PSO2 is still coming west at some point, according to new SEGA head interview

[NintendoLight]

One day when this does come out i'm not going to the NA server cause i don't want to it will be like PSU all over again so i think its better to stay on the Japanese server and all of english players should all go to one block and hug each other and have some Tea and pie.











yeah idk.

[HandOfThornz]

I'm pretty sure that translating is one of the quickest and cheapest aspects of localizing a game. Off the top of my head, i think the challenges of releasing the game internationally lie along the lines of:

• Setting up and managing another set of game servers
• the items are stored on a server, that means they'd need multiple servers for multiple languages
• Laws in each country they release the game and what is included
• Setting up and ID system for multiple players in different regions to play together
• Setting up a pay system for different regions to play with each other
• The possibility of getting sued. There have been a lot of frivolous patents being thrown at different companies in America, it might be a liability
• Failing once with PSU. PSU was mostly Sega's fault for horrible management, but after failing once, it might means that the company doesn't want to risk a lot of resources for another failure.
• Managing content and communicating with different regions. The dev team probably has their hands full which means they might need to have to add new tools so that other regions and staff can mange and add to the game with out having to ask the SoJ dev team for every small task.

There's probably more, but from a company's perspective, this is probably the lines that they are thinking on.

That's a good solid overview and key points highlighted.

Other thing to bare in mind, it was only recently SEGA stopped advertising for a "Free2play director" job role in Europe. I'm pretty sure the role has been filled recently as the ad's have disappeared.
This makes me think SEGA SOE/SOA have held out putting PSO2 out due to lack of professional internal knowledge with large free2play models?

[Zysets]

This makes me think SEGA SOE/SOA have held out putting PSO2 out due to lack of professional internal knowledge with large free2play models?

Oh gosh I hope so! If it really is an internal knowledge issue, and they have someone in that has experience or some knowledge with managing this type of game, then we may see it someday. Ah, In the end, "someday" just sounds like Sega though.

[Eternum]

Am I the only one that sees a huge opportunity here?

• World of Warcraft has really caused stagnation in the MMORPG genre. At the time of PSU, this was not the case.
• However, WoW did something good for the genre overall in that it got people used to MMORPGs and made it popular.
• At this point, people are tired of the WoW feeling; they're just looking for something unique and different--which is exactly what PSO2 is.
• Anime/exposure to Japanese culture has been a lot more well-received with things like Naruto, Bleach, Attack on Titan, sites like Crunchyroll and who knows what else.
• Networking has changed with the rise of social media and viral advertising.
• Western publishers seem to have tunnel vision, that recycling "dudebro" games (thanks so much for that term) is the way to go, despite millions in Kickstarter campaigns for other kinds of games.
• This means RPG fans, hipsters, and many other types of gamers are currently isolated from the primary* market. *Primary, as dictated by Western publishers.

I feel the gamble is if Sega sees the opening and goes for it. I notice their Japanese advertising campaign is a LOT stronger than it ever was in the US (and possibly internationally? I don't really know there, sorry. ). If they put half that effort in to international advertising, they'd probably end up way more popular than in past attempts given that the competitive field has changed.

[Emp]

The game has little to no chance of surviving in the FPS dominated NA/EU game industry

[Neith]

Loving how vague Sega continue to be. Surely most people who were interested in PSO2 have at least tried the JP version by now?

Yet still they continue trying to string fans along with promises it's coming out. It'd be far easier at this point to just admit it's being cancelled. Even if it does release, I really doubt it'll be up to date with the JP version (more than likely be years behind) and not worth playing.

Even if we get past all that, we'd still have to put up with Clumsyorchid and Edward spilling coffee on the servers every week, like PSU

[Eternum]

The game has little to no chance of surviving in the FPS dominated NA/EU game industry

In that case, Star Citizen, a space sim, would not have raised $15 million+ from crowd-funding and have masses of fans frothing at the mouth in this early production. It's the publishers that are saying, "no one wants a space sim/RPG/non-FPS game." They're not in touch with the full scope of their demographic anymore.

[Cyclon]

Am I the only one that sees a huge opportunity here?

• World of Warcraft has really caused stagnation in the MMORPG genre. At the time of PSU, this was not the case.
• However, WoW did something good for the genre overall in that it got people used to MMORPGs and made it popular.
• At this point, people are tired of the WoW feeling; they're just looking for something unique and different--which is exactly what PSO2 is.
• Anime/exposure to Japanese culture has been a lot more well-received with things like Naruto, Bleach, Attack on Titan, sites like Crunchyroll and who knows what else.
• Networking has changed with the rise of social media and viral advertising.
• Western publishers seem to have tunnel vision, that recycling "dudebro" games (thanks so much for that term) is the way to go, despite millions in Kickstarter campaigns for other kinds of games.
• This means RPG fans, hipsters, and many other types of gamers are currently isolated from the primary* market. *Primary, as dictated by Western publishers.

I feel the gamble is if Sega sees the opening and goes for it. I notice their Japanese advertising campaign is a LOT stronger than it ever was in the US (and possibly internationally? I don't really know there, sorry. ). If they put half that effort in to international advertising, they'd probably end up way more popular than in past attempts given that the competitive field has changed.

Sums up my thoughts on the matter about a year ago. Well in a way, I still think that it could work. But they had plenty of time to advertise the game or do anything really, and it just... didn't happen.
So yeah, I agree with you. But you may as well call it a lost opportunity at this point.

[Pentence]

Honestly? I am not sure many of us here personally care. At this point many who werereluctant before and were waiting for eng releash have just goten on board the jp server. I have 5 friends who did this after waitng until about a month ago.

I know that SOJ must be seeing the eng patches and all that jazz by now. No way they do not. Then they might now be thinking ( or so I hope) " maybe we should do an international server" . They can now see the money in it.

Also there is no need to worry about laws in other countries hardly. As they owen the pso 2 franchise and all that already. Being a game for download makes production cost for new discs a non issue so no need to worry bout all that. Would it not be simpler to expand the current server which is hosted in japan to accmidate more connections? Then they have it all under one roof saves them monet on space and perssonel.

I still see that other language option in the menu. Here is to hope.

[DrEngrish]

I totally agree with you Pentence. I think it would be a win win situation for Sega if they introduced a set of "International Ships" on the current JP POS2 Servers.