Ys VIII shows NIS America remains committed to bringing Japanese RPGs to Steam

If the Super Nintendo and then the PlayStation consoles were the best place for role-playing games from Japan years ago, the PC is a part of that lineage now. Publisher NIS America revealed today that is launching the Steam version of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana on January 30. Developer Falcom is also planning a final beta test before the launch date, and you can sign up for a chance to participate right here.

This is part of a long ongoing trend of Japanese developers and publishers bringing their RPGs to the global audience of PC gamers that use Steam to buy games. This exposes what traditionally was a console genre to people who never owned a console or people in emerging markets where consoles are prohibitively expensive. This is a business opportunity that is working out if we go on the evidence that companies keep bringing their RPGs from Japan to Steam.