru]

It could also be an offline title.

[zandra117]

Could be PSU2 or a new IP altogether.
all listings say its phantasy star
also pso and pso2 are completely different lore so I wouldn't expect pso3 to be a sequel to pso2 either


Yeah, the title misinforms.
"possible"


It could also be an offline title.
it says "Work experience in high-end ONLINE games"

[modoru]

‾\_(ツ)_/‾

the phantasy star series has its offshoots, so it's just grasping at straws at this point, re: pso3.

as mentioned earlier, it could be a new psu, or an online psnova, or a console idola...

[SteveCZ]

Well whatever this is maybe we can at least be hyped about a possible upcoming Phantasy Star related title.

[Gwyndolin]

Hopefully not yet another phone game.

[landman]

it'll likely be a few years before we see anything from this; but if that's the case I pray that they are finally going to make a new engine from the ground up here. I imagine that there's lots of old design decisions leftover here in PSO2 that they've long since regretted, but cannot do anything more than simply work around them *cough*quest instances being bound to lobby instances due to the block system*cough*
That's provably the last thing in their to do list, the servers have been working almost the same way since the original pso.

[wefwq]

Wow, can't wait for IDOLA Online to come out for smartphone.

[otakun]

Well, from what little I read, seems like it's going to be a console game aimed for a world wide release. I would assume it's going to be a game specifically made for the new xbox, so might be PSU2 lol.

[Zorak000]

yeah the job postings say "phantasy star series" at the end of the title of each post, and one of the experience requirements are for experience making stuff for "ONLINE" titles. but yeah if they're just hiring now, and I wanna assume they are going to be building a new engine, we probably won't hear anything about it for a few years still, much less a release date.

The positions themselves are: (according to google translate)
"Event Designer": requirements/duties seem to be about setting up in-engine cutscenes; they're asking for "Person who excels in production of camera, motion, light, etc." with bonus points to anybody with storyboard skills
"Motion Designer": the requirements on this one talks about designing animations for players and enemies alike, as well as rigging 3d models with bones for animation (skeletons tend to get re-used a lot as i'm sure you're well aware, but they still gotta make sure the vertices of the 3D model are weighted properly to the skeleton's bones.) and mocap experience
"Item Designer": 3d modeler for equipment; also has to be good at things like making sure the object lines up with how the character is holding it. (seems to explicitly be about equipment, environmental objects like desks and trees are typically the job of an environmental modeler)
"Character modeler": pretty self-explanatory; 3D modeler for characters. they're asking for some Z-brush experience here too, I kinda doubt pso2's bump/normal maps are that complex so this is most likely the biggest hint that this is for a future title.

no postings for programmers though; but I assume they might have those job postings on a different website

I did not see anything that would imply "worldwide release"; however the "Event Designer" position explicitly says they're looking for somebody who has eperience with a PS2 or later platform, and *not* a smartphone. "Item Designer" asks for somebody with experience making stuff for PC, but I assume that's just saying they're open to somebody who's only experience is something like model-replacement PC game mods or just making models and tossing them into Unity to show them off in action.

[zandra117]

[Character Image]
・Persons who are willing to play overseas games, online games, home RPGs, etc., and analyze / play them with interest

This quote from the archived UI Planner job listing is probably what makes people think of a worldwide release. it seems that job entails doing alot of research into what other games on the global market are doing.


[Eligibility for qualification (required)]
・ In-game UI planner experience
Over 2 years of experience as an outline / specification creation planner for in-game UI (user interface) in game titles of medium size or larger.
* Smartphone games are also eligible depending on the scale.
this part seems to be the big tip off that whatever they are doing it is not a phone game.

[landman]

They could have hired the event designer before episode 4 so we could have avoided the VN style downgrade.

