So Persona 5 is the official game title? I guess they've officially dropped the SMT from the name. I know they have as well with P4G, P4A etc, but it's weird not seeing it on a numbered Persona game. It's too bad, I kind of like the way Shin Megami Tensei rolls off the tongue.

SMT was never part of the Persona name in Japan. It was only added to the localized versions of Persona outside of Japan because they felt it would give the series more brand recognition for western fans. After the success of Persona 4, however, that is no longer necessary.

The series has never been called Shin Megami Tensei: Persona in Japan. That is purely the North American marketing. In Japan, the Persona series has largely been name independent save the first, which was called Megami Ibunroku Persona. It still belongs to the Megami Tensei franchise in the overall scheme of things.

Gotta say, I have to agree with contemporary newspaper reviews that this was not up to his usual standards of eloquence.

I think the direct SMT connection was not made in the Japanese versions of P3/P4, so there's always the chance that the English localization will add it in again. I doubt it, though, considering the increased power of the Persona brand. EDIT: beaten

Kinda frustrated that its on PS3. I mean I would assume that a large amount of people would move to PS4 and it just seems kinda late to release a big JRPG at the end of a generation.

It wont stop me from getting a PS3 just for this though :l

@kaizochrono: Persona 4 came out in 2008 in the US i believe. or Late 2007, that was already some time into the life of the PS3/360/Wii.

Pretty much expected it for ps3 and if not that maybe even Vita. Either way, I'm pretty happy that it is the way it is, cause I'd rather not get a ps4 yet.

@roninenix: 2008 is right.

I think that this is perfect time to public a PS3 game. I'm sure that next year it's trivial to find really affordable used PS3 to finally play all those exclusives that I've missed and P5 when it comes out.

I rather have more reasons to buy old and cheap console than new and expensive one.

I'm very disappointed in Atlus.

So let me get this straight, Atlus releases a spin off title (P4: Arena) and a risky title in the form of Catherine as multiplats, but the latest addition to a major franchise as an exclusive? Natch! Wow, keep up the good work Atlus! Way to cut out a big portion of your audience. Oh well, perhaps by the time its released the PS3 will be down to $100. Still, this decision is just mind boggling.

Here is the problem. It is in fact not a big portion of their audience since these games just did not sell on the 360. That is why they decided this to not do.

I don't think we have any sales numbers for Catherine besides 500,000 between both platforms (I think that's just in the US) via http://www.gamespot.com/articles/catherine-tops-500000-units-sold/1100-6341146/

Bummed about no 360, or next-gen versions, I guess I have to hold on to the PS3 a little longer.

It's doubtful that "a big portion" of their audience was ever on the 360. They're not even producing a 360 version of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, apparently.

My thoughts on the trailer: Hot damn, finally something!
Then I remembered Persona's usage of the color themes and wondered what Red in this case could mean. P3 was blue (and it seemed to be more of a sad game to me) while ... P4 was yellow and yeah, you know P4. Just P4. XD

Waiting is going to hurt but I'm just so glad to finally get some news about P5! :D

You guys are acting like there wont eventually also be a PSN version, a Vita version, and a PS4 version. Maybe even a 3DS version. They're not making those versions now cus they need a gold/FES version to sell you next season.

Sure. There have always been XBox SMT: Persona games. Why wouldn't Persona 5 be on 360? RIght...

This isn't 2003. Sony hardware has long ceased being the exclusive home to JRPGs. Apparently Square-Enix believed expanding to other platforms was a good idea. It's moves like these that will keep Atlus small-time and that's because of their small-time mentality.

Or maybe Atlus found that their 360 ports didn't sell enough to justify multiplatform releases of these titles? Square Enix can do it because they're a large company whose most popular franchises dwarf the sales of Atlus's most successful IPs. Atlus is not a Square Enix. They never were.

They're SEGA, and that's what makes this move even more confounding. Surely neo-SEGA is doing better than the late Index Corp. right?

So what if they are Sega? They are doing the same with the Yakuza IP. Special Japanese games do just not sell on the 360. Especially not ow anymore. It is q smart financial decision they made.

Of course people would complain no matter what platform the game would end up on, especially if they didn't own it.

Has a translation popped up anywhere yet explaining what Teddie or the Japanese woman were talking about for so long during the stream?

They release it when the PS4 is already out. Oh well, better late than never. The Persona games for PS2 came out when PS3 had already been out for awhile.

