Gamefront.de is reporting that an expansion disc for Phantasy Star Universe is set to come out for the Playstation 2 and XBox 360 in Japan. The expansion disc was originally unveiled here. Based on the promotional art, it will feature Ethan Waber and Leia Martinez. Also, it will likely be set after the events of the first game. The name of the expansion disc is Phantasy Star Universe: Illumines no Yabou. You can discuss this news in our Phantasy Star Universe forum.

Jeux-France has posted Japanese sales figures for the period between August 28 and September 3. During that period, Phantasy Star Universe was the number one selling game with 120,202 units. You can see the complete list here:

1. Phantasy Star Universe - PS2 - 120.202 - (120.202)
2. New Super Mario Bros. - NDS - 72.763 - (2.974.027)
3. More DS Brain Training - NDS - 46.662 - (3.119.857)
4. Final Fantasy III - NDS - 45.949 - (549.001)
5. Tingle RPG - NDS - 45.496 - (45.496)
6. Nintendo DS Talking Cooking Navi - NDS - 35.689 - (419.733)
7. Mario Hoops 3-on-3 - NDS - 34.001 - (267.763)
8. Animal Crossing : Wild World � NDS � 32.605 - (3.181.735)
9. Rhythm Tengoku - GBA - 28.361 - (123.432)
10. Tamagotchi Connexion Corner Shop 2 - NDS - 27.540 - (458.474)

Given the fact that Sonic Team only budgeted enough server capacity for 20,000 simultaneous online users, the game's popularity is part of the reason people are having problems connecting during peak hours. Credit goes to Killuminati for spotting this news.

Late yesterday, Clumsyorchid announced on the psobb.com forums that October 24th has been confirmed to be the release date for the US version of Phantasy Star Universe. He also announced the opening of the official English website. It is currently unknown if all three versions of Phantasy Star Universe - Playstation 2, PC, and XBox 360 - will be released on that date. Credit goes to Ffuzzy-Logik for spotting this update.

Sonic Team announced that when the Phantasy Star Universe servers reopen, all character data will be reinitialized. This means that all online characters will be reset to level 1 and all Partner Cards will be lost. This drastic action is being taken to ensure online data integrity. uhawww has provided the following translation of the news announcement:

"On September 3rd, we halted server operations. This report (@Sept 5, 11pm JST) concerns the reopening of the Network servers.

As previously announced, we will be reopening the game servers for Phantasy Star Universe tomorrow evening (Sept. 6). As also noted previously, almost immediately after the servers were opened, there were reports of network stability issues, and as the population increased, we saw a congruent increase in character data failure reports. We have verified the server and character errors, and through an extended overhaul of the network system, have hopefully rectified it.

We then came to determine how best to proceed into the future. Unfortunately, the possibility of the introduction of game balance issues (*If people exploited the errors before the rollback data was saved) has forced us to enact a complete initialization of the Network data. In effect, we will have to wipe all characters, equipment, items, partner cards, and etc. prior to reinitializing the system.

Furthermore, as noted in the server stoppage and server testing announcements, adjustments in any and all scopes of server and character data may be enacted in the process of maintaining the integrity and playability of the game.

We apologize again for any inconvience this may cause. We have been attacking the network problems with full force and we ask for your cooperation and suport once the servers reopen. For further information, please refer to the previous announcements regarding the server stoppage."

Let's hope that a drastic step like this will not have to be repeated in the future.

After experiencing some setbacks with the Phantasy Star Universe, Sonic Team has outlined its action plan in this news announcement. uhawww was kind enough to provide the following translation:

"To everyone,
We thank you for purchasing Phantasy Star Universe.
We realize the sudden termination of the game server for Network play was a great inconvenience to you all, and again, we apologize. We continue to work out the server and character issue that have arrisen since the game's release, and we have posted all of our available resources to bring the situation under control. Concerning the reopening of the Network Mode server, we issue the following report.

• September 6: Reopening the Network Mode Service for normal use to the players.
• Throughout the month of September, we will monitor the game's operation and immediately tackle any problem that may arise.
• October 1: Official service will restart. All players will have their free month renewed (Ending November 1)

September 6: Reopening the Network Mode Service for normal use to the players.

We will have the problems with charater data and universe/My Room access repaired by this time. Please realize that due to load, you may have problems with Login, My Room, or disconnections between 9pm and 1am (JST). There is also the chance for other unexpected troubles during this time. We ask for your patience and understanding, and please report any issue to our inquiry site.

Throughout the month of September, we will monitor the game's operation and immediately tackle any problem that may arise.

During September, we will be performing intense root cause analysis and verification of the both the cause of these failures, and our fixes for them. We ask that you make use of Network Mode to assist us to this end. Furthermore, if the need arises, we will be prepared to enact rollbacks. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, however we do not forsee this happening on a frequent basis.

October 1: Official service will restart. All players will have their free month renewed (Ending November 1)

Incumbent upon the forseen success of our tests, all players who have registered their game key will have their free 30 day period reset.

Temporary change to SEGAlink

Until the official service begins, you will no longer be able to purchase Guardian Licenses (Though you may still register your game key to play if you purchase the game after this point). All customers who have registered their Credit Card information with SEGAlink will have official correspondance sent via mail. You will not be billed until the end of the official service's first 30 day cycle.

