Persona 5 Now Available in the Americas and Europe, Atlus Posts Streaming Guidelines

After a long wait and multiple delays, Persona 5 has finally been released in the Americas and Europe today! The game has received very favorable reviews, and after strong sales in Japan, the game looks set to be a big success for Atlus and SEGA in the rest of the world as well. There’s a lot of DLC, some of it free, that will be made available as well. You can review the entire list of DLC below, along with new launch trailer for the game.

If you’re planning on streaming the game, Atlus U.S.A. has issued a set of streaming guidelines. In particular, Atlus warns that those streaming past 7/7, may receive a content ID claim or even a channel strike/account suspension. While they don’t state it outright, it’s evident these would come from the Japanese branch of Atlus. Many Japanese gaming companies, including SEGA and Nintendo, have shown to be reluctant to let fans stream their video game playthroughs, fearing that people may opt not to buy the game and just watch it instead. It’s a view that I hope will change, as I see it as just another area where the Japanese video game industry is lagging behind the rest of the world. Atlus U.S.A. does note that they’re having an ongoing discussion about how their policies may evolve in the future.

This minor issue aside, Persona 5 is one of the games I looked forward to playing the most this year. I’ve only just started the game today, so it’ll be a while before I can really form an opinion on it, but given the reviews it seems that the game indeed fulfills the high expectations from the fans. If you haven’t played any of the Persona games before, this is certainly a good time to start!