SEGA announced the possible IP blocking of non-Japanese IP for Phantasy Star Online 2 after the huge content update today. Update to avoid confusion: The “POSSIBLE” IP blocking has not begun, but it was just announced as a new clause.
This is most probably due to the influx of foreign players in the game (lag, language barriers etc) and a recent game hack, which caused the native gamers to voice out their dissatisfaction. The English server will be up Spring 2013.
Update 1: Below is the official article from PSO2’s website about the blocking of connection from outside Japan, which is dated 8th August 2012 (today).
Update 2 from Facebook user: There is now a clause in the PSO2 JP Terms of Service that mentions that the connection to the game server is restricted to only those within Japanese territory. It is prohibited to connect directly to the game server outside of Japan as well as connect via a Japanese computer terminal outside of Japan.
In other words, they do not want foreign connections to the game anymore. If you are playing outside of Japan it’s best you stay low and quiet (no IP block in this case). This clause was once mentioned before in the Closed Beta test but was removed and has now returned.
