Phantasy Star Online 2 will be Free-to-Play, available on Smartphones

Phantasy Star Online 2 almost sounds too good to be true. Cross platform play, available on the PlayStation Vita, it's all pretty damn exciting. There must be some fault, mustn't there? It's going to end up being stupidly expensive, it's going to end up not being nearly as good a deal as it sounds, isn't it?

On the contrary, Phantasy Star Online 2 will be entirely free-to-play, available for download for no cost on the day of release and playable without limitation for as long as you'd like. The game will be supported by microtransactions, although whether it'll take on a pay-to-win vibe has yet to be seen.

And if that wasn't news enough, it'll also be getting a companion app on iOS and Android. While it won't offer the full experience, it'll still be somehow cross-compatible with the other versions of the game. SEGA says it'll have a simpler control scheme and a simpler character creation tool, although how exactly those will come into play has yet to be seen.

The PC version of PSO2 will be available for download in Japan in early summer, the smartphone version later in the year and the Vita version in spring 2013.