[Update: The list of available countries has been updated to replace Great Britain and Russian Federation with England and Russia while reducing the total count to 35 countries.]

　　SEGA announced today that Phantasy Star Online 2 will be making the jump onto Steam, bringing with it cross play, cross progression, and a number of Steam-exclusive rewards for players. This new platform will also launch the same day as the upcoming Episode 4 story update for Phantasy Star Online 2.

　　"It is our goal to bring Phantasy Star Online 2 to as many players as we can," said Fred White, PSO2 TEAM North America's Head of Marketing. "We have heard the requests for a Steam launch, and we are excited to announce that soon Steam users in [35] countries on six continents will be able to experience PSO2 on their platform of choice, including popular features like Steam Achievements and Remote Play. The Steam Store page for PSO2 opens today. Additionally, all players on PC and Xbox One will be able to start Episode 4 on the same day -- August 5th!"

　　The Phantasy Star Online 2 story continues in Episode 4 as players wake from a long sleep to find that there has been an internal invasion of fake ARKS members, mysterious enemies called Phantasms appear, and a new planet has been discovered in another dimension – Earth.  ARKS will be able to unlock a new level cap and travel to new locations like Tokyo and Las Vegas in the pursuit of solving the mystery of the mysterious black shadow and purge the planet of the most powerful enemies encountered yet, including the mysterious organization called Mother Corps.

　　[Note: We looked into the 35 countries and discovered this list for Phantasy Star Online 2]

　　This package is only purchasable in specified countries:

　　Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United States

　　More information regarding the Steam release of Phantasy Star Online 2 will come in the near future but we reached out to the PR team handling the North America release and received this in response.

　　You will be able to link your account. We will release a guide on the official website soon. PSO2 will be cross-play and cross-progress with Steam, Xbox One, and Windows 10.

　　We recently learned about the upcoming Steam release through a store listing in Steam and also the Phantasy Star Online 2 Discord channel. According to Discord user Aida Esca Mother, the PSO Tweaker team had some extra information on how the account linking may work when Phantasy Star Online 2 arrives on Steam next week.

　　Hey everyone! I guess the cat is out of the bag now, so let's run down some stuff about the steam version of PSO2.

　　The first thing you need to know is that the steam version of PSO2 currently (in the code) requires an authorization code from whatever version of PSO2 you previously played if you want to continue progress on that account.

　　As in, do not delete your Windows Store/XB1 copy of PSO2 yet (or ever, if that's your thing!). The code indicates that you will need a key from a previous copy of PSO2 and have 15 minutes to enter it on the steam copy to link accounts. This is likely done instead of a login in order to prevent needing to support the Xbox Live API. It also appears that you can unlink your steam account as well.

　　Phantasy Star Online, now available for Xbox One and Windows 10, will be available on Steam beginning August 5th. Episode 4 will arrive on the same day as a free content update.