The Japanese Dreamcast servers went down yesterday from 10:00 - 17:00 for maintenance. As a result of the maintenance, the game is now free-to-play for all Japanese players. However, you will need to make some adjustments to your network settings to log on to the servers. You will have to set your Primary DNS to be 202.221.244.21 and Secondary DNS to 202.221.244.22. Credit goes to gjb-sensei for spotting this news.

According to the Japanese PSO BBS, Starting May 20, you will no longer need to pay to go online for EU/JP PSO Version 2. This means that you will no longer need to purchase a Hunters License for your Japanese or European version of PSO!

Please note that the US Servers are still down, this only applies to Japan and European PSODC Servers. You can read the rest at the Japanese PSO BBS. (Babelfish Link)

Discuss this in our Forums!

lollipoplolita writes, "The US PSODC servers have come to an end and are now down and no longer available. Let's just observe a moment of silence for the original game that got many of us hooked on the game until now. However, EU and JP servers are still up and running for you lucky players in EU and JP. If you guys would like to discuss this further, please join the discussion in our forums. Good times..."

At the request of Dreamcast Magic, PSOW posts the following news:

In an effort to save online play for Phantasy Star Online for Dreamcast, Dreamcast Magic has set up an online petition to save PSO from being taken offline. Just go to this petition link and sign it, Fight for your right to party on PSO! Also you can e-mail Sonic Team at [email protected] and tell them to keep PSO online!

Jack writes, "News from Sega.com!

Beginning October 1, 2003 the online services for Phantasy Star Online Dreamcast version 1 & 2 will be discontinued. The PSO US Dreamcast server (11:US/Oberon) will continue to operate and will be maintained until 9/30/03. However, starting September 30, 2003 at 11:59pm (Japan Time), 7:59am(US Pacific Time), the server will be disconnected and no players will be able to log into the game server.

The message boards have always been an integral part of the PSO community and they will continue to operate until 10/1/03.

If you have a valid Hunters License as of October 1, 2003 and after, you will receive credit for the charge against the credit card you used at the time of renewal. This credit will be issued around November 1, 2003.

Although this has been a difficult business decision, we know it is necessary to allow our valuable production resources to work on new games. On behalf of Sonic Team here at Sega, we would like to thank you for making PSO an unforgettable experience. You have brought us much joy and many wonderful memories. We invite you to try PSO on GameCube and Xbox and share your knowledge and skills with other PSO gamers so your legacy will continue to live on. "

Goodbye PSODC =(