Sega of America announced today that the 1Up will be sponsoring a multi-week event known as the 1Up Platinum Cup (AKA Famitsu Cup in Japan) starting on October 19th. Each week, a new mission will be released corresponding to a specific planet. The goal of each mission will be to collect 10 golden orbs within a certain time limit. If your party is able to achieve S-Rank during the run, they will be taken to a reward quest where monsters have reduced HP and improved droprates. Also, numerous exclusive prizes will be handed out during this event including: Rappy Suit, Bikini Swimwear, Formalwear, slot units, and much more. You can discuss this long-awaited news in our Phantasy Star Universe forum.

Today marks the official release date for Ambition of Illuminus in Japan. This exciting expansion contains several new items, stages, and gameplay additions. Several importers are sharing their impressions and screenshots in our Phantasy Star Universe forum. If you would like to get a preview of things to come, be sure to join in the discussion.

PSO-World.com is proud to announce a massive new update to our Phantasy Star Universe Items Database. Thanks to a tremendous effort from our resident workaholic, Ryna, the item database is now packed full of brand new features and functionality for your browsing enjoyment. In addition, we've also added support for the upcoming PSU expansion, Ambitions of the Illuminus. Some of the other key features in this update include the following:

Improved search functionality

Greatly improved sorting and filtering capability

More thumbnails and preview images

New 'gallery mode' listings for select categories

New item sub-categories with their own pages

More in-depth item comparison features

Better version and region support

Don't just take my word on it, though, head on over to the PSU Item Database and see the new stuff for yourself. While you're at it, drop by the official release thread to shower Ryna with questions, comments, bug reports, and hopefully a little appreciation ;)

The Japanese 360 PSU site has been updated with what we can expect to see in this Friday's update.

New co-op mission
A new mission entitled "True Darkness" will be added. Residual A-photon energy at the HIVE has given birth to a new Dulk Fakis. Guardians are asked to report to the HIVE to take down the creature once and for all!

New photon arts
A new batch of PA Fragment-traded photon arts will be released. These arts include Dus Majarra, Twin Penetration, Regrant and Megistar, among many others.

Thanks to pikachief at the forums for pointing this out!

Update! The official English PSU site has been updated with this information.

Gametrailers.com has released a new trailer video for Ambition of Illuminus from the Tokyo Gameshow. The video summarizes the backstory for the game and gives a preview of the new offline Story Mode. Offline Story Mode will consist of the online Story Mode missions currently seen in Phantasy Star Universe. However, the new offline version will contain voice-overs and videos. Also, IGN has released several screenshots demonstrating new weapons, clothing, stages, and a candy-themed lobby. Credit goes to Handsock for reporting the video and Alura for finding the pictures. You can discuss this news in our Phantasy Star Universe forum.

The Japanese Amibtion of Illuminus website was updated yesterday with the last Hal Report video. This video showcases several new lobbies, interactive room decorations, and ends with a preview of the storyline for the expansion. New lobbies will include a casino on Moatoob, temple on Neudaiz where you attempt to increase your photon fortune, and beach area on Parum. Since the last segment of the video contains exclusive footage for the upcoming storyline, certain portions of this portion could be considered to be spoilers. Credit goes to Skye-Fox713 for bringing us this news.

A surprise message scrolled at the top of everyone's screens on the PC/PS2 servers a short while ago resulting in many Guardian's reporting to the Guardian's HQ on Universe 10. This however was in error. In the aftermath, some new information was given out.

• Tails statues will be delivered some time in October.

At one point it appeared that 11/20 had been confirmed for Ambition of the Illuminus but chillaura eventually went on after the event to say that it was a store date from Wal-Mart.

As for the message itself, it apparently was supposed to only go to one player and not the whole PC/PS2 community. You can see chillaura's apology here. You can also discuss this happening on our PSU General board here.

It's been nearly seven years since the creation of PSO-World, home to one of the best gaming communities anyone could ask for, and here we are at yet another milestone in our site's history. In case you couldn't figure it out from the headline and giant graphic, we've broken the TWO MILLION post count on our message boards! Hooray!




