I doubt the existence of a 360 version. Why? Well maybe it's...

Catherine sold better on PS3? Persona JRPGS have always been on Sony consoles? These consoles will be even cheaper in 2015 (Probably American Launch) that means that people who really want Persona, would probably pick up a PS3?

Just some, off the top of my head, thoughts.

I doubt there'd be much interest for a version of Persona 5 on Xbox 360. I would've said the same thing for Persona 4 Arena though.. I wouldn't be surprised if it was on 360 but I highly doubt it.

Of course, they need to sell the game in the US. Wouldn't be the first game where the Japanese version is exclusive to Sony in Japan but multi platform in other regions.

probably, but we will see once it's announced for release outside of JP where no fuck are given about 360.

They made and Xbox 360 version of Catherine. Even if Catherine sold like garbage on the 360 (though frankly I kind of assume it didn't sell great in general since it's not even an RPG and reviews were all over the place), Persona is such a big name that it would probably draw a lot more 360 players out of the woodwork than Catherine did. They'd be crazy not to release it on 360, now that they know to develop for both 360 and PS3 following their experience with Catherine.

Jeff and the crew don't know that they're not using gamebryo for P5 which might have something to do with how sure they are of a 360 release.

I know the Tales series isn't coming to a Microsoft console in a long while, if ever.

No it won't. Japan's pretty much abandoned the 360 already, and I say this as someone who owns the damned thing.

Catherine did great. It sold 500k units worldwide just at the end of 2011. Reviews for the game were mostly positive, so I'm not sure what you're referring to.

He said on the 360. Your link doesn't specify the number on the 360, but combined with the PS3. It depends on what percentage was on the 360. If the expected sales percentage on 360 made it profitable to port it to the 360 outside of Japan, then maybe. You'd also have to consider their resources. Would they want to spend the time to port the game themselves? I don't know if they outsourced Catherine's 360 port or if they handled it internally.

I was obviously referring to the "though frankly I kind of assume it didn't sell great in general" part.

From Media Create sales data I somewhat recall way back, the 360 version obviously sold substantially less than the PS3 version in Japan. Atlus did not outsource the 360 version of the game.

Nope. They've switched engines since Catherine. They're gonna finish the game on PS3 for the Japanese market. You've got a perfectly suitable finished game already in the PS3 version and it's their last product of the generation so why learn a new engine just to remake it for 360?

@fluxwavez: Fair enough, I guess Catherine sold somewhat better than I expected.

Either way, my point is that there are probably a fair number of people who are specifically big Persona fans but are not interested in the other esoteric stuff Atlus does, between all the light-on-story dungeon crawlers and the occasional climb-and-push-block-in-a-nightmare game. So even if Xbox 360 Catherine didn't sell great, I doubt they're going to extrapolate that to "Persona 5 will never sell on 360". I have to imagine they'll go to the effort of making a PS3 and 360 version.

@dochaus said:

Japan pretty much insta-abandoned the 360 the moment it came out, because Japanese developers are primarily making things on Sony and Nintendo platforms, and smartphones. Western-developed games don't get a ton of traction in Japan, and that's kinda the main thing the 360 is good at.

So that being said, all of that was already true when Atlus made Catherine, which got a PS3 and 360 version. Japan obviously couldn't give a fuck about the 360 version, but Atlus put in the effort because they're smart enough to realize that there are like a bazillion 360s out there in North American and Europe, and it would be somewhat foolish to just say "Fuck those guys".

Though overall, if you're the kind of person who likes Japanese games, you probably own a PS3 anyways.

You have a valid point.

If they didn't outsource the 360 version of Catherine, then I think the likelihood of porting Persona 5 is less likely at the end of the platform's life now that Xbox One and PS4 are out, when they can use those resources on something for the PS4 once they've wrapped up their last PS3 title.

I'm more or less wondering why in the hell they aren't using Persona 5 as their coming out party for new consoles. It's been long enough that a large buzz has developed around the series since Persona 4, so why stick to dated hardware? Seems like a missed opportunity to get your name out there while the getting is good.

