According to Mitsunori Fujimoto, Manager of the Development IT Support Team at SEGA, because of this, the team started to consider using the public cloud. The company could borrow a datacenter in a foreign land, but that would require travelling long distances for maintenance work. One of the largest technical issues was a game server. We had an ambition for expanding our service to overseas, but it required time to embody our plan for that." However, to run the service overseas, we must overcome various difficulties, including operation and maintenance of overseas servers and providing user support that fits with local culture. "The North American market is particularly large among the global markets. "Since the game has been well received in Japan, we had wanted to expand its service to overseas markets for a long time," explains Endo. However, according to Hisashi Endo, Technical Director of 2nd Program Section, 2nd Department of CS R&D No.3, 3rd Division at SEGA, the idea of running its service overseas had been on the developer's mind for a long time. PSO2 had been running its service only in Japan. The year 2020 marked the eighth anniversary of this game. Later, when the game started its service for Nintendo Switch, it did so as a cloud gaming service.
It was launched as a game for Windows PC, and then for PlayStation Vita and subsequentially for PlayStation 4 (PS4). This game has been released for multiple platforms. PSO2 is the newest title in the series, with "infinite adventure" as its concept, meaning it has contents that let players keep playing it for a long time.
The first Phantasy Star was released in 1987, and its sequels have been loved by many all this time. In this game, players can enjoy raising their character, communicating with other players, defeating strong enemies, and exploring for valuable items in the world in which science fiction and medieval fantasy are fused together. PSO2 is an action role-playing game (RPG). Phantasy Star Online (PSO2), one of the largest MMORPGs in Japan, is made and run by this company. This company develops, manufactures, and sells video games, and is known for creating best games in the industry. SEGA Corporation is a member of SEGA SAMMY Group. Selecting the cloud as a foundation to mitigate risk in a game project with flexible sizing
The company is required to provide the service in an area far wider than Japan-without causing lags while players are enjoying actions in the game-and that is why it chose Microsoft Azure as its platform. As of October 2020, the global version of the game is played in more than 185 countries and regions worldwide. In April 2020, SEGA started the service of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) named Phantasy Star Online 2 in North America.
However, delivering such games to people around the globe without changing what makes the game interesting requires overcoming several technical challenges. In the present day, good games can be played by anyone, regardless of where the players are.