Last week, Persona developer Atlus announced that it was preparing to reveal 7 new projects related to the franchise starting this September, likely to debut at Tokyo Game Show. Despite this, the developer is still hard at work at many non-Persona related projects, which it has re-emphasized in an interview with Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. In the interview, Atlus revealed that it currently has 10 projects in development, including a new game from long-time collaborator Vanillaware, the developer behind last year's 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.
Atlus has seen major growth in popularity as a publisher and developer since the western release of Persona 5 in April 2017, which achieved mainstream success, taking the series from niche to one of the most beloved JRPGs of the last console generation. Since then, Atlus has branched out, bringing its titles such as Persona 4 Golden and Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne HD Remaster to PC, and releasing Vanillaware's 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim in 2020, all while developing Shin Megami Tensei 5, the newest entry in its longest-running RPG series coming exclusively to Nintendo Switch this November. All of this is to say that the publisher has been very busy.
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And this is reportedly only the beginning, as in an interview with Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has revealed that Atlus has overall around 10 projects in development, with some coming from collaborative developers such as Vanillaware. According to Atlus' production manager Naoto Hiraoka, 5 to 6 of the studio's upcoming projects are in development internally, coming from teams within Atlus, as opposed to the remaining 4 to 5 that are in development from external studios such as Vanillaware, the studio behind Odin's Sphere and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim that Atlus has published multiple titles for. This also alludes to some other other collaborations from other developers.
There's a lot to infer from this statement, especially given the announcement of 7 upcoming Persona-related projects. Titles that Atlus has already confirmed are in development include Shin Megami Tensei 5 (which will release later this year,) Persona 6, and Project Re Fantasy, an upcoming action-RPG from the original staff behind Persona 5. Given that Vanillaware has also revealed a teaser for its next project in the demo for 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim in early 2019, it's safe to assume that it's already well into development on its next game. That leaves 5 or 6 projects left unannounced from the publisher and its collaborators. One rumored project is a remaster of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, which would come from Guilty Gear developer Arc System Works.
Many of the projects alluded to could be remasters of Atlus' older titles, given that the studio has shown interest in returning to previous titles through releases such as Catherine: Full Body and Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne HD Remaster. It is also possible that spin-off series' such as Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor and Persona Q could also receive sequels, given that they would not require the long-term development timelines of games like Persona 6 and Project Re Fantasy.
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