(Hypothetical) So NA PSO2 never releases...

[AlaskanKactus]

I wouldn't be surprised, I already view an English release as sort of a myth now.

IF it happens to be released then I would only play it if any of my friends wanted to try it out. If they like it then I would tell them to join me on the JP servers.

I wouldn't place any blame on anyone. SoJ knows they're fanbase and SoA must have found out how difficult it would be to localize it. If I was SoA, I wouldn't release it for the states either. It just wouldn't be as profitable as the JP version.

[NintenJon25]

I doubt that majority of players are not from Japan. NA/EU players barely fells up 1 block primarily (looking you afkers on b20) and bout another 1-4 on a regular base when the sun raises for us on Ship 2. Compare that 4-5 full blocks to a nearly full server logins during JP evening time. Yea I highly doubt that most players are not from Japan. During my normal hours of playing, all ships are green, during those times I wake up early most of them are full.

I would roughly say no more than 15% of the population are from outside of Japan.

Even then, that's still a sustainable, great portion of English players on the JP servers. 15% of the 2.5 million registered players would entail to over 375,000 registered English players for PSO2 JP.

That's about the same (most likely more) than SEGA would expect on their servers for PSO2 in the West throughout the same length of time (one-year and counting).

As said before, there's really no reason for SEGA to bother releasing a US version if there is already such a dedicated group of individuals from the English PSO2 community working on fan-patches for the Japanese release. Contrary to the English version, all we need to do is wait for fan-patches to be fixed for each new weekly update to enjoy all of the goodness that is on the Japanese servers.

As mentioned in an earlier comment, I don't think SEGA really cares about anything else but making a profit off the game and the money to sustain these servers.

A Western release is too risky for them after you count how expensive the localization would be to get good enough voice actors (as an example) for the HUGE slew of voice acting the game has in the JP version. I mean, there wouldn't be a reason for a Western release if the only option for all of the NPC and Player characters was to still speak in only Japanese with English text, right?

[Zenobia]

*Looks at thread SMH*

*Sees the same thing being talked about in many threads before this one*

*Wondering why we are still worried about an NA release we all are having so much fun on the JP servers*

*Zipzo you baddy you dun Rick Rolled again*

[strikerhunter]

As mentioned in an earlier comment, I don't think SEGA really cares about anything else but making a profit off the game and the money to sustain these servers.

That right there my friend, is not also the only reason why we are not seeing an NA/EU release but also not seeing an large IP ban.

[Totori]

I think valid enough proof is that SEGA completely dropped all info about PSO2 off their main page of their website. Then, the entire PSO2 website (even though the US version still exists) is practically archived from view.

I'm not stating that as a fact---I think it's pretty weird that it would even come across as that.

However, it's obvious that SEGA of America won't bring the game stateside. There's just too much at stake.

On top of all the translations they'd have to do for in-game text files, there's also voice dubs that they'd have to do unless they want characters to be completely mute (which would ruin a lot of intense story moments). Then, the game is constantly receiving updates weekly on the JP servers, whereas EN servers are always known for having a shoddy update schedule.

The optimist in me would love just having a worldwide release running on a worldwide server, but things just don't usually work out to be that way due to consumer demand.

PSO is always first-and-foremost a Japanese game before it is English. It's probably the only thing holding them back at this point from releasing an official Western version of the game...the interest for RPGs like PSO in the West has heavily dwindled due to the advent of mobile (casual) gaming, an influx of shooters, and MMOs like WoW that have run the MMORPG genre quite tepid for WoW veterans.

Ahh, my, my, my... Bringing an online game over takes a bit of work. They don't have an issue with translation, honestly they are prolly done with that. And they are well aware of the issues about the JP side getting update bi-weekly.

I don't think I seen anything from SEGA of America about them dropping info, they just can't talk about anything at the moment. It's due to NDA's and well there's really not much to say, they still do have the website up. Remember some games, can take a while to reach overseas. (Just take a gander at Sakura Wars, that game took longer than the original development time to localize)

PSO2 being Japanese, I'm not sure how that's holding them back. SEGA of America are prolly struggling more with how to manage the Arks Cash content and collabs more then having to do Voice work for the game.

[Shambertin]

can people stop making these threads now please. anyone who wants to play is already playing.
any release for na/eu will never happen. and i highly doubt people would migrate to that release because we have all put too many hours into jp server. english release will be lacking in anything decent to do anyway.

[Totori]

I'll migrate over >.>b

[Yutaka20]

lol the only known news is asiasoft will be the english version host.
go get ur fill of sadness then ;P
most of us ,and i mean at least 98% of the english players will be staying in jp.
super loads of reason which i dont need to state cos it's too obvious

[Kion]

That was me, actually. I've said that even if a NA version is released, we (Arks Layer) will continue to do what we do, and I'll continue to update the EN patch. As for whether Agrajag and them will continue to work on it, you'd have to ask them.

I'd like for Arks-Layer to be able to manage an official English release if given the chance.

As for Sega, at this point I really doubt any official version at this point. If they do a good job of releasing the game then I'll happily be able to simply play and do other things. If they do release it and in the likely event it sucks total monkey balls, then I'll keep translating the JP version for the English players on it unless I specifically am asked to stop. But again, I'm highly skeptical about the probability of Sega releasing a Western release at all.

Who do you blame, SoJ or SoA? x2 Blame Combo?

Blame? Not at all. Sega not doing anything has made this the best Phantasy Star release yet. I think SoA and SoJ both deserve credit for sucking. Thank you!

[Nitro Vordex]

If it ever came out US, I would gladly play on the servers. Hell, they might even get money from me.

That being said, depending on how the US one would be handled would determine on whether I stay on JP or not. I would, more than likely, play both versions, as I know there's a few people that feel that migrating would be a waste of their time and money, since they've put in the hours and cash into it already. Me? I haven't spent a penny, and I'm still leveling, and I would more than likely check out the US servers and even spend time leveling on those. I did it on multiple versions of PSO, I did it on PSU, how would PSO2 be any different?

Plus I would love to hear the cheesy ass voice acting.