[Uncle_bob]

get ready for another 7 years of JP ONRY before the game gets a western release

[ArcaneTechs]

get ready for another 7 years of JP ONRY before the game gets a western release

you've had since 2012 to current present day to enjoy PSO2 and you'll have the option to play the game again if they decide to do that which with microsoft bringing pso2 to the West is likely it'll be international this time around. You have only yourself to blame for not playing all these years and up until the next title release

[Zorak000]

it's hard to tell with sega of japan sometimes; at least in PSO2's case it looks like initial development had global release in mind, but that got canned sometime long before alpha, but not before they had some hints baked into a few places like the dragonkin language resembling what PSO1's Word Select system could have evolved into.

ultimately it seems like Sega of Japan didn't want to foot the bill for the costs of running other servers, localizing the content, and training support staff for language coverage; but seems to be all for finding other companies willing to handle that for their own regions. The fact that Microsoft couldn't even confirm Europe will be officially supported when they made their announcement makes me think SoJ is still clinging onto that idea even more than they reasonably could be.

the next game being global out of the gate is certainly possible; but unless Isao Okawa has been brought back from his grave I don't see SoJ having a sudden change of heart

[Saffran]

Gacha is de facto forbidden in Europe if you plan on a global release, so the game would need to be changed a lot or trimmed a lot. In my eyes, it seems like the obvious culprit for the lack of announcement.

[Arada]

Gacha is de facto forbidden in Europe if you plan on a global release, so the game would need to be changed a lot or trimmed a lot. In my eyes, it seems like the obvious culprit for the lack of announcement.

This is entirely false.
Only Belgium has something against this.

All mobile games with gacha like and loot boxes exist here and they're not illegal (even in Belgium, they just require the "adult only" signs -and I know this effectively kills the audience of a game).

[Saffran]

Well, the situation is bound to have some changes when the EA trial will be finished. (unless this was settled and I didn't hear about it, which would be odd...)
I'd imagine companies being patiently waiting for the results of that before making decisions.

[Arada]

Well, the situation is bound to have some changes when the EA trial will be finished. (unless this was settled and I didn't hear about it, which would be odd...)
I'd imagine companies being patiently waiting for the results of that before making decisions.

Well UK concluded loot boxes are not gambling by their current law. Sad.
I'd imagine there's currently heavy lobbying so that current law stays in force and they don't try to update it.

US is investigating. IMO it looks like our best chance to get rid of loot boxes and it's still a slim chance.

[zandra117]

pso2 already lists the gacha rates which is what the us regulators are looking at making a mandatory practice. ive heard that japan already regulates gacha.

[Anduril]

pso2 already lists the gacha rates which is what the us regulators are looking at making a mandatory practice. ive heard that japan already regulates gacha.

From what I understand, the April 2016 CESA agreement (https://dengekionline.com/elem/000/001/265/1265019/) that lead to SEGA disclosing the odds for the AC scratch technically only applied to mobile game gachas, meaning the reason that they added the odds to the AC scratch site is becuase you can also play that scratch through PSO2es, though I'm not sure if the agreement has become more far-reaching to include console/PC games since then.

[modoru]

Well, the situation is bound to have some changes when the EA trial will be finished. (unless this was settled and I didn't hear about it, which would be odd...)
I'd imagine companies being patiently waiting for the results of that before making decisions.

If you mean the FIFA trial (https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/01/ea-gives-in-to-belgian-regulators-stops-selling-fifa-loot-boxes/), that got settled in January.

[starwind75043]

I don't know why Sega is getting lumped in with EA when all of there loot boxes stuff you are paying for convenience.

Honestly...if you truly waiting for Europe server your probably going to be in for a bad time.

1. As risk-averse as Sega JP is. I don't see them footing a bill for a Europe server. Hell getting a server in the US maybe Global enough for them.
2. Which means you going to need Microsoft to do it...and well they may not be so gung-ho about putting another game with loot boxes as well.

So I would say min you're going to wait for 6 mons to a year once the U.S. server is open.

And ultimately what I suspect will happen is sever gets opened they slap a few more warning labels any time you pull from a scratch the end.

Politicians get to go back to there districts and say "Look how much I care". You just have to jump through a few more hoops to spend AC.


*regarding the main topic of the thread

While the timeline would make sense to start development on the next Pso or Psu sequel. This could be another Pso2 nova as well.

