Phantasy Star Online Claims MMO Subscriber Lead

Thanks to 1UP for their news that, following yesterday's vaunted Final Fantasy XI subscriber numbers of over 400,000, Sega has released figures claiming over 600,000 subscribers for the Phantasy Star Online series, albeit "worldwide across all territories, episodes, and platforms", and including the newly Japanese-released Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution. The article suggests: "A direct comparison between the two isn't fair for several reasons (PSO is on multiple platforms, popular in multiple territories, has a different pricing structure, and of course features a completely different style of gameplay), but nevertheless, it seems safe to say that Sega's experiment in online console gaming has proven a success in the long run."

PSO was Massive?

[Blackwulf]

I could only play in a game with 3 other people...That's not "massive" to me... ...I don't consider a graphical chat lobby as something that denotes something as a Massively Multiplayer game...Oh look, I can go to Lobby 19 and 20 and play soccer with a lot of other people...

By that logic, Diablo II is ALSO an MMOG...Right?

Dreamcast-o

[oberondarksoul]

Well, Sega certainly loves its subscribers to its games. Yup, loves 'em enough to turn of the Dreamcast servers to paying customers. Hmm. Stopping people who want to pay from paying... I love how business works.