Persona 3 & 4 Next-Gen Versions Are Xbox Exclusive, Both Hit Game Pass In January

As if it even makes a difference with old games likes this. I prefer these RPGs on PC anyways. Atlus has been really good with the mouse and keyboard configurations.

I don't get how they can make persona 3 portable and persona 4 next gen? They are pretty much basic ports, surely both gen versions will be running at 60fps and 4K with just HD textures.

Even the switch should be running these at 60fps and 1080p.

This better not be because Microsoft has some sort of deal with Sega/Atlus.

I ******ng detest it when Sony are doing with third-party games, this is no different.

Physical verisons?

I'm so glad to see Atlus games on Series S/X.

I’m not understanding what exactly is “next gen” here let alone what would be “exclusive”. I’m sure this is more to do with Smart Delivery and less to do with actually upgrade features.

@Sol4ris I'm pretty sure because this is the first time this game is releasing on Xbox, they just made the game next-gen. Note, it doesn't sound like a remaster, so doesn't really matter which version you play. I think it will be about the same as Persona 4 Golden on PC (Steam).

Nothing says next-gen like a PSP game and a PS Vita game! Don't get me wrong they are excellent games but I mean come on! 😆

Sometimes I question the "native apps" nature on Series S|X.

Look at Shadow of the Tomb Raider. It got "next-gen aware" bonuses when running on Series X (and S?). Then a "native" app was released with absolutely zero changes. In fact, I think it even still says "Aware" in the File Info (I could be wrong though).

Not saying that Microsoft is trying to hide anything but given the nature of how everything works with the system, sometimes Series X|S Native doesn't really mean as much as on Sony's side where games are treated as entirely separate applications.

Seems like it's more of a branding thing on the Xbox side where backwards compatible games that get some kind of "next-gen aware" enhancements are given the X|S logo as to not be confused with games that use FPS Boost to achieve higher framerate results.

In other words, if a developer puts some kind of effort into adding enhancements (Digital Foundry liked to use the term Backwards Compatibility+) on Xbox, it gets the X|S tag. Where if Microsoft simply used the FPS Boost method, the game doesn't get the X|S tag.

@mousieone

I’m sure this is more to do with Smart Delivery and less to do with actually upgrade features

That must be pretty much spot on. Sony has a half-arsed approach to these things, if they can't charge their customers for it, they are not interested 🙄.

@Sol4ris
MS has obviously had to pay to get these ports on Xbox and Game Pass, hence the native next-gen versions.
Exactly the same situation as Ni No Kuni, that got a native Series X/S version, at 4K 60FPS while the PS5 is stuck with the PS4 Pro version at 1440p 60FPS.

I really hope this isn't a case of Xbox paying for this exclusivity because then it is harder to argue against Sony doing similar (even if it is on much newer games). If Xbox have paid to have them upgraded, and Sony has not, then that is different, but if Xbox has effectively paid to keep them off the PlayStation, then I don't simply don't think that is right. If the work has been done and it will play on both platforms, then the same version should release on both...

@GamingFan4Lyf oh I have one better. Blaster Master Zero 1 is a native port so It wants me to transfer it to my internal drive to play it. Exactly why Blaster Master Zero 1 has a native XSX/S port? Or that it needed it. You know a 3DS game; it just blows my mind. What the XB1 was too weak for it? 🧐

The Xbox blog even lists smart delivery for it like what ??? 🤨

@Sol4ris well it probably has to do with patches and that weird Xbox DRM and save files etc etc It just comes off as specifically features but we are talking about games originally release back in the PS2 era.

Granted I think P3P could use features *coughs^ cut scenes. P4G is pretty much fine as is and 60fps is welcome. But they don’t need to add much more to the games …

Ehh older game whats the difference. Ill still play it on PS5

@Fiendish-Beaver “I really hope this isn't a case of Xbox paying for this exclusivity because then it is harder to argue against Sony doing similar”

Why argue? Sony can pay for exclusives if they want, and MS can pay for exclusives if they want. Customers can support if they want by buying the product or if they dislike the practice, don’t buy. Arguing about this stuff when both companies are doing the same thing in slightly different ways seems kind of pointless.

Money hatting Microsoft at it again 😉

Could just be ease of compilation. M$ has really, really tried to make it easy for developers to release a game on both systems. I don't think M$ would have paid money just for that bit, they just made it easier to do.

