PSO GC duping problems addressed...

[Rick]

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet or not, but here it is:

Hello, everyone. This is Mr. Naka from SonicTeam.

We believe that a number of people already knew of this
prior to this announcement, but a problem has been
discovered in the Nintendo GameCube ver. of "Phantasy
Star Online Episode I&II" which just recently went on
sale only days ago. Until now, our feelings have been
running forth like water for all of the fans who were
anxiously awaiting the release of this game, but we now
know that there is no excuse for our mistake. We just
wanted to borrow this place (BBS) to apologize again to
all of the fans of the PSO series who bought this game.

Well, some days ago, SEGA and SonicTeam released a
statement concerning the future of this situation.
However, because such few words seem to be causing more
fear and uncertainty among everyone, I would like to
expand on the subject in more detail.

To tell the truth, we have already started production of
a fixed version of the game. We believe that perhaps we
can release it to the public in good time.

Now, if you think this is selfish of ourselves, please
take a moment to listen to what we have to say. A more
thorough check will be done this time to insure that
nothing like what happened before will happen again. In
addition, when producing a fixed version of anything,
one must decide on the best possible specifications for
it. There is already too much save data on the server to
even mention, so we have considered separating the
servers for the fixed version. At the moment, we believe
that it would take at least two months for us to be able
to produce and distribute the corrected version of the
game to everyone. Therefore, we regretfully say -- as
there is no excuse for our mistake -- that everyone must
continue to play the game in its current state. This is
what was meant by the announcement that was given a few
days back.

I write out my thoughts on the corrected version of the
game at the request of the concerned fans.

First of all, the possibility of all copies of the game
being replaced with this corrected one is very low. And
because the corrected version is currently unavailable,
there are many users who may abuse the problem with the
first copies. Because the problem with the first release
was that items could easliy be duplicated, it could
spread across the 'net as a convenient "cheat." And as a
result of this, I believe that the corrected version of
the game should (1) be on a completely separate server,
and (2) not allow save data from the current version to
be transferred to the corrected version. I strongly
believe that these two points are absolutely necessary.

In addition, the problem goes from being the knowledge
of this duplication bug to being all of the users who
don't know about it. There are users on the old server
(the present server) who know of the bug, but
conversely, there may be many who know nothing about it.
Furthermore, there is no way for us to be able to
distingiush between each type of user, and the only way
to solve the problem would be to stop access to the
current server after the corrected version of the game
is released. But, we would not like to resort to this
kind of harsh action which would remove so many of the
honest gamers.

Because of this, here is our request to everyone.
Until the corrected version of the game is released, we
strongly discourage the kind of behavior of players on
the current server who aquired rare items by abusing the
bug in the current release of the game. Only those who
find rare items honestly are welcome. Out of all of the
PSO users, I believe there are far more who would rather
do things the honest way than resort to dishonest
activities such as the abuse of this bug.

Anyway, we are doing our best to issue the corrected
version quickly. Until then, because we would like to
keep this under control by setting up more rules for the
current server, please wait a little while longer.
I will keep you updated on any new information or
concerns that arise.

Finally...
Only when each and every person plays with the utmost
consideration for others can the PSO network community
remain splendidly strong. I hope that everyone will
enjoy the Phantasy Star Online series.

September 20, 2002
SonicTeam Corp.
Yuji Naka, President

Sucks for the importers that have to start their characters over, but at least the problem is being addressed in probably the sanest way possible.

[lithium]

Assuming this is true... Sonic Team/Sega is going to get sheer hell for this. That long letter boils down to "you bought this game, but since we fucked up we're going to disable it, please buy the fixed version!"

Sega's reputation is well deserved me thinks.

[Rumpy]

If they allowed trade-ins for the corrected version it wouldn't be so bad. The people that want to play it without the bug would be able to get the fixed version for free. The monitary issue wouldn't be the big problem, just the fact that you would have to start a new character would suck.

[Chux]

What... are they too cool for beta testing?

[Rick]

I'm guessing they're going to offer a trade-in service. It would be downright stupid not to.

[Videodrone]

Originally posted by Chux
What... are they too cool for beta testing?

no kid..

[maruchan]

I think sega when they originally tought pso was going to sell like 10K copies only, and tought it wasnt going to be bad to trade in "defected" version..

but after hearing that they sold around 100K on launch week.. 100K replacement is alot of money loss...

[lithium]

That letter doesn't seem worded as if they will accept trade ins. Its tone is very defensive as if its trying to soften a coming blow.

If that letter is legit and any indication of what they're doing, then I don't think they're offering a trade in.

but after hearing that they sold around 100K on launch week.. 100K replacement is alot of money loss...

I dunno. If Sega did this to me I'd be so incredibly pissed off. A new low for Sega, really. It might be wise to take the loss rather than piss off that many consumers.

[Ragnarok the Red]

You'd think with all the rampant duping in the DC version, they would've had sufficient time to correct it for the GC release. Yeesh...morons...

[BonusKun]

Man a lot of you are being such a bunch of cocks it amazes me.

At least Naka came out and said something about the problem instead of going 'Oh well' Like other ceratin software companys would do. *Cough 1st Year PlayStation CD drives cough* In all due respect you guys need to lay off blaming Naka or Sega for shit that other people do.

These guys arn't perfect so don't expect perfection.

I said it once I'll say it again. You can only be bothered by cheating if you let it get to you.

I'm happy at least he had the balls to admit that there was a fuck up instead of going off into a tangent about how they are 'Working on the problem' or 'No comment at this time'.

The sad fact is I'm 100% positive that cheating will rear it's ugly head in the X Box version so then you can go about blaming Sega/Mircosfot for that as well.

PSO is a fun game but you guys shouldn't give a shit about what other players have on them and worry about the shit you've got yourself..