08-05-2007, 03:11 PM
Hi everyone,
I sadly have bad news, the campaign has failed and SEGA have decided not to help us. Although I have fallen fairly silent over the last three weeks, I have been contacting SEGA and NTT Europe on a regular basis to try to get things in motion, sadly all was in vain, as I picked up the official response from my door mat this morning and this is how it reads:
"Dear Craig,
Thank you for your letter and your campaign pack which have been passed to me by Mike Hayes.
SEGA are proud to have such devoted customers and we are extremely grateful for your commitment to Phantasy Star Online. Unfortunately PSO has reached the point where the number of active players no longer justifies the manpower and resources required to operate and maintain the game servers. This situation is unlikely to change in future and regrettably we cannot re-open the servers, even in a limited capacity.
With regards to your second and third proposals: both of these would involve releasing our server-side code. This software remains the intellectual property of SEGA and it cannot be distributed to a third-party or released into the public domain for various reasons, including copyright and confidentiality. The game bears the SEGA brand and the Terms and Conditions make reference to SEGA. These would both need to be changed. Additionally, the authentication software and database would still need to be stored and maintained by SEGA because we cannot release these to a third-party.
We would encourage all fans of PSO to try Phantasy Star Universe and its forthcoming expansion, Ambition of the Illuminus. If you prefer something closer to the original, PSO Blue Burst for PC has an active and strong community.
Thank you once again for your loyalty to Phantasy Star Online.
Yours sincerely
Ryusuke Ito
IT & Network Director"
So, that is pretty much the end of the road folks...we tried our best but we all knew this was the likely outcome, feel free to send any messages or letters into Sega-Europe if you wish, I suggest you address or ask them to be sent on to "Ryusuke Ito" as this is obviously the person we would need to contact.
Thank you once again to everyone who supported this effort and I hope to see you all again sometime on a private server somewhere...at least we have that to be grateful for.
Thanks again everyone and enjoy that Dreamcast!
Cheers, Craig
I sadly have bad news, the campaign has failed and SEGA have decided not to help us. Although I have fallen fairly silent over the last three weeks, I have been contacting SEGA and NTT Europe on a regular basis to try to get things in motion, sadly all was in vain, as I picked up the official response from my door mat this morning and this is how it reads:
"Dear Craig,
Thank you for your letter and your campaign pack which have been passed to me by Mike Hayes.
SEGA are proud to have such devoted customers and we are extremely grateful for your commitment to Phantasy Star Online. Unfortunately PSO has reached the point where the number of active players no longer justifies the manpower and resources required to operate and maintain the game servers. This situation is unlikely to change in future and regrettably we cannot re-open the servers, even in a limited capacity.
With regards to your second and third proposals: both of these would involve releasing our server-side code. This software remains the intellectual property of SEGA and it cannot be distributed to a third-party or released into the public domain for various reasons, including copyright and confidentiality. The game bears the SEGA brand and the Terms and Conditions make reference to SEGA. These would both need to be changed. Additionally, the authentication software and database would still need to be stored and maintained by SEGA because we cannot release these to a third-party.
We would encourage all fans of PSO to try Phantasy Star Universe and its forthcoming expansion, Ambition of the Illuminus. If you prefer something closer to the original, PSO Blue Burst for PC has an active and strong community.
Thank you once again for your loyalty to Phantasy Star Online.
Yours sincerely
Ryusuke Ito
IT & Network Director"
So, that is pretty much the end of the road folks...we tried our best but we all knew this was the likely outcome, feel free to send any messages or letters into Sega-Europe if you wish, I suggest you address or ask them to be sent on to "Ryusuke Ito" as this is obviously the person we would need to contact.
Thank you once again to everyone who supported this effort and I hope to see you all again sometime on a private server somewhere...at least we have that to be grateful for.
Thanks again everyone and enjoy that Dreamcast!
Cheers, Craig