Phantasy Star 360 open beta

By Tom Bramwell Published 13 October, 2006

Now, until next Wednesday.

Perhaps unaware that Microsoft was going to haul down Xbox Live for the whole of Tuesday, SEGA has a Phantasy Star Universe open beta planned for Xbox 360 users - starting this weekend and ending on Wednesday, 18th October.

The beta, explicit details of which can be found on the game's official website, will allow anybody with an Xbox Live Gold account to download the game, create a character and go adventuring with friends.

The download file, which is up on Marketplace right now (940MB), will be available until Sunday, and, as you might imagine for a beta, SEGA's hoping you'll offer some feedback using the form on its official website.

Phantasy Star Universe is due out on Xbox 360 from 24th November.

Meanwhile, SEGA has announced that the Guardians licence will be available for players on 360, PC and PS2 to purchase from 24th November - "The GUARDIANS License enriches the single-player story mode by enabling gamers to meet other players, strike up alliances, and embark on a huge variety of online quests within the Phantasy Star Universe environment. The GUARDIANS License will be available at ¤9.99 (£6.99) per month."

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (59) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Toothball #1 5 years ago

    Been watching for this all week. It was supposed to land on Wednesday, but that was changed. Oh well.

  • morriss #2 5 years ago

    Great stuff.

  • rinoaMW #3 5 years ago

    d'know, i thought europe was gonna getr screwed on this open beta, so i set up an american account to access thier LIVE. Looks like i won't need to use it now!

    Yippee. I wonder if it'll be up today or tomorrow though?

  • EmiliasHorse #4 5 years ago

    Excellent news. Memories of countless hours on my DC flooding back....bliss

  • Xerx3s #5 5 years ago

    Great, my luck. Off all the time to release it, they had to do it while me 360 is at support. :\

  • Eighthours #6 5 years ago

    Is this really worth it now that we'll only get (at the most) 4 days to play it?

  • lambtron #7 5 years ago

    4 days should be enough to know if its a buy or not no?

  • rinoaMW #8 5 years ago

    yeah - most demos you download only last half-an-hour at most - so 4 days will be a nice enough insight without giving too much away. How often do you replay a demo once it is sitting on your 360?
    Edited by 1 at 13/10/06 @ 10:24

  • peterfll #9 5 years ago

    Boo! to only making it available to Gold subscribers.

  • Machiavel #10 5 years ago

    Agreed. A few hours on this might make me renounce my Silver membership status... Ah well.

  • Sorb #11 5 years ago

    This sounds excellent, I just wish Sega could tell me how much space I´ll need to clear on my tiny 360 harddrive before the beta is released?

  • sicu #12 5 years ago

    it's on major nelson site. someone check on live!

  • Eighthours #13 5 years ago

    Scratch my last. The download's under a gig. I was worried it would be a 3/4 gig monster, hence my "is it worth it?" comment.

  • kangarootoo #14 5 years ago

    @peterfll & Machiavel

    Just register a new passport account and then use it to register a new XBLive account. That will get you the standard "free Gold membership for a month" deal.

    You can then check the game demo out. Then if you like it you can upgrade your normal ID to gold and play the game as yourself (telling the people you met in the beta your normal gamertag if you want to keep in touch with them) :)


    EDIT: FYI, its probably not a developer decision. Its probably an XBLive restriction that only gold members can play online. Now if MS coincided one of their "free gold for a weekend" events with this kind of demo it would probably work in everyone's favour (you reading this MS?).
    Edited by 1 at 13/10/06 @ 10:41

  • trav #15 5 years ago

    IT would be nice if the BETA was more than 4 days long, but then 4 days is longer than most demos give you.

    I just want to be greedy and play the BETA up until release. You know you want to SEGA.

  • haowan #16 5 years ago

    I thought FFXI was open to silver users plus seperate license, kr2?

  • rinoaMW #17 5 years ago

    only because it went through their own servers (playOnline)

    EDIT: so is it up? The XboxLive pipeline thingy doesn't say it is.. but then it might take a few hours to update, i don't know....
    Edited by 1 at 13/10/06 @ 11:06

  • crazyhorse174 #18 5 years ago

    Heh heh...how long before Live goes into meltdown tonight then!?!

  • BartonFink #19 5 years ago

    It's up apparently, get downloading.

  • crazyhorse174 #20 5 years ago

    Damn, damn, damn work to hell!

    Have to wait til I get home now...

    ...I wonder if the dog could work out how to start the download??

  • Toothball #21 5 years ago

    Great, now I have to think about playing this all day, instead of working. I'm also going to have to rush home after work to download this instead of going to the pub. Thanks a lot Sega.

  • kangarootoo #22 5 years ago

    @haowan

    Ah, I didn't know that. I just assumed that MS would restrict online play to gold members as standard. I guess you pay extra for the FFXI license? If it cost less than gold membership it seems like a good idea for those who don't plan to play anything else online.

    Still, hopefully my suggested workaround would work in the event that this demo IS gold only.

