SEGA Dreamcast & Nintendo Gamecube to End

[Starman]

For those of you who can read Japanese full details can be found - http://tails04.sonicteam.com/cgi-bin/pso/info/info.cgi

But I will quote PSO-World for English translation.

On April 1st, 2007, Sonic Team will officially be shutting down the Gamecube and Dreamcast servers as seen in this announcement. The servers will become free-to-play on March 1st, 2007 for a one month period. Also, the 90 payment option will be discontinued on December 8th and the 30 day option on January 29th. Listed below is the versions of the game that will be affected by this announcement:

* Dreamcast
o Version 1
o Version 2
* Gamecube
o Episode 1&2
o Episode 1&2 Plus
o Episode 3

The XBox and Blue Burst servers will remain in operation for the foreseeable future. Credit goes to Renamon for spotting this update and EspioKaos/Arislan for providing translations. You can share your reaction in our Phantasy Star Online forum.

Well I guess nothing lasts forever - sadly
RIP PSO GCN

[Phantom_RAcast]

Doesnt surpise me at all. How many people even have there 1&2 HLs active?

[nomercy]

Doesn't surprise me either.

[Comments]

<strong>SEGA Dreamcast & Nintendo Gamecube to End</strong> <img src="/images/Version1&2.jpg" alt="Version1&2" width="8" height="8">
<font size="1">[ Lee_yoshi - December 9 2006 - 3:00 PM ]</font>

<SPAN class=mediumtext><SPAN class=mediumtext><SPAN class=mediumtext><SPAN class=mediumtext><SPAN class=mediumtext><P><FONT face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Sonic Team of Japan have announced that after all this time, they're finally closing down the SEGA Dreamcast and Nintendo Gamecube&nbsp;<EM>Phantasy Star Online</EM> servers. This means that you'll no longer be able to play online on the above mentioned platforms.</FONT></P><P><FONT face=Arial>The servers will be shutdown for good on 31st March 2007 at 23:59 (Japanese Time), making that your last time to get online! However, for the whole of March, Sonic Team are taking away all Hunters Licenses and making the game free for online play.</FONT></P><P><FONT face=Arial>You'll no longer be able to purchase a 90-Day Hunters License as the last time to buy one of them was yesterday, however, until 29th January, you'll still be able to buy a 30-Day Hunters License for online play on the Nintendo Gamecube.</FONT></P><P><FONT face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">There will be&nbsp;server maintenance on the Nintendo Gamecube &amp; SEGA Dreamcast&nbsp;<EM>Phantasy Star Online</EM> servers during&nbsp;March 1st 2007&nbsp;between the times of 12:00 &amp; 14:00 (Japanese Time).</FONT></P><P><FONT face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">During this time please do not attempt to connect to the servers as if maintenance is happening on your corresponding servers at that time then you will be automatically disconnected after connecting. If you happen to be playing during these times please disconnect otherwise at the time when maintenance starts you will be disconnected from your game no matter what! You are given 10 minutes warning via. constant on-screen messages counting down until the time the upgrades start. This affects all players of the following SEGA Dreamcast &amp;&nbsp;Nintendo Gamecube games:</FONT></P><UL><LI><EM><FONT face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Phantasy Star Online</FONT></EM><LI><EM><FONT face=Arial>Phantasy Star Online, Version 2</FONT></EM><LI><EM><FONT face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Phantasy Star Online, Episodes I &amp; II </FONT></EM><LI><EM><FONT face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Phantasy Star Online, Episodes I &amp; II Plus </FONT></EM><LI><FONT face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><EM>Phantasy Star Online, Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution</EM> </FONT></LI></UL><P><FONT face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><A href="http://www.ragol.co.uk/items/EEkpkEVkkkXbGNFGTY.shtml"></A>Please reconnect after these times where service continues as normal.</FONT></P><P align=center><FONT face=Arial>"<EM>Phantasy Star Online started in December 2000 on the SEGA Dreamcast and lasted 6 years across four platforms (SEGA Dreamcast, Nintendo Gamecube, Xbox and Windows), being sold in the United States, Europe, Korea, China and Taiwan in addition to Japan.</EM></FONT></P><P align=center><FONT face=Arial><EM>The Long time continued network service across SEGA Dreamcast and Nintendo Gamecube editions of Phantasy Star Online had great support of which everyone is very&nbsp;close to all of the staff's hearts</EM>"</FONT></P><P align=left><FONT face=Arial>After 31st March 2007, to continue playing through <EM>Phantasy Star Online</EM>, you'll have to pick up the Xbox edition of <EM>Phantasy Star Online, Episodes I &amp; II</EM> or <EM>Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst</EM> for Windows PC.</FONT></P></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN>

[pink]

Meh... I haven't needed that license since back in May. All I got my first 6 months of online on Sega's servers was glitches, and no customer support when I needed a problem that they were causing fixed... if they had bothered to support the servers this probably wouldn't have happened for awhile, but hey... their loss.

[Shifty]

the first time i connected to the servers with PSO DC was great, it was new for me and i had a great time playing online with my mates who i knew personally and meeting new people online.

now its come to an end on the system that gave birth to it.

i might pop online with the DC just to get that feeling back, and the GC, seeing as theres no HL in the last month.

:'(

[Kitsadoodles]

*Sobs*
WHYYYYYYYYYYY?!
That's depressing... I mean, no one was using them, and it was totally expected because ST couldn't possibly waste the precious time that they could spend in money-bath tubs keeping up a useless server, but... its very sad to see such a great thing go down. I'll never forget you PSO servers, and I'll come back for you in March!

[the_importer]

All good things must come to an end. PSOBB will probably be next and the XBOX version will last as long as Microsoft supports XBOX LIVE for XBOX 1 games.

[Lee-yoshi]

PSO: BB in Japan will last for a year or two more at least as its still getting plenty of updates.

Nice to see people posting that they might come back online in March - I hope to be there too

[K_I_R_E_E_K]

i hate 1 thing in this change

there are 2 types of servers, the official servers and the private servers, since cheating on official servers will get you banned, some people make servers were cheating is fun, with the off. serves out, many legit players will be mixed with cheaters, that may not be too good.

i did not like this move that SEGA made.