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Persona 4 Arena European release date bad news [Update: Suffering continues]

R

rockman zx

Member
Good Morning Everyone,
With so much speculation going around with regards to the release date and status of the EU version, we thought it best to address this on here.

There are currently a number of issues surrounding development and subsequent release of Persona 4 Arena in Europe. As we are not directly involved in the development process for P4A, these are elements which are beyond our control.

We are however, doing everything we can to help resolve this, so that we can
get the game into stores and, crucially, into your hands as quickly as possible.

We do understand your frustration and a need for a concrete release date, however, until we can ascertain exactly what that release period will be we are hesitant to do so. We would rather have all the facts about release to hand, and all issues be resolved, before making such an announcement.

Please be assured that as soon as WE know what the release date will be, YOU will be the first to know.

Any dates you see online are purely speculation. The first announcement of a release date will happen on the Persona Europe FB page and the Persona.4 FB page. We will then notify our contacts in the main Fighting Game Communities around Europe. If you have not seen a confirmed release date on this page, then it is best taken as a rumour.

Please also be aware, any events that are taking place around Europe will not disrupt the process of releasing them game. Given that these issues have arisen, the team here are making a concerted effort to support the community by having payable builds at your events while you await release. I know many of you are eager to play P4A, and we will facilitate that as best we can in the interim.

Josh and Paul are in London today for Astral Heat in Gamerbase and will be more than happy to answer your questions as best they can.

Likewise, I (Geraint - some of you here know me I’m sure!) will be at i46 in Telford on Friday and Saturday, and will be happy to talk, as always - and hopefully enjoy a few games together.

As ever, your patience and understanding is appreciated.
Click to expand...


From P4A official facebook page.

So yeah, maybe September or October or next year?.
 
C

Choc

Banned
Heres what you do atlus

you release a patch that removes the fucking lock on the US version, and ship that.

And tell Zen, better luck next time, you didnt sort your shit out in time. We took the heat on PS3 region locking for no reason

sigh
 
P

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
I love being forced to wait for things that already exist in my language, are available overseas, but I'm not allowed to touch because some clueless apes are dragging their heels. Way to foster brand support!

(imagine if they tried this with Persona 4G, or fuck, 5 whenever that appears)
 
L

LiquidSolid

Member
Choc said:
Heres what you do atlus

you release a patch that removes the fucking lock on the US version, and ship that.

And tell Zen, better luck next time, you didnt sort your shit out in time. We took the heat on PS3 region locking for no reason

sigh
Click to expand...

Zen deserves some shit for the PAL release date but the region lock? Come the hell on. That was an Index Holdings decision, because the only thing they cared about was the Japanese sales.
 
N

Napalm_Frank

Member
Strange coincidence that most region free games get a PAL release within days of us version. Go figure.

I feel sorry for those looking foreward to this game. PS2 era still makes me sick.
 
P

Palette Swap

Member
So many words to NOT explain what is happening. Amazing PR.

Well, "Go fuck yourselves" is 3 words and "will buy for a tenner" is 5. I can at least convey my reaction in a much more concise way.
 
C

Choc

Banned
It was region locked to protect European sales as well I would think.

If you are negotiating a distro deal and you expect Zen to cough up some money you need to protect that market for the distributor....

the region lock was a convenient way to do it.

If not, Atlus could have only locked it out of Japan and USA cross-importation. US and EU could have been same region, or both allowed.


Easily. 1 line of code.
 
K

kadotsu

Banned
This is bad and Zen should know that competitive games need to be released ASAP. But the real problem is that Index can't be bothered to establish an EU or at least a UK publishing branch for Atlus.
 
T

TetraxShards

Member
16857L.jpg
Click to expand...

This hurts, man.
 
C

Choc

Banned
so in 1 day Sony closes Liverpool studio

Rare shows us minecraft stuff based on games we like

and persona 4 arena becomes tba


Europe, fuckin seriously
 
C

Canis lupus

Member
Desmond said:
To combat Japanese reverse importation, no?
Click to expand...

Atlus, if you readin this, drop a patch on PSN making NA version region free, I will import the game right away. You have many Euro fans that don't want to wait 8 months to get their hands on your games(Catherine).
 
D

Deleted member 13876

Unconfirmed Member
Sigh, so now it's stuck in a back and forth between Atlus Japan and them mediated by mailmen. Getting into the the competitive scene now will be arduous, and developing a local scene nigh impossible with other fighting game releases around the corner. I don't think we can reasonably expect to see it in September based on the wording in this message.

