SEGA didn’t just wait to attract PSO2 into the west. Remember that there were strategies to localize the game early on, but for one reason or another the project was scrapped until lately. The pso2.com webpage was active as early as 2012, revealing teasers and other information on the match with a large”COMING SOON” plastered on the webpage. SEGA announced plans to Phantasy Star Online 2 Meseta localize PSO2 just days following the JP launch, expecting to launch in 2013. The page had no updates whatsoever and was eventually removed late 2017. Come last year, all of a sudden SEGA admits PSO2 coming into the west on Microsoft’s platform. With a bit of digging, we could piece together what might have happened.

Hosting and making an MMO is not cheap. Even if the dev work is already done, you still will need to have a translation team, client support, and servers to host the game. What happened to SEGA they needed to cut funding for the localization job? Our first clue is that Atlus was in danger after its parent company filed for bankruptcy back in June of 2013. The enterprise to purchase Atlus was none other than SEGA. Cue the milking of hot names Persona 4 and 3. Irrespective of what actually occurred, we could observe that SEGA has otherwise been on a downward tendency financially over the past decade. You can take a peek at the printed financial reports on your own. While PSO2 continues to be one of the most prosperous titles, it does not cost as much to maintain it in JP compared to hiring a new team and establishing new infrastructure to get it localized. It could be a massive threat for SEGA to try and force the match into the west. The demand is still, but with so many foreigners already playing the JP servers, SEGA may have become complacent and determined it was not required to try and create that push. The failure of this SEA server didn’t assist with this decision, even if the trigger falls upon Asiasoft’s poor handling of the game.

We know that the foreign population about the JP servers is little compared to the population playing on the NA servers, however, hindsight is 20/20. Talking of 2020, enter Microsoft. A number of years back, Microsoft opens up Azure for gambling. While we don’t know who , it’s very obvious that there was an arrangement between the two businesses: Microsoft can fund the PSO2 localization project in exchange for SEGA utilizing and testing Microsoft’s platform. The rest is history. SEGA did not wait because they desired to. For one reason or another, they could not bring PSO2 into the west until Microsoft swooped in.

I also heard a rumor that the gains from Alien Colonial Marines were to help finance pso2 in the West, but we all know what happened to cheap PSO2 Meseta this game. Granted, this is just a rumor, so take it with a grain of salt. Wait, if thats true, does that mean we can blame PSO2 NA’s original delay on Randy Pitchford!? Because I’m all for it! Wait what? I thought that sport funds were stolen to fund Borderlands instead of that game I discovered, that is dumb.