Yeah. Seems like people are talking about October now.

So, if comes out in October, that means Tekken Tag 2 and Dead or Alive 5 will already be out, and there's a good chance Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R will be on XBLA/PSN too. So this game is going to be practically dead on arrival to all but the people who absolutely want it. The worst part is, they're the people who are going to be the most bummed about how dead the online will be by then, as the rest of the world will be moving on to the other games I mentioned. 
 
@Petiew: I think Catherine did okay, but I wouldn't say it sold well, considering it came out so much later here. People probably imported it, and it came out not long after FFXIII-2 and the same week as Kingdoms of Amalur and The Darkness II, both of which did sell well.

http://www.zavvi.com/games/platforms/xbox-360/persona-4-arena/10617887.html

If it's October, I may have to wash my hands of it. I don't have the money to buy a Vita, the Golden, Borderlands 2 and this. I suck at fighting games anyway and I can read up on the story if I want to. My excitement for this game has gone from sky high to rock bottom in a matter of weeks. I don't doubt that everything possible is being done but I feel like the fact that we don't have the import option is being treated as a safety net. We have to buy their version so they can do whatever they want with it and it will still sell a certain number of copies.

I hate Atlus, I hate Atlus, I hate Atlus, I hate Atlus, I hate Atlus, i hate Atlus.........burn in hell motherfuckers.

October? what the hell!? I may just give it a miss then, my hype for this has been slowing dying. :(

Still don't understand why people aren't seeing this as a great victory, all the speculated release dates so far are for this year.

@mwng said:

Still don't understand why people aren't seeing this as a great victory, all the speculated release dates so far are for this year.

That's no excuse for this huge delay, why do we EA have to wait so long? The game is out in every other region beside us, we deserve fucking better than this fucking bullshit.

@RedWingX said:

@mwng said:

Still don't understand why people aren't seeing this as a great victory, all the speculated release dates so far are for this year.

That's no excuse for this huge delay, why do we EA have to wait so long? The game is out in every other region beside us, we deserve fucking better than this fucking bullshit.

Localization doesn't happen over night. It has to be translated into a bunch of different languages, and coordinating that effort isn't easy. Everyone would be complaining twice as much if it came out quickly and had terrible translations.

This was just posted on the Persona Europe (Zen United) Facebook page.

Good Morning Everyone,
With so much speculation going around with regards to the release date and status of the EU version, we thought it best to address this on here.

There are currently a number of issues surrounding development and subsequent release of Persona 4 Arena in Europe. As we are not directly involved in the development process for P4A, these are elements which are beyond our control.

We are however, doing everything we can to help resolve this, so that we can get the game into stores and, crucially, into your hands as quickly as possible.

We do understand your frustration and a need for a concrete release date, however, until we can ascertain exactly what that release period will be we are hesitant to do so. We would rather have all the facts about release to hand, and all issues be resolved, before making such an announcement.

Please be assured that as soon as WE know what the release date will be, YOU will be the first to know.

Any dates you see online are purely speculation. The first announcement of a release date will happen on the Persona Europe FB page and the Persona.4 FB page. We will then notify our contacts in the main Fighting Game Communities around Europe. If you have not seen a confirmed release date on this page, then it is best taken as a rumour.

Please also be aware, any events that are taking place around Europe will not disrupt the process of releasing them game. Given that these issues have arisen, the team here are making a concerted effort to support the community by having payable builds at your events while you await release. I know many of you are eager to play P4A, and we will facilitate that as best we can in the interim.

Josh and Paul are in London today for Astral Heat in Gamerbase and will be more than happy to answer your questions as best they can.

Likewise, I (Geraint - some of you here know me I’m sure!) will be at i46 in Telford on Friday and Saturday, and will be happy to talk, as always - and hopefully enjoy a few games together.

As ever, your patience and understanding is appreciated.

I'm not sure what kind of issues they're talking about, but I hope they get resolved fast. Damn Multi5 I guess, I'd be fine with the US version with an EU sticker slapped on it.

Come on guys, it's Zen United! They were never going to get it out in a timely manner!

I've already made my peace with skipping this game, so this doesn't really bother me.

I wish they could have told us what one or two of the issues were, this is basically as vague as saying nothing. Time to cancel the preorder for now, looks like we won't see this until late in the year (If we're lucky).

@RedWingX said:

@mwng said:

Still don't understand why people aren't seeing this as a great victory, all the speculated release dates so far are for this year.

That's no excuse for this huge delay, why do we EA have to wait so long? The game is out in every other region beside us, we deserve fucking better than this fucking bullshit.

