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DUST 514 shuts down Oceania server
Oceania DUST 514 players have gotten an eviction notice from their home. CCP announced that it will be closing the game's Oceania battleserver this upcoming Monday, citing low population and player exploitation of those remaining. "Due to some players from other battleservers using Oceania battleservers as a venue for farming battles thanks to the lower population there, we will be shutting them down during downtime on Monday, 28th of July 2014. Any players in the Oceania region will be directed to either the Asia battleservers or the US battleservers, depending on their individual ISP routing," CCP posted. The studio said that Oceania players will be seeing "a slight increase in latency" due to the move. [Thanks to Ghural for the tip!]
Phantasy Star Universe is gone for good
Saying goodbye to a game you love is sad. Phantasy Star Universe has been in the process of bidding its players adieu for quite some time, beginning by departing from the PS2 and PC platforms two years ago. Since then, players have been clinging to the XBox 360 servers and dreaming of a happy future. Today, with the closure of the Japanese PSU servers, players had to bid the game a final farewell. Fans got together on the PSO World forums to share memories and final screenshots. [Thanks to savvy reader Kassandra for the tip.]
Phantasy Star Universe will blink out for good in September
For six years, fans have been able to play the sci-fi MMO Phantasy Star Universe. Though the game lost some platforms just over two years ago when the PS2 and PC versions were shut down, the XBox 360 version remained intact. Thus, PSU quietly lived on as a console MMO where players could complete missions on worlds like Parum and Neudaiz, craft items, or decorate their private living space. Now, SEGA has announced that this last living remnant of the online game will take its last breath on September 7th, 2012. The single player version, however, will still be available. SEGA noted that the decision to close the game was not an easy one, but that the company was preparing to "provide [players] with new opportunities and new experiences." The company thanked all of the players who have supported the game over the years and assured that any who have an active Guardians license following the final date will have their pro-rated subscription refunded. GM Edward also revealed that a number of server-wide bonuses have been added and that plans were in the works for some celebratory events so that the Universe could go out with a bang. [Thanks to BGO for the tip!]
Some Assembly Required: One last jump to lightspeed
Eulogizing Star Wars Galaxies is difficult. In fact, I've written some 2,200 articles since signing on with Massively a couple of years ago, and none of them has come close to being as painful as this particular wall o' text. The fact that I even used the word eulogy in reference to a video game says it all, really. Join me after the cut for as brief a remembrance as I can manage.
Phantasy Star Universe to shut down PS2 & PC servers
It's always a sad day when we have to report an MMO is shutting down. Then you have cases like today's announcement about Phantasy Star Universe where it's a mixed bag. In this case the PS2 and PC versions will be closing down as of March 31st. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 version (yes, another console MMO does exist) is doing well and will remain online. On January 29th, the Maximum Attack G+ event will start up across all three Phantasy Star Universe platforms, at which point anyone who has a paid subscriber on the PC or PS2 will be converted to a free account until the servers go dark. According to a heartfelt post by GM Edward@Sega, these closures are necessary because "[t]he population is simply too low for us to be able to continue to support this platform." The good news is that since there will only be one primary western market platform moving forward, this should allow Sega to close the expansion release gap between the US and Japanese versions. So while this next Maximum Attack G+ event will be a bittersweet one for some, at least Phantasy Star Universe will live on in the 360 version -- and there's always the single-player offline version of PSU for PC and PS2 players as well. Hopefully some veteran players will get the chance to make the jump as losing your favorite world is definitely no fun.
Updated transfer list for Warhammer Online's server merge
Mark this one down under the "good news" category, but with a lot of conditionals: Warhammer Online has updated the list of acceptable server transfers for the upcoming shutdown. We reported earlier on the planned closing of Phoenix Throne and Dark Crag, bringing the game's remaining servers to four. Unfortunately, the decision hasn't been reversed, but the former limitations on what servers could be chosen as a destination for transferred characters has been expanded. In a fresh release, it was announced that characters from the closed servers would be allowed to transfer to any of the four remaining servers. When the announcement was first made there were a number of people who protested the selections for destinations, as players had seen some of the writing on the wall and had already begun transferring over to other servers in anticipation. This move seems to be aimed at engendering some more positive community feelings after the understandably unpopular announcement, although how much help it will actually provide remains to be seen. The announcement goes on to serve as a reminder that the server merge will be taking place on December 2nd, so if your server is on the list to be merged and you wish to say goodbye, now is the time.
