Persona 5's asinine Release schedule

Persona 5 has been one of my most highly anticipated games since it was first announced back in 2013. I’ve loved the Persona games ever since I first played Persona 3 and loved it’s unique anime-esque esthetic combined with its strategic gameplay, social link mechanic which encouraged interaction with NPC’s and a unique story which combined elements of Jungian psychology, and a modern setting which helped set it apart from the traditional swords and sorcery settings.

So it’s no surprise that Persona 5’s release schedule has proven to be complete asinine in terms of having to be released over 5 months after its Japanese release. We live in a world where we have easy access to just about any form of information on the planet so the fact that Atlus chose to delay the release for 5 months makes no sense. We have internet forums that are already discussing the story in-depth,  as well as items, character progression, and game mechanics which could end up ruining the game for people who end up casually browsing the internet.

The biggest question then is why did Atlus choose to delay a completed game for an additional 5 months despite there being no major issues in regards to gameplay or bug-testing in what is otherwise a completed game. The only two reasons I can think of revolve around the issues of localization and making sure that enough copies have been shipped out in anticipation of the game’s big launch. But the issue here is that another big Japanese game, Final Fantasy XV, is scheduled to launch in about two months and it plans on bringing with it an equally large scope, story, and launch period which begs the question, what exactly is it that caused Atlus to decide to delay the launch of their big flagship title as opposed to choosing a worldwide release? All it really does is limit the access fans outside of Japan have to play the game. With the Persona franchise having become Atlus’ flagship franchise, it makes even less sense for the company to place a 5 month gap between release dates, especially considering the fact that it has been 8 years since the original release of the previous mainline Persona game. And if there were going to be issues with the localization that would have prevented the game from being released on time, Atlus should have taken steps forward in order to ensure that the localization along with the necessary bug fixes had been completed in time.

In the end, I don’t mind a game having to be delayed in order to ensure that it is of the utmost quality. However, what does concern me is when a title is clearly complete and is released in one region without any discernible reason. Persona 5 is still my most anticipated game of 2017 but I feel like Atlus could end up hurting their business in the long run should they continue with this attitude. Hopefully they’ll learn from this one situation though if Europe’s experience has shown anything, they don’t plan on changing their minds on this anytime soon.