I doubt it since apart from Catherine I don't think they have released any game for the 360. But if you need a PS3 it should be super cheap by the time it comes out.

@differenceengine: With a few exceptions, the 360 just isn't the platform to release your Japanese games on. Quite a number of Japanese developers got burned trying during this last generation, so I can't blame them for shying away.

Atlus knows they're a niche company in the west, and yet they tend to profit because they don't try to pretend otherwise -- unlike companies like Namco or Squeenix who keep taking a bath trying to pass off their titles as mainstream here.

@differenceengine said:

Atlus has expanded to plenty of other platforms at this point. They've released games on basically every major console at this point except the new ones. If they had just been stubbornly sticking to a single console it would be one thing, but the decision to not release a 360 version at this point is a clear indication that the profit wasn't there. (Atlus is not the only one dropping 360 support btw.) You can't just say "Oh, well Square-Enix did it so obviously it makes sense for everyone." Atlus is not Square and their games don't sell like Square games. Releasing them on more consoles would not suddenly make them sell like Square games either. (Also it's probably worth noting that Square has had a number of profit issues as of late.)

You also have to consider the fact that Microsoft does not support their old consoles well after their next consoles launch. Once the 360 hit they dropped support for the Xbox like a bad habit. Apart from cross-gen games and a few others in the near future I don't know of much of anything coming out for the 360 in the future, I can only imagine what it will be like once P5 actually hits the US.

Not that I've seen. Probably won't be one since it was so long, too.

Video, for reference.

Right now I'm mostly feeling disappointment since the Twitter of american Atlus haven't said a word regarding the announcement. They tweet quite frequently, but so far they haven't said a word about Persona 5. Of course I might be reading too much into their silence, but it could also be that they might not know very much more than we do about the title. Either they're just keeping it as a "a secret" for now, or they're simply waiting for more information from Japan. Sigh. :(

Atlus USA does not typically make announcements regarding games that the Japanese office has just announced. This behavior is normal for them.

@hailinel: Ah, thanks for clarifying that! Guess I'm making a big deal over nothing then, hehe.

They must be working with a new engine so hopefully we get some drastically different shadow designs, masks on basic 3D models are getting stale. I'd prefer new and shiny models for classic demons but they've established shadows as the new fodder enemies with 3 and 4.

Chinyan, Ngh Hoh Yi! It also has trivial & slow paced combat, card hoarding and no time management.

I know this site would have a largely US userbase, but do you think now with Sega owning Index (and Atlus by extension) that European localisation will be quicker with Sega dealing with Europe/PAL territories itself and Atlus USA largely spearheading the western localisation to a large extent or do you think Sega will end up holding it up?

I know it's probably hard to tell right now but I'd like to envision a scenario where the EU release takes a lot less time than before.

@vaddixbell said:

Honestly it's really hard to say anything about the future of their localizations right now. In a perfect world Atlus USA will still localize all their games and then SEGA will take charge of the EU release to get it out their quickly. But I still can't help but have a sinking feeling that eventually they'll just ditch Atlus USA for (inferior) in-house localizations while still dragging their feet on overseas releases. Here's hoping it's the former.

Interesting that they considered Persona 5 strongly enough to ask for it.

Yeah their European release schedules are still really fucked up/non-existent. You guys still haven't gotten SMT: Strange Journey, right?

Nope, and we haven't got Shin Megami Tensei IV either. And there was a 1-and-a-half-year gap between the NA and EU releases of both Devil Survivor 2 and 4 Arena

To be honest, I'm not even sure we're going to even get Persona 5 and Q.... :(

Well... Atleast ps3 isn't regionlocked, so we can import persona 5. Persona Q though, not so much... Well, we got SMT: devil summoner and etrian odyssey 4 last fall, they were late but they got here, and I think that persona is a bigger franchise than both of those, so hopefully they'll think the same way.

I swear to God if Persona 5 isn't release in Europe or the US I'm going to start learning Japanese. I just want to play it so fucking badly.

But yeah, it's a blessing that PS3 isn't region-locked. I'm still pissed off at Nintendo for doing nothing to fix region-lock, but I think I can live as long as I can play P5.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Region-locked_PlayStation_3_games

Well, fuck.

Still, I think if Atlus were that adamant about region-lock, we'd have waaaaaaaaaaaay less SMT games in the West, so I'm gonna try and have faith and pray that P5 and Q will come over here

Although, on the other hand, now that Sega owns them... D: