Phantasy Star Online 2 Hacked for Being Japan-Only

[Karloff]

Phantasy Star Online 2 Hacked for Being Japan-Only

Sega JRPG has been made unplayable, but no user data appears to have been taken.

There are some people who just can't wait for sci-fi MMORPG Phantasy Star Online 2, and allegedly some of them - English speakers, according to Japanese fan sites - have hacked the game's servers, in order to make it unplayable. They've done it, according to the fan sites, because they're upset that the game is Japanese-only and they want to get global servers. If true ... well, this is slightly more effective than a petition, or wailing "I'm gunna quit the forums!", but not by all that much.

The hack is simple enough. Important NPCs have been reshuffled and put in locations where players can't get to them, making it impossible to continue quest lines. Sega claims that this is all that was done, and assures its Phantasy Star fans that no user data was taken. According to a chat transcript [http://hawalog2.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/pso2-ship02%E3%81%A7%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%8D%E6%AD%A3%E8%A1%8C%E7%82%BA-npc%E4%BD%8D%E7%BD%AE%E3%83%8F%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6-%E5%8B%83%E7%99%BA/] the users who claim responsibility for the hack did it to teach Sega a lesson. If so Sega has reason to be concerned, as the users claim they'll do it again.

In the transcript, one user says the intent is to "force Sega to patch," while another says "[Sega needs] to learn a lesson in busiess [sic]." That user also says "we should invade [several sections of the game world] one day during peak jp times, and let them know how pissed we are." One user claims that the hackers have been up to no good since closed beta, but this is the first time they've done something to make the game unplayable.

I'm sure Sega will respond to those poor unfortunate hackers' concerns just as soon as they can. No word as to whether this West-versus-East hacking will delay the 2013 roll-out of the Western version of Phantasy Star Online 2.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5925366/phantasy-star-online-2-hacked-as-an-alleged-prank]


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[SachielOne]

What? What the hell? WE'RE GETTING THE GAME, albeit sometime next year. There was absolutely no reason for this.

 

[saintdane05]

Even though Sega already announced that an American version is coming? God, these people are stupid. Not to mention, Sega will probably dely or even cancel an English release for this.

Thanks, assholes.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I guess this was the reason why they announce for a Western release or did this happen after that announcement? If that's not the case, then what the hell? Were they trying to get them to hurry up with the release?

 

[RaikuFA]

They should've done it for VC3.

Or gone after Capcom for acting the same way.

 

[Carson Clark]

bumped.org is you friend. you can play right now just language barrier is a big deal.

 

[Irridium]

What jackasses. We're getting the game, all we have to do is wait.

You make yourselves look like a bunch of whiny children by doing this.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Yo if this is responsible for derailing the western release of the game. Some1 needs to find these mooks and slay them. D:<

 

[80Maxwell08]

Why can't anyone ask politely for anything anymore?

 

[Vahlyse]

This is MY character. I am Vahlyse. I have chatlogs to prove to anyone that what has been said is a fucking lie. If you want proof feel free to message me for logs. I've been FALSELY accused and I want this taken down from this website slandering my characters name. My fiance was on my character talking to some people in a lobby and stuff was copy pasted and slathered together. I want this down because its a LIE.

 

[Allthingsspectacular]

But we are getting it...



I'm willing to wait.

 

[youllgetwhatscomin]

k vahlyse had nothing to do with this. the information on the japanese link is false. it is copied and pasted messages that were put together to make somebody look bad. this is someone taking trolling someone else to teh extreme and the link that has the ENTIRE chat log posted not just bits and pieces is here http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=198031&page=7
ikf you want the real facts read the entire chat log not what someone pieced together to make someone else look bad. that vahlyse person has just come acr9oss bad luck by being trolled by someone with no life on top of wanting to express anger towards SEPERATE servers. it had nothing to do with it not being launched in the usa everyone knows its going to be localized. so please correct the information on this article because it is completly based on someone faking a chat log.

 

[Karloff]

With regard to youllgetwhatscomin's post:

There was one error in the original article. The quotes "force Sega to patch" and "we should invade [several sections of the game world] one day during peak jp times, and let them know how pissed we are" were attributed to the same user, when in fact they came from two different users. The article has been adjusted to reflect this.

 

[Jorec]

Did they miss the memo about a north american release next year? Yeah, what idiots.

 

[KeyMaster45]

*snip*

*snip*

I think the two of you need a perspective check.

• 
  [li]Those screens that you're so upset about most people here can't read because they're in Japanese[/li]
  [li]Screaming in the forums for the site to take down the story will get you nowhere. They report the news that they're pointed to, in this case they got the information from a Kotaku article.[/li]
  [li]You only call more unwanted attention to yourself by going through the trouble to lobby your innocence on a website not dedicated to the Fantasy Star games. They didn't divulge you character names until you so graciously showed up to inform us it was you.[/li]
  [li]If this was something that happened while you were letting someone else play your account then you're still responsible. MMO rule number one is not to share you account with people because stuff like this can happen and you don't have a leg to stand on.[/li]

 

[youllgetwhatscomin]

thank you for correcting that. and @KeyMaster45 we are not screaming at anyone we want our side of the story heard. and if anything everyone else on the forums we posted our side of the story on had been screaming at us. insulting us. and vahls fiancee was playing her account.......... and in the chat logs there is nothing her her fiance (playing vahl) said that shoujld have led to anyone beliving she was associated. if you read the real chat log vahl did say invade to show how angry we are about no global servers yes. but just a couple messages later vahl said go there not to troll/flame though. so it was apparent there was no harmful intent stated....... read the chat log.....

 

[ConanThe3rd]

I'm on the hacker's side on this one.

You'd think, given PSO being a world renowned game, that Sega would have a more timely manor to set up English access than this.

Any company that region locks is a company I really only want to do business with whilst grinding my teeth into dust.

 

[GamingAwesome1]

Really? They did this simply because they couldn't be arsed to wait for a localization?

Grow the fuck up, localization takes time and doesn't happen to every game, I mean seriously. What good can possibly come of quite literally biting the hand that feeds.

 

[Lunar Templar]

>.>

I'm hard pressed to care, didn't play PSO so ... meh, but hurt fans are but hurt. sides, isn't it getting localized now?