Somehow this keeps happening: Another game with a Persona 5 collab is going under, and this time it's JRPG comrade War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius

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Is it a curse or are games just expensive to maintain?

I'm not normally a very superstitious man, but it seems that Persona 5 is cursed. A lot of games that collaborate with it seem to shut down a few years later, and while this may just be because games come and go, it could also be a sign of something more sinister.

The latest victim of Persona 5 is War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. The collaboration between the two games started on April 28, 2022, and now, just over three years later, it will shut down on May 29, 2025. This isn't the first time this has happened.

January 31, 2021, Draglia Lost began its collaboration with Persona 5, and it shut down in November 2022. Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag had its collab on February 17, 2020, and the game shut down on August 30, 2021. Star Ocean: Anamnesis also partnered with Persona 5 on October 10, 2019, and the game shut down for good in June 2021. The Neir Reincarnation and Persona 5 crossover began on September 9, 2022, and the game's servers were shuttered on April 30, 2024. Are you seeing a pattern yet?

Now, video games are expensive to make and maintain, and most live service titles don't last that long. It's tough to compete with the likes of Fortnite, World of Warcraft, and League of Legends, so it could just be that these games would always die.

It may also be the case that developers and publishers noticed player numbers dwindling and decided to get more fans by appealing to similar audiences and so they get a Persona 5 collaboration. In this instance, if the game is already on its way out, Persona 5 is more of a sign of things to come rather than a curse in and of itself.

Of course, some games have had Persona 5 crossovers and are still alive and well today. The Granblue Fantasy collaboration started in June 2018, and that game is still going strong today.

Or the curse could be real, I'm not attuned to the spirit world so what do I know?

In the meantime, check out our list of the best anime games you can play right now.

Issy van der Velde
Issy van der Velde
Contributor

I'm Issy, a freelancer who you'll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I've always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you'll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I'm currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.

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