THE BUZZ: Sega today announced that the official launch of Phantasy Star Online 2—the next chapter in the original online series for the Phantasy Star franchise—will no longer be happening later this year. Instead, the game’s release has been delayed until some point next year.

Speaking on this matter, PSO2 producer Satoshi Sakai said that the decision for delaying the game came due to feedback Sega received from the game’s recent alpha test in Japan and wanting more time to address issues that were brought up in that feedback. Now, Sega has planned for a second alpha test early in 2012, where both members of the original alpha test as well as new players will get the chance to further test and send feedback on the game.

EGM’s TAKE: As much as game delays always suck, I 100% support this decision by Sega. The last thing they—or any of us—want is another Final Fantasy XIV-type situation. The whole purpose of alpha and beta tests are for getting feedback from players to know what to fix where (and not just as glorified demos as some companies have done lately), so if Sega has taken that feedback to heart and is trying to improve the game, that’s nothing but a good thing in my book.

Source: Siliconera