Why Persona 6 is Taking So Long

We're back! And after a lengthy absence of several months, what better subject for our triumphant return than a video about how a video game is taking a long time to finish?

Maybe this video is a bit obvious but we learned some neat stuff about Atlus' internal structure while we were researching it. Plus, it's our first video in ages, cut us some slack for easing back into things, will ya?!

Anyway, here's hoping your 2025 is going well so far.

Lots of love,

BretonStripes, Kotor and family

Title theme by Tee Lopes

Sources for this video:

[monkeeee]

Every time someone talks about P6 taking so long to develop, Altus pushes the release date back by one week out of spite

[MisteRRYouTuby]

The moral of the story:

Patience is still a virtue.

[vianabdullah]

The previous director of the Persona games going on to join Studio Zero and direct Metaphor as a spiritual successor does seem to put Persona in an interesting spot. Whether P6 will be a radical departure in gameplay is yet to be seen.

[Graterstuuf]

It takes such a long time to complete Persona games, one assumes it takes huge amounts of time to create them.

[JJ_R]

Good to have you back!

All I want is the choice between a male & female protag. It’s been over a decade since we’ve had one, and that was for a portable system. We’re long overdue for another title with that feature.

[larrylaffer]

The big question is will P6 come out before GTA6?

[felman]

Me: It isn't taking longer than P5. That took 8 years to release and it's only years since it released....

[BakingSodaU]

IIRC, Hashino said Persona 5 was originally meant to be about a group of backpackers travelling around the world, so the cast would include persona users from different nationalities. But then the Tohoku earthquake happened, and the devs at Atlus felt making a game that "strenghtened the japanese spirit" would be a better fit for the situation Japan was going through.

I really hope they didn't fully discard their original idea, it's a very interesting premise, considering previous titles have taken place in either tiny towns or big cities.

[CrimTaker]

Persona 6 feels like the GTA 6 of JRPG's. So much hype and could be one of the best games ever made. I don't care how long it takes(especially since we got P3R, SMT Vengeance and Metaphor last year) as long as its good.

[JohnWilmertheGaymer]

This was a very lovely and informative video. Thank you. I just pray that we all get to live long enough to play Persona 22 Remake VR Mars Edition

[OneWingedRose]

Was just thinking about this the other day lol.
I hope they take all the time they need and the next entry is awesome!

[guruthosamarthruin]

I'd like to see the return of Philemon, as well as a cameo or two, for characters like adult Nanako.

[stinkystink]

By the time p6 comes out I will be far too old to be able to tolerate another high school shenanigans story, and that is a blessing

[desshinta]

Persona 4 released in the middle of 2008, persona 5 released in late 2016/early 2017. This is not difficult to understand that the developers have just chosen to take their time and not rush. Hell, even the persona 2 duology (1999 and 2000) to P3 (2006) took 6 years, it was irregular for them to rush a mainline game as they did from P3 to P4. And that's before counting the sidequels and 'content upgrade' re-releases that add to the time filling for content as things worked on in the intertim while a new game is developed, or the manga/anime adaptations. Since Persona 3, only 2022 has had no persona-related game releases if you count the japanese and Worldwide launch dates seperately, and you only add 2010, 2017 and 2021 to that count if you go by exclusively the japanese launch dates. If the sidequels aren't your thing they aren't your thing, but you can't say they're doing NOTHING related to the franchise.
A Rushed game is forever bad, a game given the proper time to be developed is eventually made good.

[xerontokyo]

3:57 - For more context Atlus JP is employed 371 people within the 3 studios they have and other departments like QA, Marketing, PR, Business and etc.

[LunaSquirtle]

So ill just repeat what i said to a friend on discord a few weeks ago my theory is that p6 is either in massive development hell or has gotten a complete story rewrite because of the persona boom in popularity in 2022 therefore the game is really struggling to even maintain an existing product and so the game is having way more internal issues than we realize and is at a point where the dev team really doesn't know what they want with p6 at this point

[LostSoulSilver]

I think Persona 3 Reload absolutely counts as a big brand new release in the series

[CassidyListon]

I mean... it's not like they weren't busy making Metaphor ReFantazio.

[gnhxyy]

persona and dragon quest fighting for the longest development times and longest time since the last mainstream game

[kermitwithamustache]

The short answer is that they spent the past 8 years working on Metaphor and Reload, both of which are the biggest games they ever released, they likely have started proper development on the game just now