Phantasy Star Online 2’s PC exclusivity to the Microsoft Store is coming to an end, as the game will be launching on Steam as soon as next week, August 5th. It’s also been confirmed the game will support crossplay and cross-progress with other versions of the game, and that the Steam version will drop alongside the Episode 4 content update.
This also seemingly marks the official European release of the game, as the Steam page is available in select European territories. We don’t have a full list of who can and can’t access it right now, but we at least know that the UK is good to go, and the Netherlands are sadly out of luck as the page simply won’t load in that region.
The best part of this announcement however, is probably the new items announced to commemorate the launch. You’ll be able to get your hands on gear inspired by Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2 and Portal 2 as part of the game’s Steam launch. This isn’t wholly surprising, but it’s weird to see Gordon Freeman in PSO2 nonetheless.
PSO2’s PC launch was mired in technical issues, so hopefully the Steam launch will mark the end to that. Going off previous blogposts, it’s a safe assumption that Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis, the upcoming overhaul of the game, will also land on Steam at some point next year – though whether it’ll have timed exclusivity to Microsoft again remains to be seen.
You can check out the full Steam announcement blogpost here.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
