Persona Fans on PlayStation Get Sold Short Again as Xbox Deal Reveals Native Ports

Vote with your wallet and don’t buy sub par stuff, I guess.

Shove it where the sun dont shine Atlus.

The ps4 versions will run just the same, as mentioned they are just straight up ports and will run atleast 60fps and should easily be 4k, even for the switch it will be 60fps and 1080p. There is literally no benefit/point for a current gen version just to play a psp game.....

@AstraeaV agreed

Pretty sure native ports of these games is just an over glorified term , i doubt it will offer anything different

Haha glad people are now realizing how awful Atlus can be with decisions.

With all the drivel coming out of Xbox right now about all the shady deals Sony make about securing exclusive rights for games, I find this a bit of a cheap move by Microsoft. It’s like the teapot calling the kettle back. I read that Phil Spencer had said they wanted to invest in Japanese companies, so I’m guessing Sega/Atlas will be next on their agenda.

What on earth could native ports on ps5 of these games offer? The game will probably be exactly the same on everything bar switch.

Just marketing speak, you could run those games on a potato

hot on the heels of persona5 no upgrade path too. Atlus and Sony fall out?

I'm pretty indifferent here. The PS4 should be able to handle these games flawlessly so unless somehow it comes out completely busted on PS4 I doubt the Series versions will really look at all more enticing. It more just seems like a silly waste of money on Microsoft's part more than anything.

Now if the Xbox version got exclusive quality of life improvements like the Switch version of Trails from Zero did over the PS4 version that would be a different story.

Well, an Xbox x/s port could support ultra-fast load times and 4k visuals while the PS4/ One versions do not. Doesn't the same thing happen in more demanding games also, PS5 only having 4k and faster load times? I personally don't care that much but I still find it strange that there are no PS5 versions.

I won't be replaying the games anyway. I hate this silent protagonist stuff, I really hate it. I also understand that it is a videogame, but the plots on 3 and 4 have ... holes that make replaying the games less enjoyable. Was the motive of the antagonist in 4 even given?

Ill still get it on Playstation as thats where i want to play and upgrade from Vita. Funny how xbox is talking about shaddy PS deals when they are doing the same thing when and where they can

Very daring of Xbox. Taking games that were once synonymous with Playstation (Tomb Raider, Yakuza, Persona, etc) and taking marketing as if the Xbox is the first or best place to play them. Pretty ballsy. Can't be mad at Xbox for that. Atlus is the one that should get the blame. No share parity between the other platforms is wild.

@TheArt tbf this was probably a SEGA decision.

@Bionic-Spencer I'm just glad more of the Atlus games are on PC now.

many JRPG fans that wanted to play the Persona series already played it on PS3/PS4 or PSP/VITA when it was originally released.
MS just tryna cater to an audience that they so desperately want (Japanese game fans).
No big deal. stop with the "woe is me" attitude.

I mentioned that these games run in hd on an emulator on an old galaxy s8 and mods removed that but it's still true. You can play these for free if you wanted to without the Xbox vs Playstation drama.

@straw-hat-crew Yeah basically this. All MS know how to do is pay for deals, and they've never been able to appeal to the Japanese audience. This is the end result of that. Like when they paid for Idolmaster 2 and Tales of Vesperia.

Watch Persona 6 be an xbox exclusive now

PS were tight with Atlus for 25 years. These games were exclusive to Playstation until now. I’m not that fussed about them being chummy with Xbox now, the games have always been a bit of a nightmare to work out what to play them on.

FFVII Remake is still not available on Xbox. Sony does the same stuff. Companies suck, games are fun.

I'm not paying the same for an inferior product even if is just that the Series X/S versions load 3 seconds faster than PS4, I'll get them as soon as the PS5 versions are available.

Also is not too far fetched that Microsoft may be eyeing Sega as they are interested owning more Japanese companies and they also have had a relationship with Sega since they co-developed the Dreamcast.

