Xbox Game Passmight be adding another critically acclaimed Atlus title to its growing JRPG library, with a newly emerged rumor claiming thatShin Megami Tensei 5will debut on Microsoft’s game subscription service in a matter of months. This development arrives just as the Japanese studio’s 2022 RPGSoul Hackers 2was added to Xbox Game Pass Ultimateon February 28.
Seeing how theGame Pass debut ofSoul Hackers 2was leakedweeks in advance, another early notice of an Atlus title arriving to the service seems well within the realm of possibility. This is more evidence of Microsoft’s steadily strengthening relationship with Atlus, which is also underlined by the recent arrivals ofPersona 3 Portable,Persona 4 Golden, andPersona 5 Royalto Xbox Game Pass.
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Shin Megami Tensei 5is now said to be joining that list as well, according to a new rumor which surfaced online just as Atlus announced a 30-year anniversary event of its iconic franchise. According to that claim, the studio might confirm the Xbox Game Pass release ofSMT5at some point during the two-day event that’s scheduled to start on May 5 in Yokohama, Japan. The usual caveats that come with all rumors still apply here, doubly so given how the source of this speculation isn’t a leaker, but an aggregator of industry rumblings. While the early notice of the last Atlus RPG to hit Game Pass also had obscure origins, the claim thatSMT5is coming to Microsoft’s subscription service currently cannot be attributed to any particular insider—established or not—and should hence be taken with even larger reservations.
The very prospect of the latest mainlineSMTtitle on PC and Xbox consoles should still be rather compelling to most Atlus fans, including many of those who already beaten it on the Switch. Namely, whileShin Megami Tense 5is among the best-reviewed modern JRPGs, it managed that achievement in spite of countless technical issues stemming from a combination of the Switch’s modest specs and suspect developer optimizations. By the time the series' 30-year anniversary event kicks off,SMT5will be pushing 18 months of Switch exclusivity, so a technically superior Xbox Game Pass release doesn’t sound implausible come spring, regardless of the veracity of this newly surfaced rumor.
Looking at the bigger picture, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer recently confirmed thatmoreGoldenEye-style surprises are comingbefore the Xbox summer showcase in June, and a mainlineSMTgame would definitely fit that bill. Should that come to pass, what would remain to be seen is whether this hypothetical scenario could also signal the arrival ofSMT5ports for PlayStation platforms, epecially given Microsoft’s ongoing PR campaign about multi-platform inclusivity intended to help push its pending Activision Blizzard acquisition over the finish line.
