Xbox Game Pass Games for January 2023 Revealed With a Catch

By Tanner Dedmon

Xbox finally announced the list of Xbox Game Pass games for January 2023, though those announcements did come with a bit of catch this time. While people were very much looking forward to these reveals because of an atypical pattern for Xbox Game Pass over the past couple of weeks, the games themselves aren't ones that are wholly new. They'll be new to Xbox Game Pass, sure, but we already knew the three games in question were coming to the service, so it's not really much of a reveal at all.

Those three games are Monster Hunter Rise, Persona 3 Portable, and Persona 4 Golden. They're big games on their own merits and are also each part of some acclaimed franchises, but Xbox has been touting the Xbox Game Pass debut of these games for a while now. So, while those who've not been paying attention as closely to Xbox Game Pass announcements will consider these to be new reveals, those who've been keeping an eye on this sort of thing may be disappointed to not actually get something "new."

Xbox calling this reveal a "spoiler alert" in the tweet that featured the three titles was likely a tongue-in-cheek comment on the matter since we knew these games were coming to the service, but the past couple of weeks have still been unusual ones for Xbox Game Pass. The service follows a pretty set pattern of announcing games at the first of the month that'll all come to the service on or before the middle of the month with a second wave announced afterwards to close out the rest of the month.

December didn't have a second wave of games, though many chalked this up to everyone being in the midst of the holidays. After that, games finally did start coming to the service via some surprise releases, but Xbox didn't really do much to formally announce these releases (or returns). The start of January came and went without a reveal which could be explained away by the holidays, too, but with these games just now being announced, it looks like they'll be no two-part release for January either.

This different method of releasing these games has not gone unnoticed by subscribers who hope this won't be a trend. As mentioned previously, however, Xbox has had a pretty consistent track record thus far, so one would expect the service would fall back into its rhythm soon.

Both Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden will be available inn Xbox Game Pass on January 19th while Monster Hunter Rise will come to the service on January 20th.

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