Xbox has scored a major coup with this latest addition to Game Pass.
Persona 3 Reload, the latest major title from Atlus, is Day One on Game Pass. This means all the Game Pass subscribers who were looking forward to playing this game can now download and play it at no extra charge.
As reported by GameRant, this is a major coup for Microsoft, following a well-received Developer Direct, and clinching their Activision Blizzard King deal last year. Persona 3 Reload is one of the first major releases of 2024. For it to go Day One Game Pass means those Game Pass subscribers scored a major coup over everyone else who does not have a subscription.
Persona 3 Reload is also part of Xbox’s Play Anywhere program. This means that if you are an Xbox loyalist, you can freely switch around playing this game on your Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows, using the Game Pass app. Your save will move platform to platform with you, so you can literally play it your way. So enthusiasts can have a setup where they play part of the game on the road on a Windows handheld like the ROG Ally, and then continue on their Xbox when they get home.
Persona 3 Reload is the latest remake of 2006’s Persona 3, a game that was originally a PlayStation 2 exclusive. While Atlus has started moving towards a multiplatform approach with the Persona series in recent years, the Persona franchise was long associated with the PlayStation brand, as one of several RPG franchises that, at the time, was seen as only thriving on Sony’s platform.
As we know, Xbox signed a partnership deal with Atlus, that has changed the way this dynamic has played out. While Persona 3 Reload is a multiplatform title, this partnership made it possible for the game to come Day One Game Pass. Furthermore, Xbox nabbed the marketing rights, in such a way that advertising for this game only showed Xbox branding for the first few weeks.
Not all Persona games have hit it off with Xbox’s audience, but this partnership is intended not just to benefit Xbox, but also Atlus. If Japanese developers previously assumed that the Xbox audience was elusive and immune to their charms, now they have Xbox working with them to court that audience even more strongly.
So Persona 3 Reload is really only one in many steps to ingratiate Persona to that Xbox audience. We’ll see if these seed will bear fruit among Xbox owners in these coming years, but this release is definitely one to look out for.
