Game master Edward has just posted an announcement concerning three instances of scheduled downtime for the PSU billing servers. As an effect of this downtime, PC/PS2 players will not be able to log in to the game or billing site; Xbox 360 players will be unaffected. The schedule for this billing server maintenance is as follows:
If you need assistance converting these maintenance periods from the listed time zones to yours, please use this converter.
Update: Edward has posted a followup to yesterday's announcement, letting everyone know that while firmware updates will still be happening, they will be done in a way that should not interrupt gameplay. PlaySEGA and the main SEGA website may still be inaccessible during the maintenance, but players should be able to log in to PSU with no problems.
Today, October 24, marks the two year anniversary of the release of Phantasy Star Universe in North America! We've all been through some rough times with the game, but we have undoubtedly enjoyed many great experiences with it, too. In honor of this milestone, forum user dogg1000 has begun a thread for veteran and rookie Guardians alike to share their stories with PSU. Feel free to join in and let us know how long you've been battling against the darkness of the SEED!
Some changes will be coming to the way you see individual universes when you log in to Phantasy Star Universe and view the universe transporter this Friday. Both PC/PS2 and Xbox 360 servers will receive not only a reduction in the total number of universes, but also a complete naming overhaul. Now, instead of seeing "01 Universe," "02 Universe," etc., players will have a list of named universes to choose from, based on various constellations.
The PC/PS2 servers will be reduced from 18 to 10 universes, while the Xbox 360 servers will go from 30 to 20 universes. The new universe names are as follows:
Replacing 01-10 Universe on both servers:
Replacing 11-20 Universe on the Xbox 360 server:
The official announcement of this change can be found here. Feel free to join in the discussion of these changes at the forums!
Update: Maintenance is complete and the servers are back up. However, a few small changes were made to the universe renaming. First, identifying numbers were added back. So now instead just seeing "Caelum" or "Perseus," you'll see "02: Caelum" or "16: Perseus." Second, the guide server has been renamed "Leo (Guide)" to fix a text-limits issue. Third, the universe known originally as "Lupus" has been renamed "Lyra" based on user feedback. And finally, the server list currently is centered in-game. This is only temporary and is planned to be moved to left-alignment. For full details on these changes, see the official announcement here.
Update: Reports have been coming in that the intended box fix for Bladed Legacy may not have occurred as players still are receiving only recovery items and -ium metals from the mission's clear boxes. We're awaiting official word on this for confirmation, and will update this post once we hear something.
Gurhal Channel 5 will be airing a special news broadcast on October 17, giving all Guardians a chance to speak out to their comrades! News submissions are being accepted through Sunday, October 12, and may include promotions for community-run events, advertisements for player shops and even shout-outs to friends. You can submit your news to the GC5 staff at [email protected]. Remember to put "Hal's Radio" in the subject line. Also, please keep your submissions brief (approximately 40 words or less) and make sure to specify which game server you want your message to be sent out to. Selected submissions will be aired three times throughout Friday, October 17, during broadcasts which will last 30 minutes or less. The schedule for broadcasts is as follows.
For further information on Hal's broadcast, please see the official announcement. Special thanks to forum member dogg1000 for the news tip!
According to a recent announcement, the servers and official*forums will be down starting late on October 11th and leading into the 12th.* It's said that the downtime will start at around 9 PM Pacific and last upwards of 15 hours.* It appears they are doing some*work on the power system*at the Sega of America offices.
Update: The maintenance did not occur as planned. When a new date is scheduled, we'll be sure to post the news.*
Between 3:40a.m. and 7:30a.m. Pacific, the Phantasy Star Universe servers and SEGA's websites were unavailable due to a hardware failure with SEGA's internet service provider. Though service has been restored, the ISP may need to replace some hardware which would require the service to go offline again for approximately an hour. Stay tuned to this report and chillaura's post at the official message board for further details.
Update: Chillaura made another post in reference to the possibility of a short downtime, stating that they are waiting for a decision from SonicTeam before taking the servers down. If necessary, it could be done tonight or tomorrow, but there's also a chance that the procedure could be handled during Thursday night's scheduled maintenance. We'll be sure to keep you posted.
Update: With not further official mention of this, it seems safe to assume that any hardware replacement was taken care of during normal server maintenance downtime Thursday night/Friday morning.
As mentioned on the Japanese 360 page and in this thread, server maintenance will be starting an hour earlier tonight. The noted reason is to correct an issue with Howzer in the A difficulty version of Ambition's End 2 (Episode 3 Chapter 5 Act 2). Japan received this update earlier today.
Update: Howzer is now level 160 on the A difficulty of the relevant story mission.
NGS killed this franchise
Open world is a trap meme Sega fell for.