Xbox Game Pass To Include Two Huge Titles This Month
Xbox Game Pass is bringing Persona 3 and 4, and Monster Hunter Rise this month.
Starting January 19, the most expansive gaming subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, will include select games from the two huge gaming franchises, Persona and Monster Hunter. Some games are scheduled to depart, but overall, Microsoft’s subscription service continues to dominate the gaming subscription market by offering day-one gaming releases and over 100 games for the price of a single subscription.
According to Destructoid, Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Monster Hunter Rise—the second-best game of the franchise—are scheduled to drop on the Xbox Game Pass with all platforms in two, including the consoles, the PC, and cloud play. Despite the hurdles with its Activision Blizzard acquisition, Microsoft is continuing its partnership with major tech companies, especially Smart TV manufacturers, to deliver their cloud gaming service pre-installed on various Smart TV sets. Thus, it delivers its gaming service to anyone owning a Smart TV.
As for the aforementioned games, both Persona titles are ports, so to say, as they originated on Sony’s now-defunct handheld consoles more than a decade ago. Persona developer and publisher Altus, has launched Persona 3 from 2006 for the PSP console in 2010, followed by a subsequent release of Persona 4 Golden, which was an adaptation of PlayStation 2’s Persona 4 for the PSP Vita console. However, the ports of ports that are coming to Xbox Game Pass have some notable differences from their respective originals.
For example, the current iteration of Persona 3 Portable added an option to play with a female protagonist. Persona 4 Golden already had its Microsoft Windows release in 2020, and the game has recently become compatible with Valve’s Steam Deck handheld. Both games are also scheduled to launch on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on the very same date. And lastly, Capcom’s latest edition of Monster Hunter Rise also launched on Microsoft Windows in 2022, following a launch on Nintendo Switch one year prior.
Its arrival on Xbox Game Pass is on January 20, which coincides with the game’s launch on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. According to fandom, the Nintendo Switch version of the game is an incredibly entertaining title for gaming on the go, but the PC version of the game doesn’t feature any enhancement that would make it stand out from its counterparts—PC ports are usually enhanced in some way, compared to console versions.
As with every new Xbox Game Pass addition of gaming content, there are also some departures; several gaming titles are expected to leave the Xbox Game Pass on January 15. These include Nobody Saves the World, The Anacrusis, Windjammers 2, We Happy Few, Pupperazzi, and Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. Those Xbox Game Pass subscribers who are interested in the aforementioned departures can still obtain them for 20 percent off their usual store price before they actually leave the platform.
Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass cost approx. $10 each, and the latter includes EA Play, which offers additional 70 games for the PC. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate encompasses both subscriptions, EA Play, and Cloud Gaming—which is still in its beta phase.
