Sega snuffing Phantasy Star Universe on PS2, PC

The Universe is coming to an end March 31. Two of them, actually.

Sega has confirmed that servers for the PlayStation 2 and PC editions of Phantasy Star Universe will go offline March 31, 2010. In a post on the game's official message boards, an administrator informed fans of the move, saying the population on the servers was just too low to justify supporting them any longer. The Xbox 360 version of Phantasy Star Universe will not be affected by the server closures, and Sega is still planning to support it with regular updates for the foreseeable future.

On the bright side, the administrator did note that the move "is helping to pave the way for bigger and better things for the Phantasy Star franchise in the very near future!" Naturally, the games will also still be playable in single-player offline mode.

The message board thread announcing the closures has seen an abundance of Phantasy Star Universe players expressing their sadness, anger, and frustration at the news. In more than 70 pages and nearly 700 posts, gamers complained that Sega undersupported the platforms, failing to bring out content updates in a timely manner. Some pleaded for character transfers to the Xbox 360 version, while others expressed resigned acceptance of the game's fate.

Phantasy Star Universe was released in October of 2006, with an Ambition of the Illuminus expansion pack for all three systems following in November of 2007. For more on the game, check out GameSpot's original review.