@AstraeaV It is weird how talk of downloading games without paying is some massively traumatic thing for gaming sites, they act like you're calling for a murder, yet if you went to a literature forum and said you'd downloaded a PDF of 'Catcher in the Rye' no one would care.

@Amusei with Nintendo and Sony there's usually history to it. FFVII was nurtured by Sony after originally being intended for N64 until the limited space on carts became a problem. Nintendo don't own Hal Laboratories but have a great relationship with them that's led to multiple Kirby and Smash Bros games. MS just throw money at companies and try to purchase history and relationships.

Jeez the salt, enought for lunch and dinner. What Xbox is doing is just offering a free upgrade across Xbox One and Xbox Series. Sony prob can't monitise a PS4 to PS5 upgrade so they just didn't bother. Time will tell if there are any addtional features on Xbox Series.

No offense but does it really matter? What enhancements do you expect from a PS5 version compared to a PS4 Version?

This could be because of smart delivery for all anyone knows

Lol all this "microsoft only know how to throw money at it" like its a bad thing.

Microsoft: hey i got some money.
Sega: oh sweet throw us some...
Microsoft: umm i dunno we trusted platinum games and got mugged.
Sega: oh come on we will give you better access too our library, you always said you wanted better asian relations... well give us some and we will give agreat deal that will favor xbox.
Microsoft: oh go on then.

Its that easy.

@racinggamefanatic lol they will never stop the bleeding especially with there actions as of late.

@UltimateOtaku91 You haven't seen the comparisons between all versions so there could be no difference or there could be something more noticeable, DF will probably cover them in detail.

At the end of the day were getting lesser versions (even if is just a few pixels less) of these Persona games than Xbox and will pay more for them. There must have been some kind of fallout between Sega and Sony or Microsoft made it rain at Sega HQ.

They did this with Yakuza LAD, PS5 version came out later than the XSeriesX ver. Money simply must have changed hands somewhere

Stop making such a big deal about it, lol.

From the tone of the article and the outcry in the comment section, you would think P3 and 4 was skipped for the playstation console.

What bothers me the most is that there's no word on physical editions.

@Bionic-Spencer 100% this! After pushing a very public narrative both thru their lawyers to Competition regulator's & via the media about "Sony pays money to keep games off Gamepass" & Sony pays money to stop "superior" versions of games & ensure platform parity doing rounds on twitter,here we see "Gaming for All" Phil splashing cash at Sega to prevent a native port on PS5!

Yep,a Sega or similar buyout,(let's face it, after Activision they could easily target the likes of Take-two) ,seems likely...the only real distraction would be a protracted battle in the courts if the likes of the EU didn't approve the Activision buyoutor attached conditions to it.😕

This is why I have zero problem's with Sony's deals because Microsoft has always done deals like this too, people like to have selective memories around business deals.

@Gloamin “They also seem to be specifically targeting established companies with history on other platforms”

This ^^^ seems to be true. They also seem to be targeting companies that won’t put their games on Gamepass. There were no Bethesda games on Gamepass before MS bought them and Activision was pretty adamant about not putting their games on Gamepass as well. Makes me wonder about who will be next. Sega and Ubisoft seem to be playing nice and letting their games go to Gamepass, but what about Capcom and Konami? With Sony paying for exclusivity for a few Final Fantasy games, I wouldn’t even be surprised if we start hearing about MS buying Square Enix the week after the Activision deal closes.

Might actually be a problem for Xbox users. It's a perfect example of games where it might make sense to download last gen version to save on fast storage.. which Series S does not have a lot

This is a total nothing burger. The PS4 version will run at 4K 60fps locked on a PS5, just like the Series X. We're talking about a PSP and a Vita game here.

@belmont That's true but in the case of P3 and P4, the loading times were already mere seconds at most on their original platforms, a native PS5 version will not provide any improvement beyond the PS4 version since there's not really anything to improve.

@Juanalf 3 seconds faster? You won't even get that. I can bet it'll be the same speed running the PS4 version on a PS5 compared to Series X. Millisecond difference at worst.

