Legendary game with 95% on Metacritic confirmed as coming to Xbox Game Pass

I've written multiple times now about how Xbox Game Pass is the best deal in gaming right now and, judging by the recent June 2022 Xbox games reveal show, that isn't going to stop any time soon.

And especially not when Xbox Game Pass keeps adding legendary games to its catalogue with crazy-high Metacritic scores of 95%!

The game in question? Only one of my favourite JRPGs of all time, Personal 5 Royal, which has "universal acclaim" and "must-play" accreditation on Metacritic.

The reveal trailer for Persona 5 Royal on Xbox Game Pass can be viewed below:

Persona 5 Royal on its own would've been good enough news for Xbox Game Pass owners (that's well over 100 hours of awesome gaming content on its own), but the fact that it is also being joined by Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden just takes this announcement to god-tier status.

Persona 3 Portable (my personal favourite Persona game) has a really strong 89% score on Metacritic, while Persona 4 Golden has an even higher 94% score. I think it is fair to say that what Xbox Game Pass owners are getting is a trio of incredible JRPGs that will provide, combined, over 300 hours of enjoyment.

What's interesting about this announcement in terms of the gaming industry is its timing, coming just one month after Persona 5 was stripped out of Sony's PlayStation Plus gaming catalogue. On face value it looks like a win for Microsoft, and it comes at a time where we've yet to see Sony's new PlayStation Plus service roll out to the majority of gamers worldwide.

The pressure on Sony's new Netflix-for-games service will only increase if this calibre of third-party content is swooped up by Xbox Game Pass, which already has an elite selection of Microsoft-owned first party studios to draw content from.

Microsoft has also recently announced a shareable Xbox Game Pass family plan, too, only increasing the service's value for money.

For Xbox Game Pass owners, though, it's great news and I for one intend to replay Persona 3 Portable on the service when all three games launch on the service on 21 October 2022.