In one of the biggest twists from Summer Games Fest, Sega and Atlus announced yesterday that Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal will be launching on Xbox Game Pass over the coming months—but PlayStation and Steam users will not be missing out on these classics either.
The initial announcement was one of the climactic moments of yesterday’s Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase: the definitive editions of the last three games in the storied JRPG franchise will be arriving on Xbox Game Pass, starting with Persona 5 Royal on October 21. Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable will follow sometime afterward, but presumably not until 2023. This was an especially unusual get for Xbox, given the system’s track record for sales in Japan, but a welcome expansion to the service’s lineup.
However if you’re a PlayStation or PC player and disappointed that you’d be missing out on these gems, rest assured, as this morning Atlus confirmed that all three games are also headed to PlayStation and Steam simultaneously.
PlayStation users already had access to the once-exclusive Persona 5 and its Royal update, with the base game available as part of the PlayStation Plus Collection until last month. However it’s likely Royal will be optimized for next-gen when it’s reissued on Sony’s shores this October, instead of the backward-compatibility version previously available. (The original game was optimized for PS5 when included in the PS Plus Collection, but Royal has not yet been given this treatment.)
Likewise, Persona 4 Golden launched on Steam last summer and was met with open arms, swiftly selling over a million copies. After that meteoric success, it’s not surprising that Atlus is bringing back these classics for wider audiences.
Perhaps the biggest part of this news is that Persona 3 Portable will be available widely once again. Originally released for the PlayStation Portable in 2009 as a definitive edition of the PlayStation 2 original, P3P has been stuck on older handhelds (and, who could forget, the PlayStation TV) ever since. The series has exploded in popularity since Persona 5 launched in 2017, so this will be a major opportunity for its fans to experience a classic for the first time.
As of yet, there is no word if existing owners of these titles on PlayStation and Steam will be able to access any hypothetical next-gen updates.
Meanwhile, a vocal faction of fans is baffled by the decision to skip the Switch. Nintendo’s hybrid console has a massive install-base for JRPG fans, and Atlus has even been gauging interest in bringing the series to the Switch lately. Furthermore, both two of these classics originally launched on older portable systems, and should easily run on the Switch.
Porting Persona 5 Royal might require some work, or a cloud version which, as we know from Kingdom Hearts‘ failures, might not be a well-received solution. However it would also be a welcome addition to the Switch’s library, which already includes its musou “sequel,” Persona 5 Strikers, and its protagonist Joker earned a spot on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s DLC roster. Hopefully this oversight will be rectified when we get our next Nintendo Direct broadcast.
Persona 5 Royal will be available via Game Pass on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and Steam October 21, with its predecessors following sometime within the next twelve months.
