toxicitizen

Yeah, it's not entirely clear. Unless XSEED went on a hiring spree, they don't have the in-house programming staff for a port job. And Sara's already said she's not involved. Either that or they meant "without Falcom handling the dev side of things", which could just mean they outsourced it like LKS. Hopefully to a different team...

But you're right, this is most definitely in response to losing both Ys VIII and Tokyo Xanadu. It's clear that Falcom now demands or at least prioritizes a PC release. I'm really glad to see XSEED taking care of it themselves. It means that:

1) They're probably not at risk of losing the Trails series

2) Trails of Cold Steel III is incredibly likely to also get a PC release

While the porting team could've done better on LKS, the backend was kind of a mess per Durante. If they outsource ToCS then I wouldn't be surprised if XSEED hire Durante as a consultant again. The porting company got three games they can do. With Durante as consultant/QA, by ToCS III they should know the in and outs of the engine Falcom uses.

Then (or before) onward to Zero and Ao. Trails series will be complete and up to date. MADNESS.

Yeah but if Durante could get it into a much improved state all by himself then I dunno, seems like they might not have been the most qualified porting house to begin with. They were a Japanese team, so chances are they weren't entirely familiar with what is expected of a solid PC version. Combine that with all the stories you hear about Japanese industry folks being very unreceptive to advice and criticism from the West and you have a potential recipe for disaster.

But yeah, it's crazy to think that not only are Zero and Ao the only missing entries but now they'll also all be available on PC. Now we just need XSEED to make a Celceta port happen once they're done with Cold Steel 1 and 2.