    P.s. I think I can reasonably claim to have the username with the greatest number of abbreviations/alternatives used on these pages. I'm sure I've seen about 8-10 different ones :D


    @crazyhorse174

    Is the demo number limited (well I suppose it must be eventually, but is it heavily limited to just a few thousand is probably a better question)? If so, I hope it tells you where things stand before you download the demo. I can imagine a few peeved gamers downloading to then be told the beta if full when they launch the game.

  • crazyhorse174 #23 5 years ago

    Good point Kanagrootoo.

    Anyone any ideas about how many folks will be able to play the beta? Are there limitations on the gameworld population?

    ...time to get back to training the dog to use the 360. Pity I have to teach her to read first, then evolve some thumbs... ;)

  • peterfll #24 5 years ago

    @Kangro2

    Yes, I was also thinking of the FF beta release that allowed Silver subscribers to try it for free, albeit it was through the Square servers as mentioned.

    I'll monitor the boards for feedback and if it is getting postive reviews, I'll set up (another) passport account to try it.

  • rmg #25 5 years ago

    Any one know if there is a gaurdian license bundled with the game for a couple of months ala PSO?

  • Benno #26 5 years ago

    downloading now :D

    after playing world of warcraft for months i dont think a game like this could even touch it but i am willing to give it a try
    Edited by 1 at 13/10/06 @ 11:54

  • penhalion #27 5 years ago

    The outage I can live with as XBox live has become essential to my gaming weekends (sadly earning money to pay for said gaming occupies the rest of the week).

    I loved Phantasy start online episodes 1 and 2 (though 2 was evilly hard!)

    Need to get home and download this sharpish!

  • BraveArse #28 5 years ago

    Anyone else having trouble even getting the DL to start?. It quits at 1% every damn time.

  • KD #29 5 years ago

    cant connect to server to play it, downloaded fine

  • ManicDrunkMonk #30 5 years ago

    It says on the download screen that they are limiting the number of users at any given time.

    Mine is downloading okay though, at 25% atm.

  • Benno #31 5 years ago

    they will go about it like any other MMO

    they will only have a certain number of server/s up, so although 20,000 may have downloaded the demo by tonight they may only be the connection capacity of say 6,000 concurrent users

    At peak playing times i would expect long queues waiting for a space depending on how much Sega has shelled out on hardware.

    '''' Anyone else having trouble even getting the DL to start?. It quits at 1% every damn time. ''''''

    Check your hard drive space...

  • Stormflood #32 5 years ago

    86% for me

    Yes, check your HDD space first. Inexplicably, the 360 lacks a 'hdd space low' warning, so it just stops the d/l if there isn't enough.
    Edited by 1 at 13/10/06 @ 12:37

  • BraveArse #33 5 years ago

    Thanks guys - you were right it was a full HDD, damn those NHL and NBA demos... :) Strange indeed that the console doesn't have a HDD full error message.

  • reality_cheque #34 5 years ago

    Hopefully something else that will be fixed in the twice annually updates.

  • trevd72 #35 5 years ago

    £6.99 a month!!!!!! WTF

  • kangarootoo #36 5 years ago

    @BraveArse

    I've seen that once before. Had no bloody idea what was going on till I worked out myself that the drive was full.

    Come on MS, proper error please, that is just sloppy and should't really have got through QA.

    I don't really play MMOs (not since Asheron's Call 1) as they just eat up time like some kind of big hungry polar bear... that eats time... instead of fish and wildlife journos.

    EDIT: Oops, forget to say "so let us know how it plays by reporting back on this thread" :)
    Edited by 1 at 13/10/06 @ 15:25

  • DrDamn #37 5 years ago

    Got and tried ... not played a PSO game before so foolishly signed up for the tutorial. It panned about seemingly aimlessly occasionally popping an info window up a couple of times, then it just crashed mid-pan - I supposed it just got as bored as I did. So when you do get to play guys and gals, skip the tutorial eh? :-)

  • kangarootoo #38 5 years ago

    "I supposed it just got as bored as I did"

    LOL, its like that old "died out of shame" joke. Computer suicide.

    I'm not saying the software is shameful, the reference just made me chuckle.

  • Toothball #39 5 years ago

    DrDamn: Actually, the official site recommends you play the tutorial, if only to get some bonus stuff. They say you can go back to it later though, so either way is good.

  • yazooo #40 5 years ago

    Mine crashed during the tutorial as well...Although I've managed to level up to level 3, purely by fluke as I got invited to a party and followed ppl around lol...

    Anyway, does anyone know how to get back to the tutorial?

    Plus, my overall impressions weren't great; but then the only MMOs I've played are Star Wars Galaxies, WoW, and Guild Wars.

  • Krun #41 5 years ago

    Downloaded and Played.

    Poor. Very Very poor.

    Graphics 4/10. PS2 standard, at moments I had flashback of PS1

    Interface/controls 4/10. Messy, complicated, tiny little icons. buttons can change use constantly.

