Since 2012, fans have been waiting for the West release of Sega’s anime MMO Phantasy Star Online 2 in Europe and North America. However, the project has been postponed time and again and now seems completely dead.
Phantasy Star Online 2 is a game from the extremely popular Fantasy Star series. The franchise belongs to Sega’s big hits, and the first part dates back to 1987. At that time, the game made a big splash on the “Sega Master System.” There are now numerous successors, including the successful MMORPG Phantasy Star Online 2 from 2012.
Unfortunately, the game was only released in Japan and other Asian countries. A West release in the USA (and later in Europe) was planned for 2013. But it seems that this will never happen.
The Europe and US version of PSO2 has been postponed repeatedly
Unfortunately, the West release has been postponed repeatedly. However, hope has never completely died. Moreover, Sega has always announced that they want to bring the game to the West for the PlayStation 4. There were even advertising campaigns. Yet there has never been a release so far.
The same happened with a Steam release of Phantasy Star Online 2. Allegedly, there is a deal with a Chinese company behind this, under which a Steam release of Phantasy Star Online 2 is forbidden. Since Steam is Sega’s primary distribution platform, this contractual prohibition is said to be the reason why the game does not appear here.
English website is offline, official plans for Europe and USA release seem dead
Recently, there was hope again in May 2017. Sega announced in the roadmap until 2020 that they wanted to revive “great old brands.” A classic like Phantasy Star fit well into this concept.
But unfortunately, all hope seems to have been in vain. Recently, Sega took the English website along with the domain for Phantasy Star Online 2 offline. This suggests that the project for the West is deader than dead.
Welp, Sega shut down the official English website for Phantasy Star Online 2. The dream is dead (deader? deadest?) https://t.co/7lXSm494lN pic.twitter.com/QepPAX5B59
— RPG Site (@RPGSite) November 19, 2017
Although the West version of Phantasy Star Online 2 seems to be finally dead, it is possible to play the game with some tricks and fan patches over the Asian version.
If you pay close attention, you can find references to Phantasy Star Online 2 in Final Fantasy XIV.