Localization doesn't happen over night. It has to be translated into a bunch of different languages, and coordinating that effort isn't easy.

Everyone would be complaining twice as much if it came out quickly and had terrible translations.

There was a Zen rep on http://www.twitch.tv/nthgenmedia chat, they confirmed the 7th of September date is completely out of the window. Also there are no printed copies of the game at all, so even if it gets green lit tomorrow it could take up to another month or two to print the copies. (Again confirmed by the rep) 

I'd say anything as fast as 4 weeks right though to as much as 3 months. more if you have a really bad, buggy, horrible game - which we don't ; )

Really shitty news. I was actually looking at putting down a preorder as I stumbled upon this news and it's just really put me off bothering.

It's just incredibly daft that Atlus games seem to be the only titles that still get significant delays in releases across the Atlantic. Sure, there are reasons behind the delay - PAL conversion, probable multilingual support, the lack of Atlus presence in Europe necessitating a third party publisher, the fact that the niche appeal of the game means that it doesn't get backed by a large publisher - but these are all reasons that I can point to as an enthusiast. As a consumer, it sucks that I'm forced to wait for this game when the experience I will have with it as a UK gamer will be identical to the experience I would have playing the US release, and the only thing stopping me from doing so is a line of code along the lines of 'if (region != usa) die();'. Not only that, but the other niche title I was expecting to have to import this year, Virtue's Last Reward, has actually been picked up by a European publisher (unlike its predecessor) and is on track for release within a month of the US.

Don't even get me started on the fact that Golden still doesn't have a publisher, let alone a release window. At least that title will be region free.

@mutha3: I'll probably find a playthrough or something, good idea!

Anyone know if the Japanese 360 release has dual languages ? I have an asian 360 but wasn't planning to import because I was hoping the wait wouldn't be so long, but since it looks like this isn't coming out here anytime soon, seriously considering it.

Anyone know if the Japanese 360 release has dual languages ? I have an asian 360 but wasn't planning to import because I was hoping the wait wouldn't be so long, but since it looks like this isn't coming out here anytime soon, seriously considering it.

Well it's Tekken Tag 2 for me then.

I was super excited for P4A but the shitty handling of the EU release has killed my hype for it. It's a bit of a joke they can't get games out the same time as the US in this day, though I shouldn't be surprised after their track record.

I knew it, thankfully my periodic fighting game boner has died down once again. I'll just grab it from a 2 for 25£ discount from thehut next year.

European here, I just received an email from the store where I buy almost all my games and regarding my Persona 4 Arena pre-order it says that the release date has been moved to the 30th October.

Anyone else getting similar information?

European here, I just received an email from the store where I buy almost all my games and regarding my Persona 4 Arena pre-order it says that the release date has been moved to the 30th October.

Anyone else getting similar information?

Shopto has it listed for 21sr September which I hope is right

@dropabombonit: It's not

shopto just emailed me saying the 21st of september is what they have been told from the publisher. Hopefully its true

I was actually thinking of buying it but by the time it comes out now I just wont care. It looked interesting, but a large part of that was due to nothing else being out I wanted. The next few months are packed with games I think I'll keep my money and hopefully they'll learn to be more prepared next time.

 and hopefully they'll learn to be more prepared next time.

It's not much, but the UK publisher for P4A said this today:

we are one step closer now this issue has been resolved.

As you can see via the link, it was in reply to the released versions being patched to fix a few bugs. Surely that wasn't what was holding the EU version up, right?

Just a personal curiosity; does anyone in Europe still hold any interest for this game?
 
If/when this is finally released, don't really want to be greeted by a dead online mode. Tempted to save the cash for Chrono Phantasma.

@mwng: I have to admit I recently canceled my preorder... If it will be released at some point in Europe I might buy it from the bargain bin, or even more "evil" used. But I won't pay full price for it anymore, this mishandling shouldn't be rewarded...

This is why, while I completely understand why the game was region-locked, I cannot agree with it. I know it's just a game, and not really a big deal, but it's kind of frustrating not to be able to play it when so many other people can. Although, I think what annoys me the most is when it does come out, people are still going to buy it. Honestly, I would love it if no one in Europe (and wherever else it hasn't come out yet) did; if we stood up for once and said "this is not acceptable; we're not going to support a product you took so long to get in our hands. Something has to change." Especially since down here in Australia, it's still probably going to come out at a full hundred dollar price tag for a game that is over two months old. That is not acceptable.

Of course, I'm well aware that is never going to happen.

