Atlus games such as Shin Megami Tensei have long been Nintendo exclusives, but more and more of their titles are becoming available on Xbox.

Shin Megami Tensei and other Atlus franchises have been console-exclusive for years. They were released exclusively on Japanese companies’ consoles, such as Nintendo and Sony. However, more and more games from its catalogue are being released on Microsoft platforms such as Windows and Xbox. More games are rumoured to be on the way.

The Shin Megami Tensei series has not been as popular as the Persona series in recent years, at least not in North American markets.

However, Atlus has not forgotten about the game series. In 2021, it released Shin Megami Tensei 5 as a Nintendo Switch exclusive. But while the company has traditionally sold all of its games on a single platform, it has recently started to break that habit.

Persona 4 and Persona 5 are currently available on Xbox and Windows, while Persona 3 will be released on January 18. Shin Megami Tensei 3 is also available for Windows, and there are rumours that more games in the franchise will be released on Microsoft platforms soon. At least that’s what Shpeshal Nick, host of The XboxEra Podcast, thinks.

Nick specifically mentions the franchise’s latest mainline games, Shin Megami Tensei 3, 4 and 5. The fact that these games will be available on Xbox could be a big win for Microsoft. Atlus games are top-rated in Japan. Xbox, in general (until recently), has found it challenging to gain the market share that it has in other countries. This could help Microsoft’s platform, in particular against PlayStation. After all, the last SMT game released for a Japanese console was the remaster of 3 for PS4.

Of course, this move is part of a growing trend for Japanese developers to release their games on multiple platforms.

Persona games are one example. But Square Enix has also released its entire Final Fantasy catalogue on Steam. When Final Fantasy 15 was released, it was already available for Playstation 4 and Xbox One. Final Fantasy 16 is only coming to PS5, but that appears to be due to an exclusivity deal.

A similar deal will have to be struck between Microsoft and Atlus for SMT games to be released on Xbox. Developing games for multiple platforms at once is still more difficult. Even if the gap between most game consoles and PCs is much smaller than in previous generations. With Microsoft covering part of the costs of the porting process, Xbox stands to gain by attracting more Japanese gamers, and Atlus stands to gain by selling the Shin Megami Tensei series to more international gamers.

Source: YouTube