[zandra117]

https://sega-games.co.jp/recruit/career/entry/career02.html
https://sega-games.co.jp/recruit/career/entry/career17.html
https://sega-games.co.jp/recruit/career/entry/career47.html
https://sega-games.co.jp/recruit/career/entry/career31.html
https://sega-games.co.jp/recruit/career/entry/career32.html
more phantasy star jobs.
game planner (leader cantidate), background designer, ui designer, game programmer (client side), game programmer (server side)

[mother clusterfck]

People really gotta get off this PSO3 delusion.
Just cause you got issues with the game, like we all do, doesn't mean Sega is going to abandon such a super profitable game to start the sequel out of nowhere.

Not just that next year there is a Western release that is likely to be really popular cause so many people were waiting for it and cause it has the same content as the Japanese version (even if we don't know what's gonna happen to collabs).

PSO2 is not just getting ever more popular but also improving all the time since Sega actually listens to players (even if they get confused / pick the easy way out at times like not shortening the time it takes to use shift pas on phantom but rather making markers easier to see) and if they dropped one big texture pack to upgrade the game to at the time current graphics they can do it again when tier 6 becomes outdated.

So in short there is no reason whatsoever for Sega to even think about a sequel to this popular and profitable game but instead focus entirely on making PSO2 as good and popular as they can till at least the planned 10 episodes are done but even then it's possible the game will receive more content if it's still popular enough.

[ArcaneTechs]

People really gotta get off this PSO3 delusion.
Just cause you got issues with the game, like we all do, doesn't mean Sega is going to abandon such a super profitable game to start the sequel out of nowhere.

Not just that next year there is a Western release that is likely to be really popular cause so many people were waiting for it and cause it has the same content as the Japanese version (even if we don't know what's gonna happen to collabs).

PSO2 is not just getting ever more popular but also improving all the time since Sega actually listens to players (even if they get confused / pick the easy way out at times like not shortening the time it takes to use shift pas on phantom but rather making markers easier to see) and if they dropped one big texture pack to upgrade the game to at the time current graphics they can do it again when tier 6 becomes outdated.

So in short there is no reason whatsoever for Sega to even think about a sequel to this popular and profitable game but instead focus entirely on making PSO2 as good and popular as they can till at least the planned 10 episodes are done but even then it's possible the game will receive more content if it's still popular enough.

im laughing

[landman]

Planned 10 episodes? they planned 10 years, who knows how many episodes, I wouldn't be surprised if current Shiva arc was the final one. You should not be so attached to your online games, they always end, and no tier 7 or 8 could make a miracle, pso2 was graphically outdated from launch since they were aiming for the game to work even for the people that was still playing psobb. Still they seem to be starting based on those last jobs, so a couple or three years wouldn't be surprising, just in time for the 10 years mark.

[mother clusterfck]

im laughing
Good for you?

[ArcaneTechs]

Good for you?

you're acting as though the company isnt going to put out something better for everyone to play that they HAVE TO stick to PSO2 and nothing else. I mean I'd be surprised they pull the WoW treatment and overhaul the entire game but YOUR delusion that they have to stick to PSO2 or its nothing is whats hilarious

[Zyrusticae]

I think the lack of moveable fingers alone is a huge reason for them to want to develop a PSO3. They can't do that with the existing game as it has accrued MASSIVE technical debt due to how old it is and the sheer number of assets it's accumulated. Believing that they could just do another graphical makeover of the existing stuff is naive in the extreme. It simply isn't realistic.

As so much of the game's appeal comes from the fashion aspect, starting over with fresh new character models in 2020 graphics would be a massive boon to their popularity. I don't doubt that the penny-pinchers at SEGA are really looking forward to seeing this potential realized. That's disregarding how much differently the game could play if they use the current advanced classes as a basis (making the game even more of an over-the-top "stylish" action game).

I fully expect we'll see an announcement in 2020 at the very least. A game likely targeted towards the next generation of consoles and PC. That's my prediction, anyways. We'll see how things go.

