Early conceptual development on Persona 5 began in 2008 following the release of Persona 4, but the bulk of development began after Catherine‘s release in 2011. The engine Catherine was built on ended up serving as the foundation for Persona 5‘s custom engine, and thus the next Persona‘s unfortunately long-winded development began. Originally intended to release on the PS3, Atlus saw multiple circumstantial roadblocks that unintentionally extended Persona 5‘s development far longer than intended. Persona 5 did eventually release in 2016 in Japan (2017 in the west), though not without development experiencing its fair share of hurdles.
Circumstantially, at least based on comments from Katsura Hashino in interview, several things got in the way during P-Studio’s development of Persona 5. However, none of the initial halts to Persona 5 were at the fault of the developers themselves. A lot of things happening behind the scenes, whether it be the bankruptcy of Atlus’ parent company at the time, or the release of the PS4 splitting development between current and next-gen hardware. Now, however, Atlus couldn’t be in a better spot with the popularity of Persona surging, as well as no exterior factors affecting the company. The next Persona game certainly shouldn’t take as long to develop.
For Atlus, Persona 5 development never seemed to have too many in-house development issues. In numerous interviews, game director Katsura Hashino only ever really mentioned delays being caused by developing the game for at-the-time new PS4 hardware, alongside the PS3 version. Enhancing the same game engine used on Catherine, Persona 5 was planning to be a significant technical overhaul of the existing Persona game engine. Development was always going to be longer than previous Persona titles, but not as long as the game’s development ended up being. Exterior factors allegedly were the biggest roadblocks for Atlus and P-Studio.
Atlus’ parent company, Index Corporation, ended up filing for bankruptcy in June of 2013. The fate of Atlus had quickly become unclear because Index still owned the game company, but Sega eventually came into the picture a few months later. Sega purchased the assets of Index Corporation in September of that year, most notably Atlus and all of its development studios. From there, Atlus had the financial backing to continue working diligently on Persona 5. From there, the major hurdles for development were the modernization of the Persona creatures themselves, which ended up being a huge commitment for the game’s almost-200 usable Personas.
In 2018, theoretically when initial work could’ve started on a Persona 6, Atlus and P-Studio couldn’t have been in a better place. Persona 5 was kicking off a surge in popularity for the series by the end of 2017, which would only extend further with the release of Persona 5 Royal and porting Persona 4 Golden to Steam in 2020. Persona series director Kazuhisa Wada has mentioned that Persona is looking ahead long-term, specifically planning “new numbered entries” for the future. Additional rumors have pointed to a new Persona game being in development, though nothing has been confirmed at the moment.
Barring any other extreme circumstances, the next Persona game’s development should not take as long as Persona 5 did. Any substantial development would’ve theoretically began in early 2018 or 2019, which was right around when console makers were issuing developer kits to partnered developers. There’s a slim chance that the next Persona game is being developed for last-gen systems, so the PS5/Xbox Series X/PC platforms are the only likely candidates for a release in the next few years. Given that development wouldn’t be split between two different hardware specifications, and barring any other significant hurdles, development should be much shorter.
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Pair that with Atlus seemingly having no exterior factors affecting P-Studio’s development team, and Persona‘s popularity at its greatest, the series is in a very good spot. Persona 5 Royal, Persona 4 Golden, and even Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers‘ release in Japan exceeded sales expectations. Current series director Kazuhisa Wada also teased a big announcement coming for the franchise’s 25th anniversary this year, which could potentially mean a reveal of some kind. Granted, even in 2021, the next Persona game would theoretically still be pretty early on in development, but a new game announcement isn’t entirely out of the question.
Persona 5 is still riding a considerable high after the enhanced Persona 5 Royal, and Persona 5 Strikers coming next month, so a new Persona isn’t releasing any time soon. Persona 5 partnerships are happening across all manner of media, from mobile games like AFK Arena to Dragalia Lost, so the series isn’t losing any momentum. Regardless, the next Persona game shouldn’t be half a decade away like Persona 5 ended up being. Circumstances out of Atlus’ control ended up delaying the fifth entry several times, but there’s no reason to believe the same could happen to Persona 6 at the moment.
Persona 6 is rumored to be in development.
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