Fans of Steins;Gate may have a reason to be excited for the game that spawned the hit anime, as JAST USA president Peter Payne has confirmed with Siliconera that the localization company is in talks with Nitro+ and 5pb regarding an English release for the game.

He does concede that the possibility almost entirely relies on both of the aforementioned companies to come to an agreement on the release as both Nitro+ and 5pb were involved with the game. Peter also alluded to a desire to release the game over Steam, which would greatly improve the visibility of such games and be made easier by the fact that the game is not an 18+ game, increasing the chances of the game getting approved on the download service compared to other visual novels, which are usually 18+.

While nothing has been set in stone yet, Peter also mentioned his desire to release more English Nitro+ games at a more frequent rate than the current release pattern, with much of the delays being put on Nitro+ and their cautious attitude towards game releases, which typically revolve around releasing the game, waiting two years and then checking total sales before choosing the next game to work on and release.

The best case scenario with Steins;Gate would then be: working on the game after receiving approval to release the game from both 5pb/Nitro+, submitting for approval on Steam, getting the game approved for sale, then making the announcement that the game is available on Steam, which would ideally drive more people to check out the game outside of the current crowd and increase sales enough to get Nitro+ to change their current release strategy.

Let me ask this question then: If JAST USA were able to somehow pull off the above, would you be willing to buy the game if it came out on Steam?

Humberto Saabedra is the Editor-in-Chief of AnimeNews.biz, PhoneNews.com and an occasional columnist for Ani.me. He can also be found musing on his favorite 2D girls at @AnimeNewsdotbiz.