Sega has announced that their highly-anticipated MMO, Phantasy Star Online 2, will be free-to-play.
In order to make money off the title (besides the initial purchase), they’ve decided to adopt a model that is becoming very popular lately. Microtansactions are nothing new to MMOs, so its no surprise that Sega will be implementing an “item transaction system” for gamers to purchase virtual in-game items with their real hard-earned cash.
Also, in addition to the PC version and Vita version of Phantasy Star Online 2, iOS and Android devices will be receiving the title. However, it won’t be a straight port, as you may have guessed. The smartphone counterparts will act as more social titles and, as such, won’t include cross platform play to the higher-end versions. That doesn’t mean there is absolutely no connectivity between the consoles and smartphones. iOS and Android devices will maintain your avatar data on the Vita and/or PC.
Phantasy Star Online 2 will release on PC this summer and on Vita sometime next year, with the smartphone edition falling in-between both with a release date of fall.