THE BUZZ: Sega is preparing to take Phantasy Star fans everywhere back online with Phantasy Star Online 2, and a few surprising details have come out about what platforms you’ll be able to play the game on—and how much it’ll cost you.

EGM’s TAKE: Oh, Phantasy Star Online—how many hundreds of hours of my life did I lose to you back in the days of the Dreamcast? While Phantasy Star Universe was okay, it just wasn’t Phantasy Star Online-but now I’ll finally get to play a proper sequel.

While the game has been announced for PC and Vita, two new very surprising platforms have been added to the mix: iOS and Android. Wait, really? Yes, really! The smartphone versions won’t nearly be as complex as theirs PC and Vita counterparts, but they’ll still offer a lot of the experience—including sharing data with those other versions.

The other surprising announcement was the game’s monthly fee: Free. Indeed, Sega has decided to go the Free-to-Play route with Phantasy Star Online 2.

Personally, I think this is a fantastic idea, as convincing players to spend $15 a month to play an MMORPG where so many other free options exist is just crazy (unless you’re one of the big guys). By making PSO2 free to download and play, more people will give it a try—and those people could be tempted to then spend money on the game to enhance their experience with it.

Source: Andriasang