The recent success of Sega to look into multi-platform releases for future titles, as well as ports of older games to modern systems. The RPGs developed by Atlus started to find success in the west with Persona 3 on the PlayStation 2, but new fans have been unable to play the company's classic games on modern systems.
The Persona and Shin Megami Tensei franchises have found a growing audience among western gamers, who love their challenging gameplay and unique style, but they need access to a plethora of systems in order to enjoy them all. The Persona games have mostly been released on PlayStation platforms, except for the Persona Q crossover series, which is exclusive to the Nintendo 3DS. The Shin Megami Tensei series has been split across Nintendo and PlayStation platforms for years, including their numerous spin-offs. Atlus recently surprised the gaming world when was released on Steam, following years of being a PlayStation Vita exclusive.
The PC platform has only received older Persona & Shin Megami Tensei games years ago in Japan. Atlus made a smart choice, however, as Persona 4 Golden sold a half-million copies on Steam within a few weeks of its release. Sega recently held its 2020 Q1 financial results and an investor brought up the prospect of more Atlus ports during the Q & A portion of the event. According to Persona Central, the Sega executives promised more ports of older titles to Steam, as well as focusing on multi-platform releases for future titles.
"We remastered “Persona 4 the Golden”, a title previously sold on the PlayStation Vita, and released it for sale on Steam this fiscal year. Because of the game’s critical acclaim and its low selling price, sales were much stronger than expected. We will continue to actively promote porting previously released titles to Steam and new platforms. We are also negotiating with platform holders for new games in the future, and we’re considering ways to sell under favorable conditions for each title. Among them are measures such as preparing PC versions of the titles from the beginning, with multi-platform releases in mind."
We are already seeing the expansion of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise to other platforms, with Shin Megami Tensei III HD: Nocturne Remaster is coming to PS4 and Switch, which could lead to more remasters in the future.
The fact that Persona 4 Golden has been such a huge hit on Steam means that the game will almost certainly come to consoles in the future, as well as the next-gen systems when they finally hit the market. Atlus has lots of great Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games that are locked to the Nintendo DS and 3DS that could easily be remastered with HD visuals and ported to modern systems. There is a ton of content remaining in the series that could be brought to PC and consoles, so long as Atlus and Sega are willing to make the effort to port them.
Source: Persona Central