Because they want it to sell?

According to the developers, it is because they lack the resources to release a next generation version of the game. Perhaps understandable based on their prospective 2014 output as well as their recent Index bankruptcy and Sega acquisition situation.

I imagine a next generation version of the game could be a thing at a future date after the first release of P5, but they'd rather concentrate on a PS3 version instead of have to deal with a next generation version as well. Another reason why I don't think a 360 version will happen.

Nope.

Can't see it, but I hope so for the people who don't have a PS3.

I wouldn't be surprised if it came to a different platform as a rerelease, but I also can't see one of those coming to 360.

Sounds to me like you're sweating. All according to plan.

I really hope so. Don't make me buy a PS3 just to play Persona, Atlus..

Catherine was announced for both at the same time though.

Despite the huge buzz around Persona 5, it's still a JRPG with a limited audience. Putting it out for the PS4 would be an amazing thing, but from a business perspective, it isn't the smartest thing to do. Better to put it out on the PS3 and take advantage of the huge install base. If all goes well, they might just put out P5: (SUBTITLE) on the PS4 and rake in even more money later down the line.

If fans were willing to buy Persona 3 three times and Persona 4 twice, they'll probably double dip on Persona 5.

Edit: Oh, right! I also don't see P5 coming out on the 360. Sounds like a mucked up thing to do after Catherine/P4A, but like others have already mentioned, that's the sort of thing that you announce upfront.

Releasing to a 160 million unit install base as opposed to a 80 million unit install base, sounds pretty good to me.

The question is how many of these people have both consoles? Releasing it on the 360 really does not make much sense here since it does not get supported anymore. Also JRPGS did just not sell on the 360 no matter how hard they tried in the beginning. It is just not the right console to release these kind of games.

I would like it to but I don't see it happening.

Maybe. Only time will tell if we stand the test of time.

@flappy said:

All of those are good points but if there was ever a time to take a real gamble it'd be now. With new consoles in the wild selling faster than at any other point in history, there is a critical 12-18 month window where if you manage to get your game in during a dry spell you'll have an instant smash hit. All Persona needs is a chance to make a splash; the same chance that Bethesda got for Oblivion in 2006. Sure previous Elder Scrolls titles did respectable numbers, but Bethesda was the definition of a niche developer before they had their own coming out party on the 360.

It just strikes me as bizarre that Atlus or any developer really wouldn't capitalize on the chance to be a runaway success. Although Atlus being broke does make sense as to why they wouldn't want to "bet the house" as it were on a next gen Persona game. It's just a shame that they had the perfect opportunity to make a real go of it and it's passing them by.

@oldirtybearon: Ain't they owned by sega now?

I wouldn't be surprised either way. There is compelling reasoning on both sides of this.

On one hand, the fact that the effort was made for both Catherine and Persona 4 Arena for there to be 360 versions suggests they aren't averse to putting out games on that system. And of course, releasing on the 360 would effectively double their potential customer base.

On the other hand, both of those games sold better on the PS3 and they don't exactly have the resources of other companies to be spending a lot to port the game to other systems. Also, considering that typcially around half the sales for Persona games comes from Japan, a place where 360s are incredibly rare, would suggest it isn't worth the money and effort to port.

@oldirtybearon: dude persona 4 was on ps2 in 2008 2 year after ps3 and 3 after xbox 360,

plus ps4 is not even out in japan, yet

I would bet that it will, for the American audience.

But won't be shocked if it doesn't or anything. Just makes sense after what they did with Catherine.

From what I understand, this is the reason many JRPG are no longer coming to the 360. Also, p4g proves that fans will buy systems just to get on the persona train (for the record p4g sold more than 500k years after p4 came out and also on a system with install base of something like 7-8mil compare to ps2 180mil.) JRPG have it in their heads that people who wanted JRPG will go where ever the fuck the games are on at this point, now that is arguable but looking at the numbers, they are not wrong.

I have a PS4, 360, and a Vita, but not a PS3. I have no reason to get a PS3 unless Persona 5 only comes out there, so I really really hope that doesn't happen.

