hey guys, ive just posted a bit of news on my blog/site regarding the release of this game in Europe.

http://personanation.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/new-info-on-p4a-european-release.html

so after numerous emails etc, that's all i could get out of them. If it is due to a timed release what month do you think would be ideal?

Thank you for doing this, I have been eagerly awaiting any news for the UK launch, been playing P3P and watching the Endurance run to get me in the mood!!! I was resigned to the fact that I wouldn't get it from Shopto as advertised as it is all so quite and no sites have any news on it, like you I think October would be ok or wait for the Christmas boom (although I selfishly hope its sooner rather than later).

I'l just be glad that we get to see it released at all.

So i guess we wait.

Thanks!

I'll probably still get it when it comes out, but I'm already kind of over it. I was really excited when it was first announced, and even more so when I saw the Quick Look, but now it's just like "Yeah, whatever..." The fact the game was region-locked in the first place annoyed me, but the fact there has been little news of the European (and especially, Australian) release has made it difficult to care.

No problem people. I do believe we'll hear something once DOA 5 is released.

I'm not sure if I prefer this news blackout approach to the constant one week delays that happened with BlazBlue, at least it gave me some false hope to cling to.

It kinda pisses me off that Atlus did all this, regionlocked the PS3 version making import impossible and no news about a EU release, it sucks

Ah I thought this would be some actual new info, thanks for the update anyway though. I like the layout of your site!
 
A lot of people seem to be blaming Zen or whoever for the delay, but I'm really not sure what the case is. The publishers don't even have a working copy of the game from the developers yet and have had to take the American debug version to events just so people can play. Seems like people should be angry with Atus in this situation.
 
Either way, my hype for this game is mostly dead. I was really excited in the run-up to it's supposed release but I'm just becoming more and more disinterested. I'll still buy it when it comes out, but the online scene will be dead judging from how people are reacting to the situation. 

After playing through Blazblue I'm actually looking forward to CP more than I am this now. Hopefully i'll be able to import that one.

The peak of my hype for was at the US and JP release, now it's kinda... Average... I'm gonna buy it, but man, it sucks that we'll probably get it atleast two months after the original release.

This video sums up the situation pretty well.

Just looking at the comments on every single post by the Persona Europe Facebook page makes me feel sort of bad for the guy managing it. Then again, they've given more-or-less zero details since that initial post about the delays, so it's hard to feel too bad for them. This whole "timed release" thing is really frustrating though. I just hope the Giant Bomb tournaments are still running by the time it comes out.

Zen talk about Atlus deciding the window but whenever Atlus is asked they say the date is up to Zen. Pass the buck. Atlus region locked it to protect their overseas publishers.

It is a bit late to have it out now - but if they hold it for the new year they are only going to enrage fans more.

@alternate: I'm certain that Atlus is being honest when they say they region locked the game mainly to prevent Japanese importers. Still, it's really dumb that the game isn't out in Europe yet. I don't understand why they have to be screwed over so badly when it comes to this and it'd really be awesome if Atlus would open a EU publishing branch. I'm sure it could only help them, financially and in terms of loyalty and brand recognition, in the long run.

I set aside money for both P4A and DOA5 and when it was delayed I decided to spent the money on TTT2. I was always going to buy DOA5, that was locked down, so basically because they couldn't get it right they lost a sale.

I don't know who is actually responsible for the delay but it will probably cost them a decent amount of sales from people like me. The original US release date gave them an advantage and by the time it comes out over here only the truly dedicated will buy it. Everyone else won't care.

@Mustachio said:

Just looking at the comments on every single post by the Persona Europe Facebook page makes me feel sort of bad for the guy managing it.

I agree but that page does not help itself by not posting anything about the release at all and instead posting random pictures, ignoring almost all posters and advertising showings of the game at conventions in far-flung places (the fact that there are far away from me is not their fault, I know). The least that could be done is some updates or some acknowledgement that this sucks. They may not have a date but that's not the only thing about the release they could tell us. In that statement, they went on about 'development issues' or whatever it was. We're not children, I'm sure we could understand the process of publishing a game if they explained to us exactly what the hold up is. Ghostlight frequently have delays but when they do they're open about it and have a very active Twitter page and answer almost all questions directed at them. Even the mild-mannered questioners on the Persona Europe page are being ignored unless they ask about showings at conventions.

I'm nowhere near as upset about this issue as I used to be but in exchange for that, I am now pretty detached from this game. Odds are I'll have The Golden before this to fill my Persona 4 fix and I have plenty of other fighting games to be terrible at. Now I pretty much want to play through the story and to mess around with a few characters in single-player modes and, maybe, jump online every now and then. I'll probably be done with it after two weeks or so.

I'd like to think that Atlus won't consider region locking again but I've honestly only seen Atlus USA's response to it (which was one of regret). The lock was decided by Atlus JP and I have no idea if there was any sort of controversy with that. If there wasn't, then why shouldn't they do it again? Presumably it achieved what they wanted it to. I would much rather the games not have dual audio and be region-free. People will still complain that they want dual-audio but it will not be nearly as many (at least in the West) as those who complain about region locking.

It's a good thing you're doing, OP. You're giving out more information than anyone will get publicly from official sources.

Things are looking up: Zavvi and TheHut have completely removed it from their upcoming games and amazon opted to go back to "Sign up to be notified when this item becomes available."

Now I'm really curious.

So, what do you guys think? Is it too late for a 2012 release at this stage? If so I'm not sure I'm going to bother any more, the ship has sailed for so many people now. Zen/Atlus (whoever is responsible) really fucked up.

New FAQ was added to the facebook page. Doesn't say anything we didn't already know, but at least it's some kind of update. Here.
 
@Mustachio: Even the publishers don't know when they're going to get the game, after that it needs to go through certification and then printing. Seems like a high possibility we won't get this in 2012 hopefully i'm wrong though.

Thanks for the heads-up. Nice job getting that info. I'm not really into fighting games, but this and/or Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 may finally get me to buy a fighting stick.

I'd be more cautious in the future when linking to your website though, since I've seen mods being pretty strict on the forums regarding personal advertising. Like, if you were to post here what you said in your blog post either in length or summarized, then provided a link to it, that would be totally cool (I think), but as you've put it, I'm under the impression you may be falling marginally out of the forum guidelines.

You may want to take a look at them.

@Mustachio said:

So, what do you guys think? Is it too late for a 2012 release at this stage?

Probably. According to that FAQ, they don't even have the build yet. I thought the hold up was sending that away to Sony/Microsoft for verification (that's usually the cause of delays). If they're one step behind that then it could be a while. We might well have The Golden before we have Arena.

At least they've given us an update. That's all I was after (being realistic).

"You will get something nice for the delay", better be a soundtrack or a Chie t-shirt.