Our two millionth post can be found HERE, made by Otis_Kat, who might just be guilty of camping out and waiting for the opportunity to seal his name in the PSOW history books. Thanks for the congratulations, though, and nice job on the timing!

A BIG thanks to all of the users, active and retired, who have helped get us to this point. Keep those posts coming, we're setting our sights on three million!

On September 25th, Sega of America will be sponsoring a "Beast Bonfire" GM event on the regional PC/Playstation 2 and XBox 360 servers. The event is intended to be a celebration of the Beast Race and will be held in the Northern Continent Ice Plain lobby on Moatoob. Based on the available information, this event is intended to be completely social in nature. Here is a list of times when the event will be held (all PDT):

XBox 360	PC/Playstation 2
10:00 am - 10:45 am	11:00 am - 11:45 am
1:00 pm - 1:45 pm	2:00 pm - 2:45 pm
3:15 pm - 4:00 pm	4:15 pm - 5:00 pm

Credit goes to zandra117 for bringing us this news.

On September 18th, the Japanese version of Phantasy Star Universe will be updated to incorporate several functionality improvements which were announced for Ambition of Illuminus. These improvements include a fee system for lobby jumping, increased synth success rates, grinding system revision, gameplay updates, and an increase in the number of universes. You can view the full list of changes in this forum topic. Credit goes to EspioKaos for translating this news.

The Japanese Ambition of Illuminus website has been updated with the next Hal special report video and Chapter 3 of Phantom of Arkguard. The Hal video gives a brief preview of several new stages which will be available in the expansion. The information contained in it will not be overly useful to anyone that has been following the progress of the expansion. However, the Phantom of Arkguard animated comic is interesting. It details the events following the final offline Story Mission and sets the stage for the story in the expansion. Be warned that it contains spoilers for the final chapters of the Story Missions. EspioKaos has been kind enough to translate the comic in this forum topic.

On September 13th, the Japanese Phantasy Star Universe servers were updated with the second Thanks Festa event mission. Thanks Festa is a one year celebration event featuring special lobby decorations and missions. The missions feature increased exp, increased appearance rates for enemy items/boss box rares, branching mission paths, and back-to-back boss fights. In the new mission, your team has the option of taking the Zoal Goug/Magas Maggahna or Omnagoug/Dimmagolus route. Depending on the route your team chooses, you will either fight in Lab/Train or through various Neudaiz locales. This mission is expected to remain available until Ambition of Illuminus is released. Also, Sonic Team is sponsoring an art contest as part of the event. Selected pieces of artwork will be featured in-game. Click the "Read More" link to see some screenshots of the in-game fanart.

According to Shougai PSO, Enterbrain publishing company will be releasing the Ambition of Illuminus Perfect Bible in Japan. The previous Phantasy Star Universe Perfect Bible featured several hundred pages of information about gameplay, missions, items, and monsters. The new version is expected to be released in November for 2940 yen. Credit goes to EspioKaos for spotting this news.

According to the Japanese XBox 360 website, the regional PC/Playstation 2 and XBox 360 servers will be receiving a large content update on September 14th. Here is an overview of the update:

• Level Cap will be raised to level 100.
• Vigor Coat, AMF Army Jacket (Male and Female), AMF ArmyBottomSet (Male and Female), and One-Piece Swimwear clothing will be released.
• New SUV slots units.
• xx3 and xx4 series PM Evolution Devices
• Story Mission Episode 2: Chapter 10 will be released. It is the final story mission for the current version of Phantasy Star Universe and is a lead-in to Ambition of the Illuminus's storyline.

Credit goes to NavAtsuvy for bringing us this news. You can discuss this update in our Phantasy Star Universe forum.

SonicTeam recently announced a slight delay on the merging of the Japanese World 1 and World 2 servers. The reasoning behind the delay is fear that the merge could potentially have caused issues with the 1st Anniversary Thanks Festa that begins on August 31. A specific date has not been rescheduled for the merger, but plans are still in place to have the process done before the release of Ambition of the Illuminus on September 27.