Tag Archives: Atlus

Persona 4: Arena Ultimax Not Region Locked for North and South America

Leave a reply

We reported earlier on about the fact that the original Persona 4: Arena was the only PS3 game in existence to be region locked. Thankfully, Atlus have confirmed that the sequel that will be region free for the Americas. Along with that news, we got to learn more about the pre-order bonuses for the game. Atlus stated the following on their official website:

Persona®4 Arena Ultimax, the upcoming fighting game from ATLUS will not be region locked for the Americas and will be available this fall for the PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360®; pre-orders and all first-run editions will include a collectible Teddie bop bag and Set #1 of the iconic Persona Tarot cards. (Set #2 will be included with Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth.) This follows the recent announcement that playable DLC character Tohru Adachi will be offered for free the first week after the game’s launch. Full details are available here:

http://www.atlus.com/p4au/purchase.html

We’re still waiting for news on a European release of the game, but at least importing the US version will actually be an option now.

Atlus and Sega Games at Anime Expo

2 Replies

Both Sega and Atlus will be present at the upcoming Anime Expo (this week, July 3-6 at the Los Angeles Convention Center), with Atlus showing their upcoming Persona games and Sega showing Project DIVA F 2nd. Although Aaron Webber’s departure from Sega means he won’t be at the expo, Sam Mullen confirmed he will be there to welcome the fans. Earlier on, Aaron Webber did hint they may have a special surprise regarding Project DIVA F 2nd at the expo. It seems that surprise might be the following announcement for a Project Diva F tournament at the Sega booth where you can win tickets for the Hatsune Miku Expo in LA. Continue reading »

Persona Q Preorder Bonuses

Leave a reply

We’ve already reported on the preorder bonuses for Persona 4 Arena Ultimax earlier on, but during E3 Atlus also revealed a new trailer and the preorder bonuses for Persona Q. The first run of copies will include 11 Tarot Cards, which complement the other set of Tarot Cards that will be included in the preorder bonuses for Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. The regular edition of the game will cost $49.99. Atlus will also be releasing a “Wild Cards” premium edition of the game, which includes the Tarot Cards but also an art book, soundtrack CD and a Deluxe Hard Case for the 3DS XL for the price of $79.99.

Persona Q

Persona Q Premium Edition

For those interested in preordering, you can find a list of retailers on the official website for the game.

Aside from the preorder bonuses, there’s also the Persona Q E3 trailer which we haven’t posted yet. That one can be seen here:

Nintendo 3DS - Persona Q E3 Trailer

The game sold well in its first week in Japan, which is a certainly good sign for the future of the franchise, given how it’s the first Persona game to be released on a Nintendo platform. Nintendo have also revealed that Persona Q will be released in Europe by NIS America later this year, and although they can’t release an official announcement yet, both employees of NIS America and Atlus dropped by on Reddit to confirm the news. It seems Persona Q is shaping up to be another success for Atlus, which in turn is good news for Sega and also the fans looking forward to seeing more games localized from Japan (both from Sega and Atlus).

Sega & Atlus Games Lineup at E3

1 Reply

E3 is about to begin, so we thought it would be worth taking a look at what games Sega and Atlus will be showing there. First off, here’s Sega’s lineup:

  • Alien Isolation (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
  • Sonic Boom (Wii U, 3DS)
  • Hatsune Miku Project Diva 2nd (PS3, PS Vita)

Although it’s a small lineup, the games featured there aren’t exactly small titles. Alien Isolation and Sonic Boom are both big-budget AAA games, which we hope will turn out to be a success for Sega. After the disappointing reviews for Aliens: Colonial Marines and Sonic Lost World, the fans of both franchises will be looking closely to see if The Creative Assembly, Sanzaru and Big Red Button Entertainment can do better than the studios that worked on the previous games. Continue reading »

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Preorders up for North America

Leave a reply

Atlus has announced that you can now preorder Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, the sequel to Persona 4 Arena, for North America on PS3 and Xbox 360. The 2D fighting game will cost $59.99 and will be released on September 30th. Its predecessor had a Story Mode that lasted about 30 hours and directly followed the events of Persona 4, and aside from the main cast of Persona 4, it also featured the return of key characters from Persona 3. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax will continue the story of the previous game, and also feature more returning characters from Persona 3 and 4.

Continue reading »

Persona 4 Golden Discounted on PSN, New Anime Announced

1 Reply

While we haven’t reported news on games from Atlus before, the fact that Sega has acquired them does make their games part of Sega’s offering now. With that in mind, we thought it’s worth letting people know that Persona 4 Golden for the PS Vita (in my opinion one of the best JRPG’s out there), is now available at a discount on both the US and EU PlayStation Network.