Samurai Showdon AFAIK does not have a native PS5 version, it has a native XSX version however, again probably because M$ makes such a thing easier for any developer to do.

Could also simply be... the windows versions use the same library (DirectX) as the XSX and XB1 version which again makes a cross-gen release easier.

Without more detail, this story asks more questions than it answers. Good questions about feature parity, resolution and frame rate from several commentors.

@koffing Maybe Digital Foundry will do a video on it. (Though the games might be too niche for them)

@Whybox that would be fun, but I think we just need basic facts. As has been said these are all old gen products and should run great on everything. But — but as an example— P4G has a known stutter before all out attacks on pc and it’s not clear why.

I love how the PS5/XSX launched about 2 years ago and yet we still refer to them as next-gen. Makes sense seeing as very few games actually take advantage of the extra tech.

As quite a few people have said... 'Native' ports to X|S means a completely different thing to a PS5 port. Playstation consoles have, notoriously, needed you to completely rewrite the game for each generation, while XBOX consoles...
I have perfectly working games that originally released on the OG XBOX on my Series X|S console.

There's probably quite a bit more than just support for Quick Resume in an XBOX Series X|S port, with the XBOX One version of Witcher infamously having you in the preload 'void' for a second due to loading screens breaking on X|S.
But it doesn't require a developer to be coding in two different languages that mean the same thing just to make an ancient game run in 4K/120FPS.

@mousieone uuuuhm, wow. LOL!

Guess it needed to load the ENTIRE game the very second you selected the icon to play the game.

"Next-gen"!

There are Series X|S games that can run from external HDD. Sea of Thieves is one. Ori is another. Maybe Blaster Master Zero can too?

@GamingFan4Lyf nope it has to be played from The internal drive or the expansion card. A 3DS game cannot be played natively from and an external drive. I assume oersona would be that way as well.

@koffing Consider: The PlayStation Vita had a 720p screen. If say all you did was upscale or use upscale textures and left the core code alone it would not run well.

Sometimes hardware can accommodate but to be honest… most of the technology improvements has been on the GPU which requires refactoring the render pipeline.

12 and 8 year old games likely used a fixed pipeline (OpenGL ES is what I think PS Vita used), so changing that would be very costly.

But I suspect they in fact did that, however if it pauses for an all out, it’s likely they can’t hold all the combat animations in GPU memory at once on a PC and that pause is the Asset getting loaded in.

@Would_you_kindly or maybe weird disjointed system Sony at it again.

@Whybox Vita has a screen resolution of 960 × 544. It is not 720p. (1280x720 pixels)

@Whybox The Vita was ahead of its time, but we’ll see what’s what when they launch. I hope Sega has optimized it all and they and P5 run great on every system. If Switch can run Witcher 3 at almost 30fps locked it should be able to run P3/4/5 easy.

@mousieone LOL! That's too funny.

Ah well, what can you do? The good thing is what...maybe 120MB at the most? I have it on Switch - it's a great game - but I know it's not exactly a space hog.

I think a next gen version of these games should be running at 120fps 1080p or 4k 60fps. I can run Persona 4 Golden at 144fps 1080p of a weak old GTX1650 and an i5 intel.

Cool I guess, although considering p4 golden is a portable games, maybe the switch version is the better version. I'll try it first on xbox gamepass though.

@Sol4ris I feel like this has happened more than once over at the blue camp.

This is just silly marketing. What difference is a "series X version" going to make on a game that came on a UMD?

This is less news than Falcom sticking PS with an ancient port, but Switch gets a whole new remaster for Trails. The difference there is extremely visible and Falcom really shafted their existing fan's platform of choice to court Nintendo fans.

This? They haven't even identified what's different.

I'm sure there's a lot of little differences and OS feature support that does matter, but it's not much of a marketing point.

@UltimateKGB let's be honest if this was the same story but instead of saying Microsoft it said Sony everyone on here would be foaming at the mouth lol

@Would_you_kindly you are right but just like i don’t think this has anything to with it being paid for I also don’t believe every game that doesn’t come out on Xbox Sony has paid for it to happen.

@NEStalgia the only thing i can imagine is faster (even faster than the faster last gen) loading speeds.

@UltimateKGB A GBA loads faster than a UMD... So I guess that's true

@UltimateKGB I don't either I mean how 'next gen' could these particular games be lol I was just joking because I know people would really be riled up if the roles were reversed even though it's obviously a none story