I thought it would be a good idea to compile information about upcoming Persona related product releases and things fans of the series could look forward to in the future. With practically no new Persona news, it's easy to think that Persona 5 is the only thing coming, but that's not totally true.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (NA)

• PSone classic release confirmed on February 16, 2013 via ESRB listing.
• The PSP version will never be released in North America everfor reasons other than fear of low sales, according to Atlus USA staff member Nich Maragos.
• On the 25th of February, a PS Blog article by Nich Maragos went go up that stated a localization of the PSP version could not happen as well as talked about name differences in the PS1 title compared to Persona 1 for the PSP.
• Released for PSone Classics on February 26th, 2013

Persona 3 The Movie

• Announced in May of 2012.
• Only one teaser trailer so far.
• Will be split into multiple parts. Number of parts has not been officially announced (I think).
• Official website teased, on December 28, 2012, that part #1 of the movie will be released in 2013.
• According to the official Twitter account, the next big update will be in spring.
• On March 27th 2013, the official website was updated and the first movie was announced as "Spring of Birth" for a Japanese release in fall of 2013.

Persona 4 Arena (EU)

• "Sorry, Europe." A bummer that the first ever region locked PS3 game had to be a Persona game.
• Europe, presently, has been waiting for this game for a little more than 6 months compared to the NA release. The delay for Atlus' last console release, Catherine, was a little more than 6 months.
• Zen United has hinted in the past that the Limited Edition for Europe will contain something special. The official website still has a dedicated page hinting at such a thing.
• On February 20th, Zen United said via Twitter that P4A for Europe is not cancelled. They also said they will be announcing something "soon."
• On March 18th 2013, P4A was given a release date of May 10th along with a Limited Edition bundle with an OST and a Digital Fan pack.
• On March 26th 2013, a 12" vinyl of the soundtrack was announced as a pre-order bonus only available at GAME.

Persona 5

• Development was first confirmed in March of 2010 in Dengeki PlayStation where Hashino stated that they were preparing to start work on the next Persona game.
• In August 2011, Hashino stated, in a Famitsu interview, that "preliminary development" on the next Persona title was nearly complete.
• In the same interview, Hashino stated that the Persona Team wants to challenge more new things in Persona 5 similar to the changes they made from Persona 2 to Persona 3. He also stated that they had solidified Persona 5's themes.
• The only members of the development team that we know of, stated in the same interview, are: Hashino (director), Soejima (character designer) and Meguro (composer).
• Apparently learning from Catherine's development using the Gamebryo engine, Hashino stated that the Persona Team had completed their own engine and that it would ease the implementation of their ideas into the game.
• In May of 2012 in a Famitsu interview, Meguro stated that "if" there was a Persona 5 and "if" it was radically different from Persona 3 and Persona 4, the music would change as well.
• In August of 2012, Hashino told Famitsu that the staff was now focused on the "next numbered entry" in the Persona series and that Soejima had submitted sketches. Yay.
• During the Game no Dengeki Kanshasai 2013 event on March 17, Hashino stated that the Persona Team is "working hard" on the development of the next Persona title.

Series Cliffhangers

Things that have been unanswered in the encompassing narrative of the series and that I'd assume would be revisited in the future, which I think only applies to Persona 4 Arena at this point. So, Persona 4 Arena spoilers

- The identity of the mysterious girl the anti-Shadow weapons are based on (particularly Labrys' model).

- The identiy of the "Eerie Voice."

- The identity of the Malevolent Entity.

- The members of the Shadow Operatives other than Mitsuru, Aigis and Akihiko.

- The meaning of Elizabeth gaining the Wild Card.

Figures

From johnsmith:

These are the upcoming figures. There's also a ton of prize figures, and trading figures, but these are the big ones.

Megahouse - Chie

http://myfigurecollection.net/item/113941

Megahouse - Rise

http://myfigurecollection.net/item/113940

Megahouse - Labrys

http://myfigurecollection.net/item/141615

Ques Q - Elizabeth

http://myfigurecollection.net/item/144476

Vertex - Mitsuru

http://myfigurecollection.net/item/118357

Nendoroid - Aigis

http://myfigurecollection.net/item/144353

Figma - Labrys

http://myfigurecollection.net/item/117923

Figma - Aigis P4A version

http://myfigurecollection.net/item/117961

I originally posted this in a NeoGAF thread, but I thought it was worth sharing with anyone else who has an interest in the series.

Man, this is making me want to go back and finish up P4A's story mode now. The slow going (repetition) at the beginning put me off.

Is P4:A suppose to be a ps3 only release in Europe? I understand (to a degree) why it was region locked but why not at least bring out the 360 version?

Watitng. Lots of watitng. Persona 5 watitng room.

This so needs to be made.

Poor Europe. They had a glimpse of hope that the NA PSN release was going to be playable by making a NA account but that was region locked as well.

Let's hope they get it soon because I'm dying to play more people.

I'm not sure what you're asking, but Europe will be receiving both the PS3 and 360 versions of P4A. The 360 release is suffering from the same publishing issues as the PS3 is in Europe.

It has nothing to do with region locking and everything to do with the speed at which the game is being localized for the European market.

@fluxwavez: sorry about the last post. I had just woken up. My question was why didn't the 360 version come out earlier because I thought the problem revolved around the ps3 version, but I didn't know that the 360 was also suffering publishing issues as well.

Nice little summary. The Arena wait just got to be too much for me and I have done something profoundly dumb (like Jeff-esque levels of dumb) in order to be able play Arena much sooner than whenever the hell Zen release it. In a less dumb purchase, I'm also getting that Aigis figma at the end of this month.

I'm so glad that I didn't care for Persona 2 or this situation with EP would be making me extremely angry right now.

Also, non-Persona related but close: Ghostlight have said they should be able to announce an EU release date for Devil Survivor: Overclocked (and 2, I believe) next week and that chances are it'll be end of next month.

@hailinel: If by localisation, you mean translation then that has nothing to do with it since Zen have confirmed they are not translating the game into European languages. If you mean optimising it for PAL or whatever then, yes, that is hold-up since I think they're bound by law to enable it to play on SDTVs. Which is absurd. Of the few people who're gonna play this game how many are gonna do it on an SDTV?

Updated the Persona 5 section with this recent bit of non-news:

• During the Game no Dengeki Kanshasai 2013 event on March 17, Hashino stated that the Persona Team is "working hard" on the development of the next Persona title.

@keres: Same here, I like good stories in fighting games like the new mortal kombat, but I don't want to read a fucking novel sized story about 12 times...IN AA FIGHTING GAME. In all honesty they should of just made this its own game, it would of made a lot more since.

FUCK, i love persona. I still play Arena and leave it playing on the main menu most of the time. I even bought that Aigis figure.