Summary
Atlusfans may have one or more exciting things to look forward to in 2025, based on some comments from the development team. A new game industry interview has shared the thoughts of a number of developers working forAtlus, as well as other industry members, and hints at what 2025 will hold.
Atlus has experienced significant success in 2024. The company released three major hitters in 2024, includingPersona 3 Reload,Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, andMetaphor: ReFantazio, the last of which took homemultiple wins for Atlus during The Game Awardsceremony. Those who expected the company to cool down during 2025 may be pleasantly surprised.
Every year, Japanese publication4Gamer(viaPersonaCentral) publishes a feature that asks a number of game devs from across the industry to share their thoughts and aspirations for the coming year. This year, nine of the 164 developers interviewed worked at Atlus, and a number of them have shared aspirations that involve one or morenew releases coming from Atlus. While the developers have intentionally remained vague, a number of them have referred to one or more unannounced titles that they’re working hard on and want to announce as soon as they can.
“There’s a title we’re hoping to announce as soon as possible. Right now, the team is hard at work on its development so that fans can enjoy it as much as possible.” - Shinjiro Takada (1st Creative Department)
“It’s regretful that I’m not able to give you more details about the title I’m currently working on, but I am confident that it will offer your readers an exciting new experience. I would be grateful if you would look forward to it.” - Naoya Maeda (2nd Creative Department – P Studio)
“2025 is a year where we’ll carefully steer the helm of several large-scale projects that are on track and staying the course, so that they don’t shift direction. …We’ll be proceeding carefully, and I look forward to eventually sharing them with everyone. The collective mass of these projects is enormous, so the cost of correcting any missteps would be significant.” - Kazuhisa Wada (2nd Creative Department – P Studio)
What is Atlus Working On?
With it already established that Atlus is working on releasingPersona 5: The Phantom Xfor Japanese audiences, it would seem this unnamed title and the remainder of the “collective mass” of games in development are something completely independent. While it’s possible that the team could releaseDLC forMetaphor: ReFantazio, it’s also doubtful that the developers would refer to it as a new title. Atlus has confirmed that it would likeMetaphorto become a series, but has no concrete plans at this time. With the creative producer and chief director of thePersonaseries noting that Atlus will be proceeding carefully with the “enormous” collective mass of the titles, there’s some strong anticipation that it could finally be on the verge of revealing new games,includingPersona 6.
With the emphasis on not having wanting to “correct any missteps” and reaching a point where the studio can reveal the games as soon as possible, Atlus may be looking to avoid what happened withPersona 5’s multiple delays.Persona 5was announced in 2013 for a 2014 release, but ultimately got pushed into late 2016 and an entirely different console generation. Waiting until a launch window is more tightly locked down before making any announcements is probably a better choice for the developer and fans, but with any luck, players won’t have to wait long to learn what Atlus is cooking up next, whether it’sPersona 6, DLC, or something entirely new.