To those of you who have enjoyed Phantasy Star Universe, both online and off, we realize this is disheartening news. All of the staff members here are suffering. We have gotten many comments about these transpirings, both positive and negative. We will continue to build upon, change, and construct the PSU service. This is a promise from us all. We implore you to assist us as best you can, in inquiry, comment, and by playing through September. Any and all information will be posted to the official site.

Again, we ask for your understanding, cooperation, and forgiveness."

You can discuss this news in our Phantasy Star Universe forum.

In an effort to address character corruption and unintended item duplication, Sonic Team will be performing a rollback. Here is the news announcement as translated by uhawww:

Beginning last night, there were some issues with reading character data. We have discovered a related issue were item and meseta duplication was possible if this issue was exploited.

We consider this problem critical, however we are unable to respond individually to this problem based on the number of inquiries we have recieved. Also, we have projected that this issue will cause unrecoverable problems in the future if left as is.

Because of this, we will be enacting a rollback to a time prior to last evening when the anomalies occured. We are currently developing plans to compensate players who currently have active characters, though it has not been formulated yet.

In case there are any further problems, your corresponence is not only appreciated, but critical at this time.

We apologize for these issues from the bottom of our hearts and we ask for your utmost understanding, however if we do not resolve these issues immediately, the playability of the game would be compromised, and we have a wish and goal to maintain a fair and level playing field for all players for a long time.

Sega came out with the japanese version of Phantasy Star Universe unprepared for the flood of players that would be jamming its servers. With confirmed reports that SEGA has already had to order more printings of the game, reports are now quickly showing that there are ID numbers in game to conincide that there 100,000 registered accounts at this moment. However due to the limitations of the servers, SEGA can only accomodate 20,000 players on it's servers at this time. Sega has confirmed this issue, and is scheduling to have more servers installed tomorrow.

Are you one of the players that is locked out because of this limit? Discuss it with us in our Phantasy Star Universe forum.

All right, the counts are in, they've been examined, and we now have a winner!

So now, what we've all been waiting for: The winner of the Phantasy Star Extreme Beach Volleyball Fan Art contest is:

SephirothXer0 with "Wilson"

Congratulations, SephirothXer0! The members of PSO World have chosen you as the artist most worthy to receive a shiny, new and legal copy of Adobe Photoshop CS2!

For the sake of completeness, coming in second is Aeralea with "Thank You for the Memories" and tied for third is zakuman with "Rappy Babe", and Navci with "XBV Cover".

Thank You for the Memories by Aeralea

Rappy Babe by zakuman

XBV Cover by Navci

Thank you, everyone for participating in this contest!

EspioKaos translated the following information about Expert Mode Battle Types based on information obtained from Shougai PSO. Their information comes from the guide that is included with the Phantasy Star Universe USB Wireless Keyboard.

Expert Type Name	Combination	Description
Figunner (fighter + gunner)	Hunter + Ranger	Able to use both melee weapons and ranged weapons.
Guntechter (gunner + tech-caster)	Ranger + Force	Able use ranged weapons as well as cast techniques.
Wartechter (warrior + tech-caster)	Force + Hunter	Able to cast techniques as well as use melee weapons.
Fortefighter (pure hunter)	--	A pure fighter. Has excellent ATP and DFP, but lack in the number of weapons they can use.
Fortegunner (pure ranger)	--	A pure gunner. Has excellent ATP and ATA, but lack in the number of weapons they can use.
Fortetechser (pure force)	--	A pure technique-caster. Can use all techniques and is well-versed in the use of all tech-casting weapons. Has low DFP, however.
Protranser	--	An expert trap-setter. Able to use all traps including those of much greater power than normal.

As with almost any massive online game rollout, Phantasy Star Universe has experienced a few glitches. First, people are experiencing numerous disconnections when going to/from their character's personal room. Also, there have been a few reported incidents of "body swapping". Characters are being overwritten with data associated with other characters. Sonic Team is currently working to resolve these problems.

Sonic Team released the Phantasy Star Universe Website Fan Kit earlier today. This kit contains three fonts - one corresponding to each planet - and a couple of pictures. It can be downloaded by scrolling to the bottom of this page and pressing the button. The file is 1.44 MB in size. Credit goes to zandra117 for spotting this update.

It was an exciting day for importers as people started to receive their copies of Phantasy Star Universe. The online servers are scheduled to go online around 7 am on August 31st. Also, the official webpage received a big make-over today. The old teaser site was archived and the release version was uploaded. It contains game announcements and information for obtaining a Guardians's Licence. Credit goes to Nisshoku for spotting this update.

Starting on Friday, the Japanese version of Blue Burst will be receiving new drop charts and items. These items will include the following: Garatine(Saber), Zero Divide(Dagger), Astron Belt(Partisan), Burning Phoenix Fang(Claw), DF's Shield(Shield), De Rol Le Shield(Shield), and Epsi Gaurd(Shield). Players who took the 2nd Anniversary survey will receive the Angel Ring. Also, a new quest called "Beyond the Scorched Land" will be released. It is an Episode 4 solo quest. Credit goes to Saffran and halohalo for bringing us this news.

Earlier today, MrPOW discovered some pictures of someone that have beaten story mode and fought the final offline boss. Click on the Read More link if you want to see the pictures of the final boss. Please keep in mind that these pictures should be considered as EXTREME spoilers, so be careful about clicking the link!

According to Gamefront.de, Phantasy Star Universe received a 35/40 score in the latest issue of Famitsu. The individual scores broke down as 9/9/8/9. This is an excellent score for a game and is a testament to its quality. Credit goes to EspioKaos for spotting this news.