Phantasy Star Online 2 Will Launch On Steam Aug. 5, Offers Half-Life 2 Cosmetics

Our long, national nightmare may soon be over. I'm referring, of course, to the debacle that was Phantasy Star Online 2's PC launch via the Microsoft Store, which was fraught with problems from day one. And also on day two. And day three. And ...

It won't be long, though, before prospective ARKS Operatives will have an alternate route to adventure, as PSO2 now has a page on Steam. This, or something like it, was alluded to last month when a trailer video indicated that the game would be available on "more PC platforms soon." That "soon" is now solidified as Aug. 5, or just eight days from now. And yes, there will be cross-play and account linking for all versions of the game, PC or console.

To celebrate the partnership with Valve, Sega is offering several Half-Life 2-themed cosmetics to players who log in and/or complete quests on Steam. Details on all of those can be found on the announcement page or in the video below.

While I was planning to jump back in when the game became available somewhere that wasn't a raging dumpster fire, I'll admit that last week's announcement of PSO2: New Genesis has me pumping the brakes. Honestly, it hasn't been the best rollout for the game, and I feel that, if the "advanced" version was only a year away, Sega should have waited to launch that, and make sure it was available on stable platforms to boot. Maybe in the years to come, we'll all look back on this as a tiny blip in PSO2's legacy, but it seems like a rather large set of missteps right now.