@Mauzuri This won't be close to the same as Trails. The PS4 and Series X versions will both run the same, the PS5 home screen just won't have a little PS5 icon next to the game's title.

@rachetmarvel precisely, huge overreaction on this case. What benefits would a native PS5 version provide? Haptic triggers? Where would that even come into play for these games?

I wouldn't put much thought into this. The Xbox ecosystem is much different than Sony's.

A "Native" X|S sometimes can still be an X1/X1X version of the game running with enhancements due to be Gen9 Aware rather than a true, built from the ground up for Series X|S, "Native" app.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the same way. It got a Gen9 Aware enhancement and later got a X|S moniker with zero changes to any capabilities over what was already there when a Gen9 Aware patch was released. In fact, I think if you look at File Info it still states that it's a "Gen9 Aware" game AND can still run off the external HDD. Halo MCC is also similar in this sense.

Plus, Xbox doesn't change clock speeds to match the previous hardware like PS5 does. So even X1 games get significant loading boosts on Series X|S. PS5 gets some boost to loading, but not nearly as much on the Series X|S side where it's darn-near transformative.

It's possible that Sony will also get some enhancements for running on PS5 but it's still the PS4 version. However, because of the way Sony handles cross-gen, Atlus would literally have to create a whole new build of the game for PS5 - something not entirely necessary on the Xbox side of things.

Bottom line: I think it's more of a branding thing on Xbox: developer adds some enhancements for Series X|S while still using the X1/X1X code and it's considered "Native" to differentiate from a game getting an FPS Boost which is handled by Microsoft at the DirectX level.

So seeing as these are nothing but ports of PSP/Vita games does it mean that it will be included in PS+ BC catalogue? Better question if you already bought these games do you get them for free or do you have to pay for them again?

Wait, so "new version" of persona 5 gonna be on game pass, while on PS you can't even upgrade ps4 version to ps5?

It's backwards compatible, so does it matter?

@Matroska Fair point, didn't know all the history behind that.

Phil Spencer: We want every gamer to be able to play every game!

(only when we say so)

@Matroska

You could make an argument that MS has this sort of relationship with Bethesda. Morrowind, being the first of the modern era Elder Scrolls game, released only on Windows on Xbox. Oblivion was only released on PS3 a year after xbox. MS treated these games as system sellers and somewhat like 3rd party flagship titles.

Not saying this is in parity with PS and Squares, or Nintendo and Hals relationship. But there is something there. Playstation doesn't really share history with Bungie but they went ahead and snapped them up.

And in terms of Atlus, the companies always made weird a$$ moves in regards to exclusivity. They don't seem to have much interest in developing for multiple platforms at one time.

After years of having Final Fantasy games locked to Sony's platforms, having SMT Persona locked to Microsoft's seems about right. I have P4G on the Vita and never completed it so wouldn't mind a go at it with the visuals bumped to 4K and less shimmering, that'd be nice.

@Amusei Agreed. And I still genuinely believe that if Bloodborne were on Xbox as well, it'd run 4K60 native and Sony, forced to keep up, would have From do the same for the PS5. Rather than being stuck with the same 2015 grade 1080p30 engine with janky frame pacing marring an otherwise excellent game.

Well the PlayStation still has the decided advantage of not having to use an Xbox, but yeah what exactly is the difference between a native series version versus the one outside of the X/S branding on the lower left tile, they uses the same save file, same achievement list, ***** there still the same SKU. your background download will still be throttle to high hell while playing so what’s the advantage?

This is most likely no big deal. What I’m more worried about is a potential acquisition of Sega by Microsoft. Having Sega games exclusively on one system would be horrible for all of gaming. Atlus & their partnership with Vanillaware, Yakuza studios, Sonic, Bayonette, Sakura Wars & more would be a huge hit for both Sony & Nintendo if they lost those catalogues. Microsoft clearly has some sort of relationship with Sega but hopefully not one that’ll end up in an acquisition. I’d be so mad if I had to buy a new system for Persona 6- a franchise that’s been mostly Sony. But yah, this news above regardung the poets was not surprising/much of a big deal.

