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Phantasy Star Online Dreamcast Servers To Close

Posted by simoniker on from the rappy-flapping-and-weeping dept.

Thanks to the Sega website for publishing official word that the Phantasy Star Online servers for Dreamcast will be shut down from October 1st. The page concludes: "On behalf of Sonic Team here at Sega, we would like to thank you for making PSO an unforgettable experience. You have brought us much joy and many wonderful memories. We invite you to try PSO on GameCube and Xbox and share your knowledge and skills with other PSO gamers so your legacy will continue to live on." This news follows the shutting-down of Sega's other Dreamcast online servers back in June.

5 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. At least there's still single player by Sancho · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is one of the reasons I've always been hesitant to play MMORPGs. Lots of times I like to break out old games and play them for, if nothing else, nostalgia's sake. With a MMORPG, unless there are fan-based servers, this isn't possible.

    1. Re:At least there's still single player by nutsy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's a foregone conclusion that Dreamcast fans will hack the protocols and design their own servers. The question is how long it'll be before the cease-and-desist orders start flying.

  2. I won't miss it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The Dreamcast PSO version 1 was a textbook example of how not to make an online game, because the designers apparently didn't take online security into consideration. The online game was fun at first, but the fun started to wane a few months after its release, when people started signing on with hacked characters and weapons. The fun took a futher nose dive when a reliable method of PKing (player killing) was discovered. So the non-hackers started playing in passworded games, and when the hackers figured out how to enter passworded games without the password, then the game got to the point where players had to either cheat online, or quit playing online.

    The worst thing is Sega could do nothing about this, since the hackers were always one step ahead of Sega on just about everything.

    So I won't be crying when the Dreamcast PSO servers go down...

  3. PSO Homebrew server by R5900 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It seems that some guys have started such a project a while ago..
    Well, as written on the main page, the current project is the Phantasy Star Online Homebrew Server. Not that I'm dogging the servers that Sega has; however, anyone can say, with confidence, that their servers aren't going to be up forever. Once it becomes unprofitable and the costs for the servers become an enconomical liability, they'll take 'em down.
    (emphasis added)

    Their project seems rather dead (was it even born?) but there might more interest for it now..

  4. Refunds? by Sparr0 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What I am waiting for is the slew of complaints from people taking their games back to stores for refunds now that they cant play online. That is what I do when online game servers go down (as quite a few older games have done), and the store owners always throw a fit.