Star Ocean: The Last Hope Set for Playstation 3

The Xbox 360 game, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, will be heading to the Playstation after all. While the Star Ocean series gained famed on the Playstation platforms, it didn't start on the original Playstation. Instead, the first game was released on the Super Nintendo in 1996. However, it was never translated and brought over to North America.

Fortunately, the same fate did not happen with the sequel, Star Ocean: The Second Story for the Playstation. Thus, it was the first game in the series to be released for North America in May 31, 1999. The third title, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time for the Playstation 2, followed in the second game's footstep in August 31, 2004.

Aside from the main titles, the Star Ocean series also contained several handheld games. The first is a remake of the first title titled Star Ocean: First Departure, which arrived in North America for the PSP in October 21, 2008. A PSP enhance port of Star Ocean: The Second Story called Star Ocean: Second Evolution would be release shortly after on January 20, 2009.

Because of the series history on Playstation platforms, many thought that the fourth main game would be released on the Playstation 3. Instead, Star Ocean: The Last Hope was released exclusively for the Xbox 360 on February 24, 2009. It was a curious choice of video game systems. Not only did publisher Square Enix and developer tri-Ace neglected their Playstation fan base, they also went against conventional financial wisdom. The Playstation 3 is more popular than the Xbox 360 in Japan, which is also the same region where the Star Ocean series perform the best in terms of sales.

One possible explanation for Star Ocean: The Last Hope being exclusive to the Xbox 360 is that developer tri-Ace was simply more comfortable developing for it than the Playstation 3. This is because the development studio previously produced a game on the Xbox 360 already with Infinite Undiscovery. Meanwhile, their first Playstation 3 project, Resonance of Fate, is still in production.

However, it now appears that Star Ocean: The Last Hope is heading to the Playstation 3 as several retailers are listing the product. It makes plenty of sense as well. A Playstation 3 port would sell well in Japan at least. Not to mention that tri-Ace should be more familiar with the system after working on Resonance of Fate.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope will be joining Enchanted Arms, Eternal Sonata, and Tales of Vesperia as previously Xbox 360 exclusive RPGs that eventually headed to the Playstation 3. No release date has been announced for Star Ocean: The Last Hope on the Playstation 3 but don't expect it to be released this year.