It’s a PSP and Vita game. I doubt there will be a difference between the PS4 versions being played on a PS5, and the X/S versions.

Kind of suits me oddly, PS4 games can be installed onto my cheap external hd, and like many have mentioned, I really doubt current gen is going to be able to add anything of interest to these games.

Gamepass gang wins again

#gamepassgorilliongames #bigboytrainsthatreplaceawife

@Askalt "Wait, so "new version" of persona 5 gonna be on game pass, while on PS you can't even upgrade ps4 version to ps5?"

Yup for our loyalty to Atlus we will be paying full price for a third time and for Xbox fans (apparently) loyalty to the Persona series they get the games free, makes sense if you don't think about it 🙂

@Juanalf you can rent it for £10 a month on gamepass it's not free.

@Balosi If you have an Xbox is fair to assume you will probably already have GP (if not then you are playing the game of life wrong!) therefore those people that are currently chilling with their subscriptions will have the Persona games fall into their laps without them needing to do anything.

@Juanalf that is irrelevant gamepass is still £10 a month so using the word free is a lie.

I'm fully aware that it's salty and cringey and gatekeepy, but I just can't stand seeing this happen to historic PS software. I'm so mad at Sony for the Japanese bridges they're burning...

@Balosi that is a lie , if the person is doing Microsoft rewards they can easily get gamepass for free as many ppl do , so using the words not free is a lie
Eg I get over 24000 points a month without paying a penny , a month of game pass ultimate is 12000 points a month ( with level 2 discount) or 14000 a month without

Oh that's gamepass ultimate not normal gamepass

@Martsmall I have no knowledge of Microsoft rewards, and therefore cannot really argue back, but common sense leads me to believe that the average person would not be able to fund their gamepass subscription with it. That would be ridiculous, Microsoft would be broke.

@Balosi they can and do,lots of ppl do it
You get rewards for daily searches ( 162 points a day ) and playing games ( 50 points a day for earning a achievement ) then if your one of the ppl who have the Xbox app on phone enabled for Thier rewards ( approx 300 points a day for playing a pc game /playing a game with a friend ) and that's without all the he points you get just for starting up certain GP games

And there are bonus points for doing the daily searches in a row etc etc

This headline could be less clickbait focused:

New title using language from the article: “Only BC for Persona 3 and 4, but “in truth, this could well be a non-issue.”

@Balosi here's what I've gotten so far and it's the 14th of the month
https://ibb.co/BrmpRh0
Bear in mind a month of game pass ultimate is 12000 points so if I wanted to I could buy a month of game pass now ( but I don't need it )

@Martsmall that appears to be quite the daily work schedule, even if you have figured out a routine. It's not something the average person is going to want/be able to do.

@Balosi takes 5 mins a day , like the average person doesn't play a game a day for 30 seconds lol

Atlus are an anti-consumer company anyway. I stopped buying their games, so I won't miss 'em.

So are the PlayStation versions emulation of the PSP/Vita games?

@Matroska Microsoft and Sega also have a long history in gaming. The Dreamcast ran Windows CE, and quite a few of Sega games went to become Xbox exclusives after Sega dropped off making console hardware. And it’s not like it’s ancient history either, that kind of relationship went all the way through the Xbox one generation with Phantasy Star Online 2.

Non issue until more is revealed. There's a good chance the PS4 version is the version running on Series its just MS heavily push native versions for Series consoles. As long as they're 60fps on PS4 i don't care anyway.

I don’t want to hear any of you guys cry about Sony making deals anymore after this.

This is business. This gives us the idea of how Xbox users feels about Final Fantasy deal. That's fair, it's ok for me.

@bauer_ exactly but don’t cry when Sony announce more deals after this deal.

