SEGA has bold plans for the future: it wants Persona 6 and other ATLUS games to have simultaneous worldwide launches akin to Yakuza: Like a Dragon — and they might be multiplatform releases, too.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon launched late last year and it's done pretty well. In fact, SEGA's Shuji Utsumi reportedly told Famitsu that it was the biggest worldwide release for the game to date. That certainly hasn't gone unnoticed for the longtime game publisher — it would very much like to aim for simultaneous worldwide releases for future games, and Mr. Utsumi made a special mention of upcoming Atlus games.
"[Yakuza: Like a Dragon] is the first [Yakuza game] to fully support multi-platform and was released overseas in no time," read a machine-translated excerpt of a Famitsu interview with SEGA's Shuji Utsumi as reported by Japanese gaming industry blogger Ryokutya2089 (via Nibel). "What was previously developed mainly in Japan and PS is now available on [Xbox] and Steam. However, it received high praise there. On a global scale, [Yakuza: Like a Dragon] was the most hit title in the series."
"[...] we also want to be aware of the global expansion of [Atlus] titles," he added.
The mention of Atlus titles, in particular, is certainly interesting. Atlus has already confirmed that "new numbered entries" in the Persona series are on the way, so we'll certainly be seeing Persona 6 in the next few years. This time, however, we won't have to wait several months to play it after it launches in Japan.
Persona 6 and Other Atlus Games Could Have Multiplatform Launches, Too
The global expansion of Persona 6 and other Atlus games isn't just focusing on simultaneous worldwide launches — according to Mr. Utstumi, SEGA also wants to target multiplatform releases more aggressively.
"Simultaneous worldwide release on multiple platforms will be a tailwind for titles," he said.
Atlus and SEGA have surely gotten a measure of marketing data from late ports such as the PC version of Persona 4 Golden that contributed to this line of thinking, but it seems that last year's launch of Yakuza: Like a Dragon is what gave the company more confidence in targeting worldwide releases in the future. If everything goes to plan, fans of Atlus Games might not have to wait as long to play them in the West as they used to.
Are you disappointed that you've had to wait for worldwide releases of SEGA and Atlus games? What do you think Persona 6 will be like? Let us know in the comments below!