On the US PlayStation Network, the sale is part of a bigger “Golden Week” sale featuring discounts on a large selection of Japanese games. The US digital version for Persona 4 Golden now costs $19.49, or $14.62 if you have a PSN Plus subscription. The sales will end on May 5th. On the EU side, there’s no Golden Week sale but despite that Persona 4 Golden is also getting a discount there. The price is slightly higher than the US Version, with the game now costing €19.99 (with an additional 10% discount for PS Plus members). The EU sales will run for two weeks, starting from April 30th. You can follow the links below to see what other games are being discounted:

Continue reading »

SEGA Reorganizes Atlus

1 Reply

 

Many of you are aware of SEGA-Sammy’s acquisition of Index Corporation (then-owner of Atlus and its subsidiaries) at the end of last year. SEGA-Sammy purchased the financially-troubled corporation and temporarily created the SEGA Dream Corporation, designed to manage Index’s business operations. Shortly thereafter, SEGA-Sammy fully assimilated Index by renaming SEGA Dream Corporation back to Index Corporation.

Now SEGA has that Index Corporation will be split into two separate entities. The first segment is a re-purposed Index Corporation, focused on such tasks as systems development and advertising. The other segment is Atlus, an entity purposed entirely for game development. Currently, Index Corporation houses 166 employees, and Atlus is staffed with 121. If only legally, it cements the preservation of Atlus proper. With this development, Persona series director Katsura Hashino took to the Japanese Persona website to post a personal statement, quoted here:

Hey all.

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally able to stage our comeback as a company at last. (Sobs.)

It goes without saying, but I know we’ve made you, the fans, worry a lot these past several years. We lost that which we thought we could once take for granted when Atlus ceased to be a proper company. Atlus continued to live on as a brand, but we had to do a lot of soul searching during those years, especially with respect to what made our games enjoyable on their own terms and and what it means to us personally to bring those games to life.

I might be a bit overdramatic when I say this, but I think much like people, the games that leave a lasting impression upon us are the ones that charm us and challenge us alike, ones that require more than mere passiveness on our part to enjoy and set out to change the status quo with good intentions. While it’s important for players to enjoy themselves when playing video games, I want ours to linger on in their memories for other reasons beyond that. Those are the things I’ve kept at the forefront of my mind as I keep pursuing this life as a creator that I’ve gone down.

And that’s not going to change moving forward.

We want to keep making the games that’ll make you all happy as fans and while we’re working hard to bring them to you, I hope you’ll continue to voice your passionate support for us as you always have.

The initial announcement of the acquisition brought much angst over SEGA’s handling of its new partner, but so far it does not appear that SEGA wants to change much of Atlus in a way that concerns their fans. While SEGA mentioned that Atlus would be free to experiment with some of their dormant IPs and Atlus has reassured fans that the acquisition won’t change their game development, short of a currently improbable rumor claiming Atlus USA would be localizing Yakuza 5, there isn’t much recent intersecting that we know of with regards to creative projects. If nothing else, we can’t suspect a surprise Sonic the Hedgehog appearance in Persona Q or Persona 5…yet.

Sega-Sammy COO to Atlus Fans: “Everything Will Remain the Same”

2 Replies

Siliconera posted a new Famitsu interview with the new President of Index Corporation, Sega-Sammy’s COO Naoya Tsurumi. In the interview, Tsurumi assured fans that Sega would not interfere with Index’s usual business, but also mentioned that Index (and therefore Atlus) would be free to use Sega’s resources and even dormant IP. That’s good news, but the following quote from Tsurumi regarding the many Atlus fans out there is rather interesting:

Having the fans feel uneasy is the worst thing we could do. Above all, I’d like to make sure that the fans feel a sense of reassurance. If we were to lose fans, then all would be for nothing. Making fans and the employees of Index happy is what I believe will be our best return [for the company], and we’ll do our best to keep that up.

Now Tsurumi was talking about Atlus fans here, but of course the same logic should apply for Sega fans as well. And yet, the Sega fans overseas aren’t getting the chance to play the games out of their favorite franchises. If Mr. Tsurumi is indeed convinced that all is for nothing if they lose fans, then why is their current strategy doing exactly that? This is all the more reason for us to make our voice heard, and show Sega-Sammy that we do indeed care more than they might realize. If you haven’t signed our petition yet, please do so. Let Sega know how many fans they do risk losing by not releasing their games outside of Japan. And do let us know your thoughts about the interview in the comments!