Pinch me! Phantasy Star Online 2 is coming to North America in 2020!

I… I'm at a loss for words. When I thought that I finally had some closure, here's Sega playing with my heart and announcing that Phantasy Star Online 2 is coming to North America in Spring 2020!

Phantasy Star Online 2 will be released as a free-to-play game on PC and Xbox One and will feature cross-play. The exciting cinematic trailer mentions “all the content”, so this probably means that every expansion that was released in the Japanese version during the years since the original release – 2012, in case you forgot – will make it to the west.

The official website is live but has nothing besides the trailer that you can watch below and the Spring 2020 release date.

I don't mean to restart the hype train, but I do remember that Phantasy Star Online 2 has some of the most interesting combo-based action combat that any MMORPG has seen. It probably aged quite a bit, though, so we'll have to wait and see how it holds up today. 

And now let's do a little recap on Phantasy Star Online 2 history. As I've mentioned already, PSO2 released in Japan during 2012, with the North American and European releases planned for 2013. Oh boy, we were in for quite a ride, as the game was slightly delayed. Soon after, some rumors started to emerge about the possibility of PSO2 not making it to the west after all.

In the meantime, western players started flocking to the SEA release which was conveniently translated into English. In 2014, someone at Sega finally decided to say something about it, by confirming that they still had all the intention of bringing PSO2 to the west.

Fast forward a few years and a new rumor speaks of a strange agreement that was preventing a western release – it may not sound so silly after all. In 2017, the SEA server was shut down, and 2018 brought the announcement of a new Phantasy Star game, but let's not waste more time talking about that “game”.

In 2020 western fans will finally be able to play Phantasy Star Online 2. After many years, during which time many babies were born, Sega's MMORPG is coming. This was an even longer odyssey than the ones experienced by Blade & Soul and Bless Online, but there is one game that still beats them all: Kingdom Under Fire 2. If this one ever gets to reach our shores, the apocalypse must surely be coming.