[Dark Mits]

If they are now looking for these positions, then chances are that the game still has 2 to 4 years of active development before going live, depending on how much content they intend to "pre-produce" and have ready for the first patches.

The engine is "probably" ready since they don't ask for engineers. Assuming that it will not be announced early enough to avoid (a) reducing interest in PSO2 and (b) killing interest between initial announcement and release, my prediction is that it will be announced in late 2021 or in 2022, with the game releasing in late 2022 or in 2023.

[Anduril]

If they are now looking for these positions, then chances are that the game still has 2 to 4 years of active development before going live, depending on how much content they intend to "pre-produce" and have ready for the first patches.

The engine is "probably" ready since they don't ask for engineers. Assuming that it will not be announced early enough to avoid (a) reducing interest in PSO2 and (b) killing interest between initial announcement and release, my prediction is that it will be announced in late 2021 or in 2022, with the game releasing in late 2022 or in 2023.

The question then becomes what will they do regarding PSO2 when that time comes, though I guess it depends on how profitable they still see it at that time. My hope is they do a PSOBB/PSU scenario where they co-exist for some time, rather than a PSU/PSO2 one where PSU users were just given a month's notice that the game was shutting down less than a month after PSO2 launched; now I'm not expecting 4 years like PSOBB/PSU, but even an extra year to get people to jump ship to the new game is better than 2 months.

[HardBoiledPapa]

Well FFXI PC servers is still active right now despite the existence of FFXIV ARR. So I wouldn't be surprised if Sega will keep supporting the game or just keep the servers alive as long as there are decent amount of players playing it along with the next PS game.

[landman]

But FFXI has a mandatory monthly fee, same as PSOBB and PSU, and unlike PSO2, if they give it an extra year it would be just out of charity, and any scratch would be meaningless knowing the imminent shutdown (unless players just spend money for the sake of spending money).

[ShinMaruku]

A new game would be cool that said, please let it not be the guys making PSo2, those guys are as reliable as those gits who kickstart mmos.

[silo1991]

A new game would be cool that said, please let it not be the guys making PSo2, those guys are as reliable as those gits who kickstart mmos.

whoever is in charge lets just hope EP4 and 5 mistakes does not repeat in the new game

also better not involve time travel like EP1 did in matter of story ; that element by it self complicate a lot any story

[Zorak000]

if they are going to make a new engine for it and not just make the next floor of the Tower of Ductape and Paperclips we have now; they would probably need to start working on that within the next year or two just to have something stable in maybe 5 years from now.

however it's entirely possible they are looking to hire new people to work on pso2 as well; part of what screwed up early episode 5 was that sega shifted a bunch of people out of PSCrew to work on other projects, which might have been a reason the flat boring buster field was used for anything more than the tutorial, among other things. the isakai setting would have been fantastic if they had more people to work on it, if some of that early ep5 concept art was anything more than just some spitballed ideas that didn't stick.

for the record, the other part they screwed up with ep5 included horrible ideas such as "people will want to abandon all of the other classes in the game for this one, single advanced class" and "let us design a quest specifically tailored for this single class everybody is going to move to, who cares if it will be horrible for some of these other classes to even exist there"

im just going to be extremely grumpy forever because aside from the quest itself, the main match / free match / buster medal systems were all good ideas that just needed more and continued support, but thanks to being tied to a single quest many people disliked, those ideas will get swept under the rug. armada's using it's own medal system here, but so far it has yet to show me how they will be supporting it and keeping it relevant into the future; unlike every other quest-based item collection exchange before it.

[landman]

New Sakura Taisen (https://youtu.be/kvhsTLPgFms?t=15m13s) is using the Hedgehog Engine 2, it launches this year in Japan and next year west, I don't expect PSO3 to use a different engine.

[isCasted]

Oh no... Sonic Forces was an absolute disaster in terms of visuals (looking worse than Sonic Unleashed from last gen, and running worse than Unleashed Project on PC too), and this game's fx, lighting and reflections look even worse (at times it even feels like it has a bad case of PSP bloom). PSO3 better look NOTHING like these two.

