Atlus / SEGA Stage Show Plans for E3 2016

RPG Site appears to have secured information regarding Atlus / SEGA’s stage show plans for E3 2016, as indicated by this tweet. This was heretofore an unannounced aspect of the company’s attendance, even after the recent publishing of the press release detailing the games that would be present at E3.

Here’s a listing for the presentation schedule. Please keep in mind that there are no known plans for streaming of stage presentations to be directly handled by Atlus. It’s possible that presentations might be archived or broadcasted at some time, but this is not confirmed in any public manner. All times are PDT.

Tuesday, June 14th

• 1 PM: Special Presentation
• 2 PM: Yakuza Series Presentation Featuring Toshihiro Nagoshi
• 3 PM: Persona 5 Character Design Talk Featuring Shigenori Soejima
• 4 PM: Special Presentation
• 5 PM: The King of Fighters XIV Pro Exhibition Matches

Wednesday, June 15th

• 11 AM: Persona 5 E3 2016-Exclusive Print Autographing Session Featuring Shigenori Soejima
• 12:30 PM: Special Presentation
• 2 PM: The King of Fighters XIV Pro Exhibition Matches
• 3 PM: Yakuza Zero Demo
• 4:30 PM: Special Presentation

Thursday, June 16th

• 11 AM: Persona 5 Fan Q&A
• 12 PM: Special Presentation
• 2:30 PM: The King of Fighters XIV Pro Exhibition Matches
• 3:30 PM: Special Presentation

Alright, some notes on this.

First, it’s quite nice to see Atlus willing to give KOF XIV as much attention as they are planning, and across all three days. As the fighting game genre continues to expand in popularity while at the same time struggling with the perennial question of figuring out how to attract newcomers, showcasing gameplay at such a prominent convention as E3 could help to ingratiate the franchise with a mainstream audience.

Persona 5 is also being represented across all three days, between a Q&A, an autograph session, and a panel on character design. With the reveal of the party characters, and a steady feed of promotional information (including the recently announced Take Your Heart Edition), the long-awaited JRPG’s arrival next Valentine’s Day is slowly but surely arriving.

Major congratulations to Yakuza, and to Toshihiro Nagoshi. Imagine the difference in circumstances between the announcement of Yakuza 5’s at the PlayStation Experience last year, and the promotion that the Yakuza franchise is receiving now at E3. Toshihiro Nagoshi being present at E3 is astounding. The Yakuza Zero demo should be great for showing off all of the different fighting styles (especially Majima’s flashy attacks.)

And of course, six “Special Presentations.” Before today, I was prepared for E3 2016 assuming that everything that there was to know about the convention was already made public, but apparently this might not be the case. I’m not sure what to say. I would think that some of these presentations are connected and that not all of them represent individual franchises or pieces of news. To speak only for myself, I have to feel it is wishful thinking to assume we might have totally new games revealed at E3 2016…however I also can’t help but say that such a thing is what I’m wishing for. We’ll just have to wait and see, and temper our expectations as best as we can.

And we won’t have to wait long, because E3 2016 is next week!