It would be nice if it does come out for Xbox 360 but I don't think that will happen.

You are slave.

Want 360 port?

Probably. I just don't think they can ignore that install base.

I wouldn't be surprised if P-team did the PS3 game and Sega would outsource the port(s, PC version plz :p ). Sega is kind of a wildcard in more ways than one.

My guess is it would show up in PS Now so you should be fine with a PS4.

I choose to believe it will happen because I don't wanna have to borrow a PS3 from someone. But in actuality, the odds seem pretty slim to me.

Persona 5 will be on a different engine and given how badly Catherine did on the 360 it does not make much financially sense anymore to bring anything on the 360. Especially next year. The Ps3 still gets quite a few JRPGs this year with with a Tales of, a Legend of Heroes, and for the west Tales of Symphonia HD and Xillia 2, FFX HD as well as other B tier JRPGs.

Interesting points on both sides.

I think Persona is a big enough thing for a 360 port to be made.

I seriously doubt it, Persona seems like one of the franchises where they only really consider the Japanese market when making it, so there'd be no sense in making a 360 version. I hope the P4 Arena update comes to 360 though, that's the system my arcade stick is for...

There's even less likelihood of P4A2 coming to 360. Actually, I'd say there's absolutely no chance since it was just announced for PS3 in Japan, which means that it won't have a 360 version there. There is absolutely no way that they make a 360 version of a competitive fighting game just for North America and Europe, especially given the presumably poor 360 sales of the original game compared to its PS3 sales. Plus, the game is being developed with the help of Arc System Works, who have already abandoned the Xbox platforms both in Japan and North America.

I hope so, my ps3 shit the bed and I'm not buying another one.

Nope, I don't see it happening.

Why would they put out a JRPG on a system like Xbox 360 this late in the cycle. PS3 Tales of Vesperia's sales in the first week of japan alone were higher than the Xbox 360 versions life time sales. My point is JRPGs don't really sell on the Xbox 360. Kinda sad though, because I hear a lot of great things about Lost Odyssey. Also brand new engine, probably made specifically for the PS3 http://gematsu.com/2011/08/persona-5-uses-new-internal-engine if they were still using Catherine's engine, then maybe a 360 release would have been possible.

I don't really see why porting it over would be detrimental, and I know I'd buy that version over the PS3 one, but really it doesn't make much of a difference to me.

Development/publishing time and cost vs. potential sales and profit?

Ehh, just contract out to Iron Galaxy.

I wonder if Sega is just waiting to see if Microsoft will quickly abandon the 360. Since this could be spring/summer 2015, Microsoft may have completely closed the 360 down while Sony probably will have another PS3 revision.

If they develop it for PS3 then port it over to 360, do you really think it would be a sink? I know that technically speaking, I've never heard of a PS3-developed game ported to the 360 that came out terrible. All Assassin's games since AC2 have been PS3 lead platform and look at them - and then there are fighting games, RPGs, etc.

I mean, I don't know much about actually developing games in terms of code and stuff but I was always under the impression that the PS3 was the hardest to develop for - after that the 360 port is easier and less time consuming, as opposed to vice versa.

And as for the demographics, I'm sure there are enough people in NA who would buy this to make up for the porting costs. I mean it's probably the biggest niche RPG series in gaming. Sure it's still a niche, but it's a big one.

@darji comparing Persona performance to Catherine's performance is a little skewed don't you think? Catherine was reviewed extremely middling, even to the point of being reviewed terribly, and it just ended up being a puzzle game.

I don't know about the numbers or technicalities of development and neither do you, so that's why it could be detrimental if the costs of porting the game to the 360 just for a western audience—and everything that would entail such as making their internally developed engine function with the 360 platform—would surpass the profit they would get from whatever western 360 audience would purchase Persona 5.

All I know is that porting a PS3 lead game to the 360 isn't as simple as pressing a button, and neither is manufacturing costs, licensing costs or any other associated cost.

Again, this is not true. Unless a 79-82 metacritic score (since we're talking about overall reviews) is a terrible score?