Meanwhile FF7 remake still ain't on Xbox but the second part is available to pre order think that's a bigger issue than game pass players getting some old games barely anyone played but weebs

@BartoxAbrasiveness what are you talking about? Fallout 76 has enhancements and many other games if running series x but they aren't labelled as x/s games in store or dashboard

Maybe Xbox just paid for Altus to make native ports and Sony didn’t want to? Xbox seems pretty keen on having as many games as possible running on the series consoles natively or having smart delivery enabled.

Hey maybe in some years we will have to buy PS5 version of P3P for full price? Atlus why you disrespect like that your oldest and most loyal customers? Maybe xbox pass agreement got a term for these games not to be released in PS Plus for a year or something

@BartoxAbrasiveness Finally someone mentions the dev tools as the reason for this decision. As Atlus, I would probably have done it the same way. Please, everybody, blame Sony for making native PS5 games so much more expensive, not Atlus.

@Max_the_German wtf are you even talking about? Only PS5 games been more expensive has nothing to do with this. This in on Atlus/Sega, so don’t deflect the blame somewhere else.

@racinggamefanatic better leadership? their studios struggling releasing games isn’t synonymous of a better leadership, but the contrary. The fact that they are relying in buying big ass third party publishers for games isn’t better leadership either…. Just stop with the BS already.

Xbox fans are in for a wake up call. Persons 4 is one of my favourite games is an time but I'm also a man nearly 40 who probably wouldn't dare play such games outside of a handheld.

@Matroska And even in the end they sold better on Playstation. Its really crappy of Atlus to do these crappy things but im ok with that keep your games ill get them secondhand for the PSP so you get nothing. They could not even be bothered to release them physically to lazy to port to lazy to put them on a disc. If you see how they handled Persona 5 its clear they have no interest to be respectful towards the paying customer even the smallest indie can do that.

@denpanosekai Dont worry its Atlus you buy the digital one and in year they will release a physical copy.

@Amusei Reason FFVII remake is not on Xbox yet is probably due to the game not being completed yet. Microsoft will wait until Square Enix gave PlayStation all the first dips and then came in to scoop all the games for GamePass once all the games are in a more finish state and Sony's exclusivity is over.

@Serpenterror Yeah, that's quite possible, but that would also mean waiting 5-10 years who knows 😹

I'm confused. PS4 versions are known to be used for japanese games like this because many more people own ps4's over ps5's over in japan. Also the series x/s sell pretty well in japan so there's that. And these are psp/vita games not modern game, it's fair to assume all of these will work the same as p4g on pc. I don't see the issue here. Unless this is like what falcom did to screw over people on zero that's a different story.

The real issue to me is no physical release.

Lol @ MS is throwing money on things vs PS is nurturing things. Top euphemism 😄 Probably MS offering their gamers a FOC upgrade instead of letting them pay for it. They are not keeping the game off the other platforms.
Xbox players still waiting for that FF remake. Even the PC release was almost 1 year ago. Weird there isn’t even a release window yet either.

Good stuff. Already saving money having them on gamepass and having a native upgrade is even better.

I can't complain.

@Pusher2021 the lack of self awareness is touching insanity levels. PlayStation has marketing deals with so many up coming 3rd party multiplatform games that are forcing technical parity whilst promoting content exclusivity, it’s unreal how anybody is moaning about Xbox finally getting persona games after decades worth of platform exclusivity on Sony consoles. But boo ***** woo evil Xbox paid to keep an announcement for a two days - stop the press.

Maybe this has more to do with Xbox forward thinking with console features than it does anything else - smart delivery has proven to benefit these things

@TheArt no Microsoft payed them to keep silent lol they trying to make a gaming monopoly like they did with tech and no one are see the signs

@Bleachedsmiles People really be trying to compare Sony deals with Microsoft deals from what I've noticed Microsoft deals f*** everyone over in the long run They're literally trying to create monopoly like they did with Tech in the nineties and no one cares

@Bionic-Spencer yep and these people will let them until they swallow up the gaming industry I swear these people are dumb they do the same thing they did in the 90s when taking over the tech industry