lollipoplolita writes, "RagMasterRappy reports a new bug with the Mop Up Quest:

"It seems that when time runs out, and you're forced to go back to the hunter's guild, if you're the third person to join the game you'll be positioned in such a way that you are not close enough to the counter to talk to the lady to exit, instead you have to manually quit the game.

This happened to me during mop up 2. I noticed that the first two players were able to leave, but pressing the A button did absolutely nothing for me.

Oh, and if you fail the quest you're not able to move so you can't reposition yourself anyway."

You can join the discussion here."

psosaladwood writes, "I emailed Sega a few days ago, asking when Xbox PSO would be coming out since Ebgames and Gamestop are both now showing a release date of April 22nd.

Sega had this to say:

"Thank you for e-mailing Sega Technical Support. I'm sorry, but it is in now in our understanding that Microsoft is handling all aspects of PSO for Xbox, including publishing. Thus, I do not have any release dates available. Please refer back to them for help with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

-Jason
Sega of America Technical Support"

Okay so then we contacted Chris at XBox Chat Support to verify this information and this was what we got from Microsoft:

"I'm afraid that contradicts the information we have on our site. According to our information, Sega is the game's publisher as it always has been for PSO when released on any console."

Confused? I know I am! We'll try contacting them again in a few days to see if there's any change."

lollipoplolita writes, "According to Isao.net and the GC PSO homepage, JP Isao account holding members under the age of 18 who had their HL services suddenly stop without reason or terminated during the February 18 - 19 Isao server maintenance are now offered a "KID's" account. You can read more details at Isao.net's website. So if you did have JP HL issues and you entered an age under 18 years, you know why now!

Quick note, if you have just been recently and suddenly banned, this is probably why it happened, and you would need to set up a "Kid's" account for your HL."

All 6 new quests are now available for play on the JP ships. White Day Lobby Theme decorations are also up. The new gallon's shop item is disc volume 6.

The "Princinpal's Gift" quest needs 2 people to play. You have 15 minutes to beat this quest. This quest takes place in mines and you and your partner would need to fight in the same room together. You are however, always separated by a laser fence. It's basic straightforward killing and in the end the reward you get is a candy with your partner's ID inscribed on it. Dying in the quest will end the quest, although having a scape doll handy will prevent that. You also can't use ryuker. This quest will be available until Monday, March 17th. You can find our guide for the quest here.

You can find guides for Endless Nightmare quests here and guides for the Mop Up quests here.

The 6 new quests are:

1. The Principal's Gift - 2 players
2. Gallon's Shop with new item - 1 - 4 players
3. Endless Nightmare 1 - 1 - 4 players
4. Endless Nightmare 2 - 1 - 4 players
5. Mop Up 1 - 1 - 4 players
6. Mop Up 2 - 1 - 4 players

Update:
US servers are now updated. Quests and lobby theme are now available on US servers as well. You can find ST's BBS post here

White Day Quest Guide here.

psosaladwood writes, "Sega has made an official statement in regards to the buyout rumor circulating in many major news sources. According to www.gamesradar.com:

"[Sega] has officially denied that such as deal exists.

Sega president Hideki Sato has flatly denied that EA have approached Sega - although he has yet to respond to the other long-running rumour that Microsoft are interesting in snapping up the struggling developers."

You can read the full article here. "

MikeE3D writes, "Well, PSO Xbox is delayed again. According to Gamestop, it's not set to release untill 4/22/03, yet the PSO Xbox homepage says it's still set for March. We'll just have to wait and see whats gonna happen."

The current ship date for many stores including EB Games seems to be 04/22/03. Although, when we contacted [email protected], they had this to say:

"Thank you for e-mailing Sega Technical Support.

It shows that the release date for PSO Xbox is March 25, 2003. You want to check with your game store to see when they expect to have it in stock.

Sincerely,

-Sandi
Sega of America Technical Support"

So someone's not saying the truth somewhere!!

lollipoplolita writes, "ST posts this exciting news in their JP BBS:

A new quest will be available on Monday, March 10th called "The Principal's Present" which will be the quest for the White Day event. This quest will be available for two people until Monday, March 17th. This is another "pairing up" quest like the nature of the Valentine's quest, where the two players can deepen and strengthen the bonds of the relationship. The quest involves the VR stimulator and the principal, and it looks like the sex of the characters do not matter. There will be a point in the quest (note: 2nd picture) that you will not be able to further advance if the hearts of the two players are not united. Once you overcome the numerous obstacles and arrive at the end of the quest, you will receive a special present.




There will also be a new item available in Gallon's Shop. This quest will be available for up to 4 people. The new item is currently unknown.

Mop Up 1 & 2 and Endless Nightmare 1& 2 will also finally be available for online play. All four quests are available for up to 4 people. You can find guides for Endless Nightmare quests here and guides for the Mop Up quests here.

There will be a server maintenance to put up these new quests on Monday, March 10th from 4pm til 6pm. As usual, please do not connect during the scheduled server maintenance time and end all games before the time. All active games will end during the maintenance. The above times are JP times.

There will also be White Day themed visual decorations in the lobby from March 10 - 17. More details on the quests can be found here.

Please note, White day is the Japanese equivalent of Valentine's Day for boys, where Valentine's is traditionally for girls! What a big addition for White Day. Enjoy White Day!"

lollipoplolita writes, "Purchase your HL for EU PSO at here. The EU PSO website, playsega.com, can be reached here.The website is available in English, French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish. You can pay using Mastercard, Visa, Solo and Switch. You can also get your promised free first 30 days without entering any payment method information. The website says:

"Welcome to PlaySega, your gateway to the PSO Homepage, an information centre for the users of Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 & 2 for Nintendo Game Cube (PSO) in Europe. Entry to the PSO Homepage is restricted to owners of PSO.

Registered users are currently entitled to 30 DAYS FREE online game play. Please note that this offer is subject to our Terms & Conditions and may only be used once for each legitimately purchased copy of PSO.

If you wish to continue to play PSO after the first 30 days, you will need to purchase a Hunter's License from the PSO Homepage. Current Hunter's License subscription charges:

Euros: 8.95

Pounds: 5.99

Please note that these subscription charges may change.

Sega, Nintendo and/or infogrames do not provide the required communication services between your GameCube console and our online services. Please note that additional charge for your telephone, ISP (internet service provider) and/or network services provider may be required in order to play PSO online. If you have already registered your details, enter your user name and password below. If you are a new user, click on the "register" button."

BT Click users - Click here for Terms and Conditions of use.""

lollipoplolita writes, "EU/PAL PSO goes on sale today and EU players are finally getting their hands on PSO. Sonic Team finally completed their server maintenance and EU ships are now finally live and connected! The server maintenance ended at 4pm JP time. You can read the ST BBS news post here. The EU ships names are:

31: EU/Polaris
32: EU/Dubhe
33: EU/Spica
34: EU/Regulus
35: EU/Arcturus
36: EU/Alphard


True to PSO fashion, the new EU ships names are all named after stars like all other ship names, as you can see here. Funny how EU has 2 more ships than the US. "