Just in case anyone had doubts that Phantasy Star Portable would decend upon the US market after its impressive launch in Japan, we've heard from sources that an official announcement is on the way. No further information has been passed on to us yet, but it sounds like Sega of America is gearing up for a US release of the title and that we can expect to see an official announcement of some kind in the near future. I guess you could call this an unofficial announcement of the official announcement.

Be sure to keep an eye on PSO-World as we continue to follow the impending announcement and subsequent release of the US version of Phantasy Star Portable. Also, be sure to visit the PSP Forum to chat with other PSO-Worlders about this latest Phantasy Star title!

We're happy to announce that PSO-World's very extensive site upgrade is completed! After nearly six months of preparation and over 48 hours of solid updating, the forums are back online and sporting a new look, with even more new features. A huge thanks to everyone who helped out in some way. In particular, a big thanks to Ryna, who's incredible effort (and sometimes disturbing workaholic tendencies) made this all possible!

Now delay no further, head over to the new PSO-World.com message boards now and check out what's new! Click Here to read our "patch notes" and to leave us your feedback, praise, bug reports, dirty dishes, etc. Thanks once again for everyone's patience and support during the upgrade process, we look forward to tweaking and improving the new software even more in the weeks to come!

Edit: Added correct link to Upgrade Notes thread! (3:51AM EST)

Here's some exciting news for everyone. This week, we will be performing some very large and extensive upgrades to PSO-World. We've been long overdue for a software upgrade and are pleased to announce that the forums will be first area of the site to get a major overhaul. This Thursday and Friday (and perhaps Saturday & Sunday as well), we will be converting the existing forums over to a new, cutting-edge forum system, complete with loads of new features and functionality! During this process, we do expect there to be significant downtime that will cause the forums, and possibly the entire site, to be unreachable. Don't worry, though, we will be working hard to get everything back up and running as quickly as possible.

As part of the upgrade, we will be carrying over as much of our existing information and data as possible, so there's no need to worry about your PSOW account or information posted on the current boards, it will all be there waiting for you in the new system. We do, however, strongly advise everyone to update their account information with a valid email address. After the upgrade, everyone will need to log in to the site again, so it is important that you either know your PSOW password or have a valid email address listed in your account settings so that the password can be retrieved.

This week's upgrade will bring a number of very useful, as well as highly requested, features to the site. We're really excited about the overall level of improvement over the previous system and look forward to hearing everyone's feedback once the upgrade has completed! We'll try to post more information on the new features later in the week, so stay tuned!

A reminder to everyone that the "Meet the Newman Knights" in-game event is today (January 31st). Be sure to log on and join in on the festivities (please take note of the schedule below). From the official site:

"The citizens of Neudaiz have a noble history rooted in the Gurhal Faith. After the death of Lord Doghi and the Divine Maiden, Lord Rutsu and the Maiden's twin sister Karen Erra took over the leadership of the Communion of Gurhal; restoring peace and faith for the good people of Ohtoku City. All Newmans who serve as GUARDIANS are called to come join their people in a communal celebration of noble history of the Newman race, and continued prosperity for all those living in Ohtoku City.

Karen Erra and Maya Shidow, have been dispatched by the Lord Rutsu as representatives of the Communion to reward all Newman GUARDIANS. In appreciation for their dedication to the universal cause against the SEED, we will be honoring the Newman race on this day at this symbolic gathering throughout Gurhal. In the name of spirit, faith, and nobility; all Newmans will be honored January 31st."

The event times are as follows:

Xbox 360 10:00AM - 10:45AM PDT 1:00PM - 1:45PM PDT 3:15PM - 4:00PM PDT

PC & PS2 11:00AM - 11:45AM PDT 2:00PM - 2:45PM PDT 4:15PM - 5:00PM PDT

Feel free to drop by the Phantasy Star Universe Forum to discuss the event!

Earlier today, PSO-World's server received some upgrades that should hopefully improve performance throughout the site. Users should hopefully notice less slowness and downtime during peak hours or other times when the site is receiving high amounts of traffic. This is the first of several upgrades that we have planned in the coming months, so stay tuned for more updates as PSO-World continues to improve and expand!

As always, please let us know if you experience any further issues by dropping us a message in our Site Related forum. Thanks and enjoy the improvements!

The Xbox 360 versions of Phantasy Star Universe and Ambition of the Illuminus will be updated to version 2.0001 during the February 1st maintenance period. This title update will address some issues in the game, such as the Photon Gacha text bug and machine gun glitch.

Sega would like to remind players to log out of their gamertags and restart their Xbox 360 consoles after receiving the update in order for it to function properly.

January marks PSO-World's 7th year of covering Phantasy Star games! Started back in 2001, PSO-World launched with the sole intention of providing the PSO community with a place to call home. Now seven years later, we're still alive and kicking, playing host to the latest generation of Phantasy Star fans (as well as many PSO veterans who are still frequenting the site!).




It's been a great run so far, and we're looking forward to many more years of serving the Phantasy Star fan base! A big thanks to everyone for continuing to support the site and this great community!

Robotix writes in to tell us that the PSO: Blue Burst servers are up, running, and now FREE! As reported back in November, Blue Burst players with who had an active subscription past December 9th will be allowed to enjoy the online service at no additional cost until March 31, 2008. At that time, the Blue Burst servers will be taken offline forever.

The fifth chapter of Shadow of the Arkguard, titled "Escape" has been released. The latest installment of this moving comic can be viewed on the official Phantasy Star Universe website, here.

Feel free to drop by the Phantasy Star Universe Forum to post your thoughts on this latest episode and predictions on what the next chapter, "Prelude to Destruction", will uncover!