I harbor little ill will towards Zen, loved Geraint's writing in NGC Magazine as a kid, but Atlus have created a real mess here.
 
R

R_thanatos

Member
Rofl .
And people toldme that i should stop complaining about the lock and just wait.

I knew it ..
i knew it.

I kept telling you that the game would release months after us .i told you all.. anda bunch of us players just told me that i didnt know what i was talking about and thats its not atlus fault.

Here i only want to say:
"screwyou index corp".

/end rant
 
T

TGMIII

Member
They're still bullshitting us. Why would Zen's CEO say they hope for August and then go radio silent. Why are they able to CONSTANTLY show it off at events but then say there's issues with development and why won't they fucking tell us what the issue is. It surely can't be that bad if they're flying around Europe showing it off all the time.

Nils said:
Sigh, so now it's stuck in a back and forth between Atlus Japan and them mediated by mailmen. Getting into the the competitive scene now will be arduous, and developing a local scene nigh impossible with other fighting game releases around the corner. I don't think we can reasonably expect to see it in September based on the wording in this message.
Click to expand...

The competitive scene was already going to be tiny, like seriously talking in the low hundreds, but it's pretty much dead on arrival now.

People have been apparently getting emails back from a Swedish Reseller(?) called Wendros AB telling them that the release date will be late October and that was before Zen put this up on their facebook page. If it does release in September then it's going to get crushed by TTT2, DOA5 and Borderlands 2.
 
L

LiquidSolid

Member
Choc said:
It was region locked to protect European sales as well I would think.

If you are negotiating a distro deal and you expect Zen to cough up some money you need to protect that market for the distributor....

the region lock was a convenient way to do it.

If not, Atlus could have only locked it out of Japan and USA cross-importation. US and EU could have been same region, or both allowed.


Easily. 1 line of code.
Click to expand...

Yeah sure, a tiny little European publisher managed to influence Atlus into region locking it in Europe, even though there are plenty of other (better) European publishers out there that they could've gone with. Come the hell on. There's no evidence pointing to them at all. No mention from Atlus or anything. Blaming them is completely ridiculous.
 
E

EVOL 100%

Member
Aretak said:
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.

Hope it bombs on release.
Click to expand...

This wouldn't help anything. It will just make them give even less priority to PAL regions.

I bought the game and I'm admittedly part of the problem, but this is really shitty :(
 
C

Canis lupus

Member
kirblar said:
It sounded like a contract issue w/ the Japanese stuff.
Click to expand...

Thats why they had to region lock? I dont know I have my own theory: Atlus just want us to sit and wait till the Euro version comes out since they know many Euro people import their games from NA. I'm afriad for P4G now.
 
A

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
Well, they are technically region locked aren't they? It's just that all you need is an SD card formatted to that region I believe.
 
T

TGMIII

Member
Pretty sure it was region locked due to the popularity of Persona in JP and the fact that it would have been cheaper to import a US copy if you were in JP. I doubt a tiny 6-7 man publisher were able to convince Atlus to region lock the game and it's not even going to sell anywhere near as much as it did in JP in the EU.
 
H

Herla

Member
And this is the new publisher for everything Persona related in Europe? Good thing we'll be able to at least import Golden...not that I find the idea of paying more than normal inviting :(

I was incredibly excited for Arena. It was going to be my first fighting game, I was going to buy a (cheap) stick, I would've sucked but it would've been awesome. I couldn't stop watching streams trying to understand how characters work, because no one was even going to release a fucking demo.

Disappointment of the year. Fuck them, I'll watch the story on youtube.
 
Andrefpvs

Andrefpvs

Member
Herla said:
And this is the new publisher for everything Persona related in Europe?
Click to expand...

We still don't know this for sure.

The best option would be for Index to open an Atlus Europe.

I don't believe them when they say they "love our European fans."
 
K

kirblar

Member
awwyeahgurrl said:
Pretty sure it was region locked due to the popularity of Persona in JP and the fact that it would have been cheaper to import a US copy if you were in JP. I doubt a tiny 6-7 man publisher were able to convince Atlus to region lock the game and it's not even going to sell anywhere near as much as it did in JP in the EU.
Click to expand...
This is in line with what I vaguely remember from the other thread. It's an internal Japanese issue related to the way in which they restrict market access to things like DVD sets internally to keep the prices high.
 
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