It is a rumor, but Jeff Gertsmann was the person who talked about it, and he is not some arbitrary. Granted, he is not super powerful in the gambling arena, but he is very much an experienced reporter and PSO2 Meseta game reviewer, even though he isn't a journalist; he has a great deal of connections. For some time SEGA needed to focus only on a few key franchises at the westand it was just after SEGA of America was merged to Atlus USA in 2015 that things began to get much better.

There was no way they might have managed a huge online game such as PSO2 during those decades, and even following the merge, they had been occupied with not only localizing more games from franchises they couldn't in the years earlier, but also they had been occupied with enhancing their localization process so the western discharges could be nearer to the JP releases. Even now in 2020 the current SEGA of America/Atlus USA would not have been able to deal with the entire PSO2 project independently (as we can see from the partnership between SEGA and Microsoft with MS hosting both the servers and community and support being redirected to ESTSoft).

"We heard a great deal of players say they have been waiting eight long years for this launch. [laughs] So we were very happy about that." Sorry) one and not a one. It's in the end of a question about how hot the beta was. It reads as"lots more people played beta than expected, and told us they'd been waiting eight long years for this - so people were pleased at how hot it had been" rather than"we were happy people were awaiting eight years" Frankly I'm just glad the game was outside, it's doing well, we're really getting content upgrades and such.

So even if they didn't care we seem to be in a fine place right now and that is what is important. Just keep supporting and playing the game if you like it and hopefully Sega will see they have a good enough player base here not to bungle things later on. What a non answer for the why the 8 year wait query. Its obvious they lost interest and only changed their mind with this release due to Microsoft practically funds it. All of what has been mentioned here makes really a great deal of sense in retrospect. The clunky translation due to the group not having much control over it, and also the massive delay for the EN version. For all those who don't remember, PS as a string has had some really DOGSHIT customer support at the west, all of the way back to PSO. Sega as a company has an extreme trend toward the crippling fear of earning cash.

Gotta love how that dude's encounter is gatchas along with the SEA fiasco, makes me feel so comfortable with the game's future... SEGA just do not like the west, and we would've never gotten this game if not for a significant company like MS. I do not know whether it is due to cheap Phantasy Star Online 2 Meseta terrible history with cheaters from PSO /PSU, or even sore over the Dreamcast's passing which was all thier own fault. Heck they arent even Sega anymore, they are Sega Sammy.