It’s now September 2nd, 2015 when I’m writing this article, and that means it’s been exactly 3 years since we last received an update on the official English PSO2 Facebook page. At the time, it was the last day of PAX, where people could play a demo for the English version of PSO2. There’s actually a bit of a history behind the official Facebook page, since it was initially managed by Sega of Japan. The first few updates were all in Japanese, but the staff working on the page soon noticed they were getting visits from people all over the world, and not just Japan. The staff made an attempt to translate their messages in English, and said they’d like to make the game available worldwide. Given their comments, it wasn’t actually all that surprising to see the game was eventually announced for the West.
On July 10, 2012, the Facebook page was transferred to Sega of America. In the last update from the Japanese staff, they said they were surprised to see how many people outside of Japan liked the page. At the time, the page had accumulated 14.299 likes. Unfortunately, the follow-up posts from Sega of America wouldn’t last long. While PSO2 grew into one of Sega’s biggest games in Japan, the English website and Facebook page stopped posting updates altogether. At the moment, over 100.000 people liked the page. A number that I find surprising, given the fact that the game was never released and the fact that the page seem to have been abandoned by Sega. The only activity on the page comes from the fans asking Sega for an update.
Over the past three years, Sega has been very quiet about the status of the game. A year ago, Sega posted this message, in response to a tweet from a user lamenting the lack of updates on the Facebook page.
The game is still delayed. SEGA is currently working on bringing PSO2 to the West and will update as soon as we know more.
— Sega, September 2014
We’re now a year later, and unfortunately there’s still no word on what’s going on with the game’s localization. Worse, a Sega representative stated there are no plans to localize the upcoming PS4 version. While that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, as it’s not uncommon for such statements to be made even when the company does in fact have plans to localize the game, it only hurts Sega’s image even more. Sega’s new CEO, Haruki Satomi, said he wants Sega to “become a brand again”. But amidst what seems to be an attempt of Sega to renew their image, PSO2 is the elephant in the room. If they want to regain their credibility, a good way to start is to finally talk to their fans again. I’m sure they’d be surprised at how many people still want to play this game.
Over at SEGAbits, George has also written an article around Sega’s refusal to localize PSO2. It’s well worth a read!