Phantasy Star Online 2 Open Beta Date Announced For North America

Phantasy Star Online 2 is one of Japan's most popular online RPGs, but it's never been playable outside of Asia before. As part of its North American launch--which does not have an exact release date yet--Sega has announced an upcoming open beta for the game on Xbox One on March 17.

This follows a closed beta that ran in early February. All progress from that beta will carry over to this one, and then eventually to the final game launch. According to the game's official site, it requires a whopping 75 GB of free space, as well as an Xbox Live Gold subscription. If you previously downloaded the client, it will update for the open beta on March 16.

Fans have clamored for a North American release of PSO2 for almost a decade now. An English version of the game was first teased at PAX in late 2012--however, the game was unceremoniously delayed without explanation. This release was first announced in mid-2019 at Microsoft's E3 press conference. Though the game will eventually come to PC, this beta test is exclusive to the Xbox One.