[zandra117]

pso2 doesn't use the hedgehog engine so I don't expect the next phantasy star to use the hedgehog engine 2.

[エリュシオン]

pso2 doesn't use the hedgehog engine so I don't expect the next phantasy star to use the hedgehog engine 2.

PSO2 does use the hedgehog engine.

[zandra117]

PSO2 does use the hedgehog engine.

I can't find an official source on that. I remember there being a big discussion here about how PSO2 might have performed better if they did use the hedgehog engine. A few fan wikis claim that it is hedgehog engine with no source. and wikipedia has a section on pso2's talk page disputing the assertion that pso2 uses hedgehog engine, apparently the wikipedia page used to claim that pso2 was hedgehog engine but it has been removed after the claim was disputed.

I think people get confused because of PSO's old association with Sonic Team but the last Phantasy Star game that Sonic Team ever worked on was the first Phantasy Star Portable released on July 31, 2008. That was before the hedgehog engine debut in Sonic Unleashed.
All Phantasy Star games from Phantasy Star Portable 2 onward have been developed by a different studio other than Sonic Team.
http://www.sonicteam.com/ lists everything that they have worked on for all consoles. Sonic Team has pretty much exclusively focused on Sonic and Puyo Puyo since 2008.

[Dark Mits]

Just because Hedgehog Engine was developed by (now non-existing) Sonic Team, it does not mean that they are the only studio that is "allowed" to use it. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games used it and it was developed by a different team within Sega. Also I think the new game in the Sakura series uses it despite being again a different development studio.

That being said, I cannot find information on the internet that solidifies if PSO2 uses the Hedgehog Engine. At the same time, if it did, players would have discovered it, just as they have found files in Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games that "betrayed" its use.

[ArcaneTechs]

pso2 doesn't use the hedgehog engine so I don't expect the next phantasy star to use the hedgehog engine 2.

they said they used it for Phantasy Star Universe and pretty sure they announced it at some point during this games near release that they were still using it (and the old PSU servers). I however am not going to dig through pages of info on bumped to find it.

[isCasted]

I've heard somewhere that Hedgehog Engine was in development as far back as 2004, but can't find the source

[BloodPuddles]

I'm really hoping it's PSU2. Whatever it is I hope they don't do this action game, stats are irrelevant, just get moar atks junk. If it weren't for this game being riddled with pretty hair I can have there's no way I would keep coming back.

[Dark Mits]

I've heard somewhere that Hedgehog Engine was in development as far back as 2004, but can't find the sourceSonic Unleashed was released in late 2008, so 2004 seems like a very plausible date for an engine prototype.

[Zorak000]

no matter what engine they used for this game; I just hope that for the next game they can more properly rework core infrastructure concepts if they need to, instead of just working around them. like please just decouple quest instances from lobby instances... it was fine for 4 player parties in PSO and 6 player parties in PSU since everything was already single-party content; but if they're going to keep doing multi-party stuff they need to let us match up with any available multiparty, block size and premium space have a tendency to get in the way a lot here. even if you are premium, if you're in a block that has entered premium space and your MPA is 7/12, non-premium memebers aren't going to get multi-block-drifted into your MPA so you're stuck because nobody wants to launch if there's still room.

granted making specific skills less important like the WB nerf was likely a good call for the future, since adding more classes becomes a bit of a moot point if every 4-player quest is going to need a ranger (and a techer, or even a te/ra if you really wanna shift all the support onto a single person) to keep the quest moving along at a reasonable pace.

[SELENNA]

More importantly, PSO3 needs a worldwide release + consoles. It's gross that we were basically lied to and will get the game in NA like 7 years later

[BloodPuddles]

More importantly, PSO3 needs a worldwide release + consoles. It's gross that we were basically lied to and will get the game in NA like 7 years later

I'm actually not opposed to not getting a NA release. Having to play the game in Japanese has drawn out how enjoyable it's been a crazy amount. The two weeks it would've taken to learn everything in the game took like two years.