A new Persona mobile game is in production, but don't get your hopes up just yet. Perfect World has announced Code Name: X and is currently targeting a Chinese release — but it could come to the West.
The Persona franchise started off as a spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. It had a fair amount of popularity in Japan, but it didn't really blow up in the West until the release of Persona 4. The most recent core release from the franchise is Persona 5.
These games from Atlus are certainly no stranger to spin-offs; Persona 5 Strikers delivered a new kind of gameplay to fans earlier this year, and now it looks like another Persona spin-off is on the way — and this one's coming to mobile devices.
Niko Partners Senior Analyst Daniel "ZhugeEX" Ahmad reports that Perfect World is developing a new game called Code Name: X. The announcement was made at a conference in China today where the company revealed several new games in the works. Notably, Perfect World handles the distribution of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 in China.
Where does Persona come in, though? The game certainly looks similar in style, but there's no clear indicator that it's actually based on the Persona franchise. Well, Daniel Ahmad got clarification from Perfect World that it is indeed based on the popular Atlus franchise, and that's not all — a cheeky bit of code buried in a trailer spells out "Persona X" in binary. Other fans of the game have also spotted a fair few references in the background, so this is definitely a new Persona mobile game.
Will the Persona Mobile Game Code Name: X Release in the West?
A new Persona mobile game is pretty cool, but there's just one problem: Perfect World is a Chinese company and it looks like Code Name: X is going to be launching in China first. The bigger question, however, is whether or not it will actually come to America.
Chinese companies have a mixed track record with launching their games outside of the reason. Fallout Shelter Online, for example, built on the gameplay of the original Fallout Shelter and added in elements such as PvP and new adventures. A beta test was released a year ago, but it still hasn't officially expanded beyond the Asian region as far as I can tell.
Conversely, some Chinese games have gotten a release in the West. Genshin Impact is probably the most notable one in recent memory, although even niche games like Sands of Salzaar picked up enough popularity in the West that it got an official English translation.
Persona fans are certainly no stranger to missing out — some of the spin-offs and extra content still haven't made their way to the West. That said, Atlus is becoming more open to selling its games worldwide; Persona 5 Strikers (then called Persona 5 Scramble) was hinted to be getting an English port before it finally made its way to American and Europe roughly a year after its initial Asian release.
Code Name: X or Persona X — whatever this Persona mobile game is called, there's a chance that we might see it debut in America at some point in the future. The growing sales of the Persona franchise and the crossover success of games like Genshin Impact are something that Chinese publishers are surely paying attention to. We may very well get to play Persona X on our phones in the next year or two.
Do you think Perfect World's Persona mobile game can hold up to the gameplay of the originals? Where would you like to see the Persona games ported next? Let us know in the comments below!