It's 2020 we the Gamers the Players are FINALLY getting cross play on games with everyone that is playing the SAME GAME no matter what platform you are using. But this Ship BS sets us way back. I want to be able to PLAY THE GAME with everyone and anyone that also wants to play the Game and happens to be online and available at the same time. Everyone keeps talking about playing with pc, switch, and ps4 players eventually but we can't even play with all of our Xbox people. When PSO1 originally came out (check the trailer) it specifically stated that we can play this endless quest with the world!

The game, like most, is only able to support so many concurrent connections. You could not have every player on the same server at the same time, that obviously would not work.

Microsoft is doing something that Sony refuses to do. Eventually xbox will triumph over playstation if they don't adapt.

To iluvator I played with the World in 2001 on the Dreamcast with the built in 56k dial up modem

And you still had to pick a server, even way back then.

I think they person doesn't want to play from lvl 1 again and start from scratch when they have JP account.

I do feel those wanting the NA release to be the same servers as JP haven't really looked at the logistics and that goes for @N-Cali-Man too...

Whole worldwide shared server would only be possible had the NA version come out when the game was still new in Japan. Right now with all the content exclusive to Japan there's just so many things that would be awkward...

• PSO2 has several features that really only work well with Japan. So far there's items you can only get through special codes distributed through Japanese-only products, there's a counter which gives you exclusive items if you are playing the game through a SEGA Partnered Internet Cafe (these sort of things are common in Asia, having features limited to this is something no game in the West has done to my knowledge).

• The people currently playing the game already on the JP server do not represent the entire Western fanbase. PSO2 NA's release is being treated as a "new game" release in the West with changes made to accomodate the fact that to many this would be their first exposure to PSO2 (whether they succeeded with this or not is another story). Imagine the confusion of many new players simply being dropped onto whatever it is JP's doing right now...

• Carrying on from the last one, we also have all the past content to deal with. Consider anniversary events, JP's heading to its 8th Anniversary event while all the new players on this 'new release' (not new 'game') cry out over missing all those past content!

• Again, the JP version is and has been managed with the JP audience in mind. There's collabs with games and anime that aren't/haven't even been made available in the West. Not to mention all the licensing issues for many of these...

Lastly... the whole split server arrangement has been something ongoing since Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst through titles such as Phantasy Star Universe and Phantasy Star Portable 2. While it worked less than ideal for those titles, given the current scenarios I can't imagine any other way of launching PSO2 in the West and at least hope that, even if the servers are separate, NA keeps up as best it can with JP and gets its fair share of content from the JP version as well as new content made for it. (PS Portable 2 had Western exclusive content to replace some collabs that couldn't make it over)

To iluvatar it was all connected and you could pick a ship whenever you wanted and could play with anyone else that was playing that is one reason why they made simple chat. To Leonkh99 I understand that. NA is 8 years late but they did state that we would have all of the content. And if you guys are talking about keeping NA, SA, EU, JP ... seperate that is 1 thing that Sucks ... but at the very least why can't we play with all NA Players whenever we want especially when we're on the same system?

You need to make yourself clear @N-Cali-Man ... is your complaint regarding the fact the game's not available officially outside of North America or the fact that the server is not shared with JP?

Also all the content does not mean LITERALLY all the content... many of us have not accounted collabs as content. Plus I don't think many of us are complaining about the removal of old-type weapon or anything that helps streamline the game for a new audience...

@Leonkh99 said in WTF Cross Play ...?:

You need to make yourself clear @N-Cali-Man ... is your complaint regarding the fact the game's not available officially outside of North America or the fact that the server is not shared with JP?

Also all the content does not mean LITERALLY all the content... many of us have not accounted collabs as content. Plus I don't think many of us are complaining about the removal of old-type weapon or anything that helps streamline the game for a new audience...

His complaint is about not being able to use the same char on multiple ships, I think. In the previous games, ships/servers were accessible like blocks in PSO2.

@Ezodagrom In regards to that it was that way in PSU as well. I'm not sure if that setup was used in the West, but in Japan there were two 'Entrances' which were equivalent what are now Ships in PSO2 in that both entrances had different character listings and characters from either Entrances can not encounter each other.

That said, he keeps bringing up the issue about other countries so... I assumed he could have meant that too. "Cross Play" is too vague a term given its also what "Cross Platform Multiplayer" is called sometimes...

@Leonkh99 said in WTF Cross Play ...?:

@Ezodagrom In regards to that it was that way in PSU as well. I'm not sure if that setup was used in the West, but in Japan there were two 'Entrances' which were equivalent what are now Ships in PSO2 in that both entrances had different character listings and characters from either Entrances can not encounter each other.

That said, he keeps bringing up the issue about other countries so... I assumed he could have meant that too. "Cross Play" is too vague a term given its also what "Cross Platform Multiplayer" is called sometimes...

I completely forgot that JP PSU was like that, the population in the western versions of PSU were too small to ever need the entrances.

But this Ship BS sets us way back.

FFXIV also won't have megaservers either, because of its instability with high amounts of players at once (mostly client-side.) That, and because FFXIV doesn't have a proper phasing system implemented. FFXIV is a far more funded MMORPG, and even it can't have a multi-server system in place like Guild Wars 2, World of Warcraft do.

Phantasy Star Online 2 actually has a similar problem to FFXIV in this case.

Fun fact @Ezodagrom , Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst also did that with its short lived Chinese version. It had a "Server" you would choose hosted in various parts of China before you pick a character and then choose a ship.

@Leonkh99 Global Maplestory has a netcafe NPC. https://maplewiki.net/index.php?title=Mong_from_Kong