How long will this last?

jaredchansen

jaredchansen

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Getting into this server I knew that it was on the edge of ethics. Distributing the game (for free) and hosting it (also for free) would probably upset Sonic Team after all their hard work on this IP. However, this community, and others like it, seem to be doing just fine. Do you think that a DCMA notice will ever come to shut down Ephinea?
 
The fact is sega don't really give a shit about it. If they did none would exist along time ago.
 
It'll last, epihnea is making 0 profit from running. They are actually losing money for all of us to keep playing (unlike the other servers). Completely free to play.
Even when the private funding stops, i think people will band together and donate to cover server costs.
 
I don't see how Sonic Team would be upset over a free private server that doesn't even have 100 people online on a regular basis. They don't make money on this game anymore, and nobody is making money off of their game.
 
Yeah, I think the biggest argument you'll find here is that *if* Sega still had official servers up, we would be playing on them. Because there is no "real" PSO server to play on, we feel justified in our bootleg.

To reiterate what others have said, I doubt the powers-that-be care about 100 players on a free server, and they haven't tried to shut down Ephinea or the pay-to-win ones.

We aren't cutting into Sega's profit margins. If anything, we are giving them free exposure in memorial of one of their finest works.

Also thanks for making post #667. I was getting tired of staring at that 666 but couldn't be bothered to come up with a real post.
 
Didn't someone won a lawsuit that allowed him to use a priavate server because the service was no longer available from the provider? This was some time ago, I forgot the details
 
If they haven't paid to keep the copyright, then they lost their hold on the product. Not sure how it applies to online assets.
 
Skyefallen said:
If they haven't paid to keep the copyright, then they lost their hold on the product. Not sure how it applies to online assets.
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And it gets more complicated with franchises, because the body of work can fall under a single category, so any time a game is released it renews the IP rights for every game under the copyright. It usually flies under the radar until it starts generating actual revenue. A lawsuit filed to shut down the server would be an expenditure that only returned bad press.
Not that Nintendo has any concept of economics based upon their handling of the "classic" console releases.
 
One of the other PSO-World mods mentioned something about this in a topic once in recent history.

It's not really that they don't care. Ultimately, I think they'd prefer to have the private servers around to preserve the franchise's fan base at no genuine cost to them, than shut them down and let Phantasy Star fade into obscurity as a result. This way, then they finally get around to releasing a new Phantasy Star title in the West, there will still be someone interested in buying it. We get to play the game, they get to sell us stuff later. Win-Win.
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In a way, it's likely in Sega's best interests to keep the private servers alive.
 
Faedeur said:
One of the other PSO-World mods mentioned something about this in a topic once in recent history.



In a way, it's likely in Sega's best interests to keep the private servers alive.
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If Sega actually cared about Phantasy Star then the two PSP games would be available on PSN for people to play on their Vitas or they'd do HD Remasters of the two games on PS4

I'm constantly begging the hell out of Sega to do something with the PS2 Remakes of Phantasy Star and Phantasy Star II
(Not Phantasy Star Online but the remakes of the first two games on Sega Master System and Genesis games)
 
When it mattered, Sega cared, but not enough to send the money for lawyers. A DDoS on their Gamecube servers was enough to make them pick up a phone, which apparently scared the kid doing it at the time enough to stop. I think?

Who can say if PSO2 server bothers the JP side enough, though. Probably not since losing US Phanstasy Star fans means nothing to them.
 
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