English version of Phantasy Star Online 2 launches in Asia
With no confirmation of plans for a North American release of Phantasy Star Online 2, it'd be understandable if fans are frustrated by this week's launch of English servers in Southeast Asia, as reported by Siliconera. That's why we paired the news with the above photo of upbeat, happy-to-see-you birds! That ... makes it better, right? No?
To make matters worse, activity on the Phantasy Star Online 2 English Facebook page, as documented by PSO2 Blog, suggests that English-speaking fans living outside of Southeast Asia won't be able to join in due to an IP block for other regions. The page's About section supports this, stating that the English version is published by Asiasoft Online for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vientam, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The appearance of English-based servers would help explain October's rumor, as reported by Massively, of a Western release of PSO2 being unlikely, despite the game being "fully localized." If that localization work was only for servers in Southeast Asia and will never amount to something that would be used stateside, well ... that's a shame. Don't bother emailing Sega to see what's up, either - the status of a Western PSO2 is among the list of things the publisher can't answer.
http://www.joystiq.com/2014/05/31/en...nches-in-asia/
