For many years, Atlus titles such as the Shin Megami Tensei series were system exclusives for Japanese firms such as Nintendo and Sony. However, a rising number of games from its library have begun arriving on Microsoft platforms such as Windows and Xbox, and more are said to be on the way.
In recent years, the Shin Megami Tensei series has not been as successful as the Persona series, at least not in North American markets. However, Atlus has not forgotten about the game series, and in 2021 it published Shin Megami Tensei 5 as a Nintendo Switch exclusive. However, although the firm has typically marketed all of its games on a single platform, it has lately begun to depart from this practice.
Persona 4 and Persona 5 are presently available on Xbox and Windows, while Persona 3 will be released on January 18. Shin Megami Tensei 3 is also available on Windows, and further games in the genre are said to be coming to Microsoft platforms shortly. That’s obviously Shpeshal Nick, host of The XboxEra Podcast.
Nick specifically notes the franchise’s most recent mainline titles, Shin Megami Tensei 3, 4, and 5. Having these titles accessible on Xbox might be a huge victory for Microsoft since Atlus games are very popular in Japan, and Xbox has historically struggled (until recently) to get the same market share that it has in other countries. This might boost Microsoft’s platform versus Playstation, considering the last SMT game released for Playstation was a remaster of 3 on the PS4.
This decision, of course, is part of a rising trend among Japanese creators to distribute their games on several platforms. Persona games are one example, but Square Enix has also published its entire Final Fantasy library on Steam, and Final Fantasy 15 was released on both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. Final Fantasy 16 will only be available on the PlayStation 5, however, this looks to be due to an exclusive agreement.
To bring the SMT titles to Xbox, Microsoft and Atlus will need to reach a similar agreement. Even while the gap between most gaming consoles and PCs is substantially less than it was in previous generations, designing games for many platforms at once is still more difficult than working for just one. By having Microsoft fund part of the expenses of port, it might be a win for Xbox because it draws more Japanese players, and it could be a win for Atlus because it allows it to sell the Shin Megami Tensei series to more foreign gamers.