@mwng: This is still one of the few upcoming releases (hah...) I'm still excited for.

I will buy this certainly. The online will most probably be dead, but I don't have Xbox Live Gold anyway, so I don't think I care. This won't be the game to make me resubscribe to that ripoff of a service anyway.

It makes me sad that so many people here have already lost interest in the game without even being able to play it. I'll try to do my part in supporting the European publisher if only to say that there is someone who is happy that the game made it over here at all.

Surely next gen consoles will have even stricter region locking and Atlus probably will do the region locking thing for all of their upcoming big games such as Persona 5 and any other SMT property. It's only going to go downhill from here.

I don't care if its not popular by the time I get it, I don't really play fighters online, personally I am happy with the story side of things.

Does seem to be a damned if you do damned if you don't situation.
 
Buy the game when it releases and publishers get the idea "hey, we can put these games out whenever, and people will still buy them".
 
Or don't and publishers get the idea "hey, nobody bought this, lets not bother next time".
 
(Though I am I under the impression that the publisher isn't actually at fault in this instance. Something about them not having the correct code for publish? If someone cares to elaborate).

@mwng: Yeah, I don't really think it's Zen United's fault in any capacity. I'm going to stick to my original opinion that Atlus just does not care about Europe. These delays are absolutely ridiculous. I thought about buying a 3DS so I could get SMT IV when that's released but I could probably wait out another redesign before that game is released in Europe.

Not really, I got a bunch of other fighting games, and considering my economic situation.... Not the best purchase.

I still wanna go through the story at some point though, when it gets cheaper I guess.

And this is why some of us kicked up such a fuss about the region locking. So much for "don't worry, we'll get it out quickly!" huh?

They've not only annoyed an entire region of fans, but clearly lost a whole lot of sales too. Yet when the game is eventually released and sells badly, they'll still use that as an excuse for not being more speedy with their next games.

I haven't lost interest in the game, it's made me very concerned about future atlas releases. Especially persona 5. If this happens with p5 I will probably just end up buying an american ps3 off ebay or something.

I will still buy it when it comes out, I mean I know i probably shouldn't, but this is almost the only game I'm really looking forward to this year. Hopefully there will be no more regionlocking in the future, like with P5 and such, cause if it's gonna take this long I'd rather import, wich I was going to do with arena until the regionlocking.

It's not acceptable to ignore an entire region. They aren't getting a penny.

I can't believe this still isn't out in Europe.

Just a personal curiosity; does anyone in Europe still hold any interest for this game?

@mutha3: Same here. I'll pick it up when its cheap.

Also I can't believe how amateurish Zen United are. Half of what they post on Twitter/Facebook is weird fan art.

https://twitter.com/PersonaEurope/status/258604207815413762/photo/1

and yes, that is their official twitter account for P4A!

I have still interest in the gameplay side of things, but I don't have interest in a dead online mode. Especially on the 360.

@mwng said:

(Though I am I under the impression that the publisher isn't actually at fault in this instance. Something about them not having the correct code for publish? If someone cares to elaborate).

Something like that. They've sent it away for development of PAL regulation stuff (like making it work on SD TVs which is bullshit) and whoever is doing that is taking their sweet damn time with it. If they ever get that back, they've then gotta send it to Sony and Microsoft for validation or whatever which can take a long time too and then they have to print discs and put whatever garbage they think is cool into the Limited Edition. It would be nothing short of a miracle to see it this year. I was at least hoping it would be at MCM Expo so I could finally play the damn thing but, nope, the Persona Europe page is ignoring anyone who asks if they are (their standard response to many questions asked on there).

In answer to your question: No, cos of The Golden (which Atlus are kind enough to let me play this time). If it had come out in August (or had been region-free) I was ready to go into a fighting game hole with it and legitimately try and get good with it. Now I'll just play the story, screw around in the other modes and maybe go online (and be a total scrub). I will likely buy it when it comes out. I want this game, I've wanted it for a while (just not eagerly anticipating it anymore). I'm past the point of caring about boycotts and the like. As you say, either way I'm in a bad position so fuck it, might as well buy a game I want to play, right?

@mutha3: Same here. I'll pick it up when its cheap.

Also I can't believe how amateurish Zen United are. Half of what they post on Twitter/Facebook is weird fan art.

https://twitter.com/PersonaEurope/status/258604207815413762/photo/1

and yes, that is their official twitter account for P4A!

Right now I have almost no time to play games, and it'll probably continue that way for several months, so the delay doesn't bother me that much. I'm definitely still getting it when it's released in Europe.