Phantasy Star Online 2 SEA To Shut Down On May 26th

If you're like me and you regularly bemoan the lack of a Western version of Phantasy Star Online 2, you probably won't be happy about today's news. Asiasoft, the game's Southeast Asian publisher, announced today that it will be shutting down its Phantasy Star Online 2 service on May 26th. This is an extremely significant move, as, not only was this the only official English version of the game to ever be released, it was the only international version of the game to ever be released.

Despite the significance, if you've kept up with Phantasy Star Online 2 at all, the shut down isn't exactly surprising. The translation is notoriously bad, having renamed the series' iconic "Force" class "Wizard," whereas Monomates, Dimates, Trimates, etc. are referred to as "Health Drinks." Item prices on the in-game market are said to have been hyper-inflated compared to the Japanese version. Asiasoft was consistently late introducing updates and it is said that the SEA version was at least a year behind the Japanese version. The SEA version was also said to be pay-to-win, whereas the Japanese version was not. Perhaps the most damning difference, however, is that the SEA version has always been IP blocked, whereas SEGA removed the IP block for the Japanese version some time ago. With the release of an unofficial English patch and the lack of an IP block, many users had no reason not to play the vastly superior Japanese release.

The Japanese version of Phantasy Star Online 2 is unaffected by the impending shutdown of the SEA version.