PSU release date announced (Japan)

[Nash]

From this week's Famitsu:

February 16th, 7140 yen

I never expected it to come out in December because they've talked so little about the online mode, but this is going to be a painful wait. Thanks for Jonnyram on GAF for the news.

[RoninJoku]

A painful wait indeed... At least other MMO's can help to ease the pain... I have been pulled into WoW recently, like so many others... Damn game and it's trendiness... It even pulls me from my message board crack addiction! (Why am I here now then? Because it's weekly scheduled server maintenance time!)

But yea... I too was having a hard time believing they could pull off a December release (even for Japan) when we have heard and seen so very little of the core element of the game-online mode... And plus I remember the testing delays of Ep1&2, a straight release date would just be too good to be true...

[vox3om]

I'm officially pissed.

[DeathMachine]

So, is this the release date for Japan only? Does this mean that America will have to wait several more months?! Dear God, NOOOOO!

[Shade-]

And I was hoping that would be more like the US release date . Now I'm sad.

[Lovejuice]

It's a bit depressing yes, but on the other side of the coin - I'd much rather see Sega spend more time polishing the game as much as possible, rather than rush a christmas release (which has the potential to be suicidal going up against things like Kingdom Hearts II). That is, if it's simply being delayed thanks to development issues, and not some irritating distribution/legal/resource issue or whatnot. They seem to be treating PSU with a great deal of care, over say, the lax treatment of recent Sonic escapades. Long may it continue, we'll all still be here come February!

Still, this might not neccessarily effect the US release date a great deal, infact who knows, they might even be pushing it back in order to have everyone play together, translate everything, or something (yes, yes, it's doubtful I know, before you all scream, shout and set fire to my hair)..

Truth be told, from what we've seen in press releases and stuff, there really has been little focus on the online side of things, and heck, that whole part is like, half the selling point of PSU. While the offline mode certainly seems complete, perhaps they need more time to sort out online issues, especially if it looks like they WON'T be taking advantage of the PS2 hard-drive for updates and stuff. Guess we'll have 10 more weeks or so of Friday updates!

[Zarcon]

Well, look at it this way.
Maybe someone working on it has been browsing these forums and they want to add some of our ideas! =O
...
Okay, maybe not but still, if it means there'll be less bugs and possibly more features (come on seperate offline/LAN mode...) then I can wait.
...
Even if it means I go insane while I wait...

[OdinTyler]

Well, this is a surprising turn of events. We all expect non JP releases to be pushed back, but, Japan? Most disheartening, but, we as the PS faithful will stick it out, checking updates, discussing topics even til the final release date is known & then, let the celebration begin! Til then, we wait & wonder...

[Rion772]

This means we will have to wait till the may release?

[Nash]

As far as I know, this is the first time a date for the game has been announced. The December dates came from unofficial sources or online retailers. So the game hasn't actually been delayed, Sega Japan always had the game as just 'Winter'.

The original PSO was released one month after the Japanese version, so I'd say the earliest we can expect the Western release is March although it could end up being May. I just wouldn't put much faith in retailer dates, as the Japanese release date has shown.

Now they've announced a Japanese date, I guess that means we won't be seeing a Trial version like with Episodes I-III either. When they did the beta tests they didn't commit themselves to a release date to allow them time to fix any problems they find. I'd like to see a scan of Famitsu though, just in case they have announced anything else with the date.