Future Persona games could get global simultaneous launches

Future games in the Persona series could launch simultaneously throughout the world, according to comments in a new report.

In a recent interview with Famitsu Weekly (as reposted by Ryokutya2089), Sega Chief Strategy Officer and General Manager overseeing Japan-based studios, Shuji Utsume, said the company is aiming for more global successes. In order to accomplish this, Utsume said that Sega is aiming to launch Atlus releases, like the Persona series, across Eastern and Western regions simultaneously on the same date.

This follows on from a delayed western release of both Persona 5 Royal and Persona 5 Strikers. Whereas the former game launched in October 2019 for Japanese players, overseas players in the US would have to wait until March 2020 to get their hands on the expanded re-release. The same was true of Persona 5 Strikers, a musou spin-off game developed in tandem with Dynasty Warriors developer Koei Tecmo, which launched in February 2020 in Japan, but wouldn't arrive in the west until a full year later.

Shin Megami Tensei 5 could be a sign of Atlus and Sega changing this strategy already, however. Currently, the highly-anticipated next entry in the Shin Megami Tensei series is set to release at some point in 2021 exclusively for the Nintendo Switch, after having dropped off the radar back in 2017, only to resurface last year in 2020. However, Atlus announced that Shin Megami Tensei 5 will see a global simultaneous release across all regions whenever it does launch, so there's no prolonged waiting game for fans like with the past two Persona installments. 

For the more immediate release in the Shin Megami Tensei series, it's a slightly different story. Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne HD Remaster launched back in October 2020 for the PS4 and Nintendo Switch in Japan and east Asia, and will be arriving later this month on May 25 for PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch in Europe and North America. There's now little over a week to go until we can revisit one of the more beloved entries in Atlus's longstanding franchise, before the next mainline entry launches later this year.

For a complete look at all the other games launching over the rest of the year, head over to our new games 2021 guide for more.