PS4 and PC Referenced in the Source Code of SMTV, Ports Possibly Coming
If there’s one series that a lot of JRPG fans adore, it’s Shin Megami Tensei, or SMT for short. The series has been around for ages and is responsible for bringing Persona into the limelight, to the point where Persona beat out SMT in games just a few years ago. However, SMT has now caught up to Persona in mainline entries this month with the release of Shin Megami Tensei V. The game’s release has been something many fans have been waiting for, however, it comes with a catch. The catch is that SMTV is only going to be playable on the Nintendo Switch, so players who don’t own the console won’t be able to play it.
However, while many players think that this is going to be a permanent Switch exclusive some evidence, inside the files of the game might prove that SMTV is going to come to both PlayStation and PC.
SMTV References Both PS4 and PC in Source Code
Enter the user @regularpanties on Twitter. This persona aficionado has been looking at the files for SMTV since its release and found something interesting inside.
in SMTV's .uproject, its target platforms are:
— Pan-hime – Persona stan (@regularpanties) November 12, 2021
Switch
PS4
PC
According to the data they found in the game, the target platforms for SMTV are not only the Switch but the PS4 and PC. However, that’s not all they found inside the code for the game: there’s also the device profile of the game as well. For those who don’t know the device profile is the graphical setting for a piece of software running on other consoles. On Pc, players can change the device profile in their game to whatever they want, making the title capable of running on different machines. However, with consoles, every console has a uniform power, so titles will have to have a Device profile to run the game at the allotted settings.
Looking at the image provided by Pan-Hime shows that the game is running at a higher quality than that of the switch, meaning that the settings the switch is running on, aren’t the full potential of the game.
Why would Atlus go through all of this work to implement other settings and reference other consoles in the game’s target devices if the game wasn’t planned on coming out on other consoles? There are two ways that this could be explained.
Why the Files Are in the Code
There are two reasons that the files could be inside the code. The most hopeful reason for players is that SMTV is stated to be a timed exclusive for the Switch, meaning that they’re planning on launching the game on other platforms. This could coincide with the Nvidia leak from a few months back, that specifically mentions SMTV coming to PC in February. With this In mind, combined with the data in the code, there’s a good chance that this could be believable. However, there’s no concrete evidence that this is going to be the case, aside from the code in the title and whether or not the Nvidia leak is credible.
The second reason for the code to be in the game is that this comes from before Atlus made SMTV a Nintendo Switch exclusive title. This means that while Atlus was making the game, they planned on making it a cross-console title, with it slated to come out on the platforms found in the code. However, sometime during the development, Nintendo approached Atlus and asked them to make SMTV an exclusive title for Nintendo Switch. Instead of removing the code of the game so that it didn’t reference the PS4 or the PC, they instead decided to keep it in, hoping that data miners wouldn’t look through the game and see what other platforms it could be on.
Both of these options are completely plausible when it comes to the truth, but the only people who would know the reasoning for these references to other consoles would be Atlus themselves. It’s fair to say that whatever the real reason behind the code is, the players probably won’t know unless Atlus releases the game on other platforms. With the Nvidia leak telling players that the game is going to launch on PC in February, that would be the time for them to announce the port of the title.
However, until then, the only thing players can do about the code in the game is speculate what the purpose it is.
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