    Game-play 5/10. Really dull. repetitive gameplay I had no real concern for why I was doing anything.

    I cannot believe anyone would pay a monthly fee for this. I was expecting after playing a mmorpg on a console I'd be hooked and end up paying the monthly fee. But absolutly no fear of that, I wouldn't be tempted to buy the thing even if all you needed was the gold account and the box price was £25.


    Edited by 2 at 14/10/06 @ 16:27

  • EmiliasHorse #42 5 years ago

    It is just not good enough. Graphics are on a par with DC and on widescreen HD telly it is not nice at all. Game is overly clunky and old feeling..... And looking at Play.com this is to be a full price release unlike FFXI and still charge a whopping £6.99 a month. Sega you do not spoil us.

    /Buys Burning Crusade instead

  • yazooo #43 5 years ago

    Wah I didn't realise it was 6.99 a month as well...Ummm no chance, unless this is a seriously buggy unpolished initial release. As has been said, controls are very clunky, I found it difficult to read some of the text (in HD) and the AI pretty poor.

  • ChrisBravoTown #44 5 years ago

    Utter shite.

  • haowan #45 5 years ago

    @kanga

    "P.s. I think I can reasonably claim to have the username with the greatest number of abbreviations/alternatives used on these pages. I'm sure I've seen about 8-10 different ones :D"

    Heh - half of those were me I bet. You should apply the same ethos to some of your more gargantuan posts ;)

  • Macross #46 5 years ago

    Its ok but nothing gobsmacking

    I think they could have gotten away with it if theyd done a good job on the 360s graphics, but I agree with other posters it looks like a slightly higher resolution PS2 game. Very disapointed there.

    Still I am a sucker for games like this, it depends on how much they tweak for release and how bored I am when it comes out :)

  • haowan #47 5 years ago

    Let's be fair, it never was a looker :)

  • PhakeDC #48 5 years ago

    You spoilt brats. Famitsu awarded this 37/40.. Though for that monthly rate I won't be going online with it.

  • Toothball #49 5 years ago

    I'll be happy to pay the monthy fees for this, as I've been having a great time so far. It might be because I've come from PSO, but the only complaints I've had so far are that the swear filters are so strict that it's hard to have a normal conversation, and that due to it being free you see loads of idiots running around accusing various peoples' mothers of whatever they can think off.

    yazoo:
    "Wah I didn't realise it was 6.99 a month as well...Ummm no chance, unless this is a seriously buggy unpolished initial release."
    This is a beta, if you hadn't been paying attention. It's out so they can stress test the servers.

  • kangarootoo #50 5 years ago

    @haowan

    "You should apply the same ethos to some of your more gargantuan posts"

    Tried and failed before. Once my mind opens its like a waterwheel. I'm not the worst offender I'm sure, but I am up there up the suspect list :)

  • Ceatlan #51 5 years ago

    Must admit that I tried it and deleted it. Mainly because I couldn't work out how to do anything or what I was supposed to do. I tried to do the tutorial but it the whole machine hung fairly early on in it. I created another new character to try again, but it didn't offer the tutorial this time. Couldn't find any other way to do it so gave up. Besides the network performance seemed pretty shoddy as people were jumping around all over the place, and trying to do chat without a keyboard or voice chat was painful.
    Edited by 1 at 16/10/06 @ 08:38

  • AFX #52 5 years ago

    I've repeatedly tried over the weekend, but I've never been able to connect to the PSU server. "Retry...retry...retry..."

  • Toothball #53 5 years ago

    I ran into a couple of connection problems, but they usually went away after five minutes or so. Clocked up nearly 24 hours of play over the weekend. The lack of instructions isn't such a problem for anyone who has come from PSO, but there's not much you can't find out by playing around a little.

    It's going to be a long month waiting for this one.

  • Macross #54 5 years ago

    You can try the tutorial again by talking to the little robot chap in your room.

    Im warming up to this a bit more now. Its still a shame it doesnt look nicer, but its not too bad when you get into it.

    I just wish there was more slots on the beta server as its impossible to get on it once the yanks wake up.

  • Ceatlan #55 5 years ago

    I tried walking up to the little bot fellow in my room, but all it let me do was give him a name. No option to do the tutorial again.

    I'm sure theres a core of a good game hidden in there somewhere, however all I managed to do was wonder around the city, failing to chat with anybody wondering what the heck I was supposed to do, and if it was at all possible to try and start the tutorial again.

  • stx #56 5 years ago

    You can redo the tutorial, you need to choose talk to PM or something to find it. It's definately buried in there, as the tutorial crashed when I first tried and I didn't have my photon art.

  • haowan #57 5 years ago

    They've taken out too many of the key elements from PSO that made it the game it was. No buy here.

  • penhalion #58 5 years ago

    Couldn't even get online with this demo so no sale here either!

  • haowan #59 5 years ago

    It's all right during the day. Forget going on in the evening.