Atlus Apologizes for Persona 5 Streaming Rules by Loosening Them

When Atlus launched Persona 5, they implemented some pretty strict guidelines as to what parts of the game could be livestreamed. Many fans weren’t happy, and still we streamed the entire game for our review (expect it very shortly!).

Now, the Japanese developer has issued an apology for their stranglehold over the game’s ability to be shared and livestreamed, and they’re now expanding what you can broadcast from the game.

Originally you couldn’t broadcast anything from the game beyond the 7/7 date – now they’ve expanded this to the 11/19 date, which is where the story picks up for the final arc.

Here’s their full apology:

When Persona 5 launched, we put out a set of video/streaming guidelines that we hoped would limit online spoilers for fans who have yet to play the game.

To our surprise, we then saw numerous reactive news articles go up, opinion videos post, and received many emails asking us to please change our Persona 5 streaming/video policy. We recognize that our fans are the reason why the game is the major worldwide success it is, and we continue to want them to be able to enjoy the game without fear of being spoiled. However, we also heard your issues with the guidelines and have decided to revise them. Because we want to give players the most access to the game while respecting the original goal, we’re now asking players to refrain from streaming or posting video past the end of the in-game date of 11/19—when the main story gears up for the final act.

We also want to apologize to those of you who saw the previous guidelines blog post as threatening. We want to be transparent about what we do, and the reason we released the guidelines was to give streamers the right information up front. It was never our intention to threaten people with copyright strikes, but we clearly chose the wrong tone for how to communicate this.

Lastly, we want to thank our fans around the world for supporting Persona 5 and ATLUS. The game is a global success because of your passion for the series, and we’re happy that so many of you are enjoying it.

FEATURED GAME

Brandon Orselli

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Big Papa Overlord at Niche Gamer. Italian. Dad. Outlaw fighting for a better game industry. I also write about music, food, & beer. Also an IT guy.

  • Ryo

    Great. Now let me take screenshots.

  • Uncle Ocelot

    Still no screenshots.

  • Mr0303

    That’ like putting a bandage on an open wound. They should’ve simply
    removed the restrictions altogether and release an update that enables
    screenshots. At least they know that people are not happy with their
    tactics.

  • Valwin Mediaz

    No issue i already beat the game so meh

  • Etherblaze

    They should enable PS4 sharing too.

    Why can’t I take videos of Makoto trying to spy on Joker?

  • HowlJenkins

    This. I don’t really give a shit about what people are allowed to stream/upload. I just want my goddamn in-game 1080p wallpapers.

  • Matz

    At least it’s something, but I still want to take screenshots, seriously, I can’t get why some studios block a common function of the console. Because people would be spoiling everything to everybody? I don’t need the share button to do that, I can always use my phone to take a photo and put it in the Internet where anybody can see it.

  • OldPalpy

    The ultimate fix would be pushing on Sony to remove this restriction capability altogether, publishers will whine of course but ultimately Sony has them by this balls this gen.

  • Mr0303

    This doesn’t solve the issue of publisher DMCA-ing channels on a whim, but yeah – it would be better. Restricted scenes are rather annoying.

  • OldPalpy

    True I think a organized effort needs to be made to solve that problem, I’m talking on the level where publishers are afraid to DMCA channels, this can be done look at what happened with always on DRM in 2013 the backlash against that along with Sony’s tactical nuke at E3 made a lot of the industry terrified to use it.

    It doesn’t really matter what the legal mumbo jumbo is if a publisher’s PR departments is shitting bricks over the thought over having to deal with the fallout over a DMCA against a channel.

  • Mr0303

    This will never happen. Platform holders will always take the side of the corporations and most streamers wouldn’t have the means to combat that.

  • chaoguy

    The games not perfect (missed opportunity for comparisons between final boss & player, translation is iffy in a few minor places), but the “Persona 5 is bad localization (please let us do it)” articles are harming any genuine critique of the game, and the devs fuck-ups like this.
    Let people advertise your game for free you idiot!
    People will avoid spoilers better than you think.

  • ᚫᚱᚱᚫᛞᛟᚾ

    the funny thing is this isn’t affecting Japanese streamers/content creators. This is a major problem since these rules are not enforced the same across the board. Japanese companies need to join us in the 21st century or they are only going to keep pissing off their fanbase.

  • DrearierSpider

    Keep up the push back, they have an inch, now we just need to push them the rest of the mile.

  • DrearierSpider

    Being locked out of simply taking screenshots because some publisher has its head up is ass is a new level of peasantry.

  • ericniegel

    Not good enough. Let us stream the whole game.