Being perfectly experienced with how Atlus deals with their European fans I still find it surprising every time that we don't get a simultaneous launch with the North American version. Catherine came out 8 months after the NA release.

Has there been any rabble at all about an European release happening or should I just keep my wild Persona-fu dreams asleep until 2013?

Is the Xbox version at least region free?

how atlus deals with it's european fans? that sounds like Atlus purposefully doesn't release them because they're assholes; Atlus doesn't have a european office. If I were you I would check Ghostlight as they USUALLY publish atlus's SMT games in Europe.

Catherine was published by Deep Silver in the Europe

Persona 4 was published by Square Enix

Ghostlight is going to publish the Devil Survivor games for Europe so there is a good chance they'll publish this too.

I also heard a rumor that Zen United, the European publisher of the Blazblue games has shown interest in publishing Persona 4 Arena

As you can see ATLUS games are published by a lot of different people due to a lack of a European office for ATLUS

Continuum Shift was published by Arc System Works Europe.

Arcana Heart 3 was published by Arc System Works Europe.

If there's a European release, I bet it will be published by Arc System Works Europe.

(With 6-12 month delay, hu-hu-hu)

@Animasta: I honestly don't think they'd have much trouble striking down a publishing deal in Europe if they really wanted to. Granted, they might have their reasons to not do that, but it's not getting the game in our hands any sooner.

Well you can import the U.S. version on PS3 regardless, though I'm not sure if you will able to understand our strange dialect of English

@EvilKatarn: Well I'm sure you know a great deal about how International video game publishing rights work, It's not like it might be complicated or something.

@Commisar123: Sadly I'm on an Xbox.

@TechHits: As helpful at clearing up matters as your snide comment is, I still can't help but think that Atlus is an odd one. To me it seems like for every major release they have to search for an European distributor as if it were an afterthought, an unimportant matter. The localisation is mostly done for the NA version anyway so they either are not getting the sales they want from the European versions (explainable with imports due to large delays) or they don't care that much about the European market. If either of those weren't true then they'd most probably have a steady publishing partner by now making things easier both for Atlus and their European fans.

@EvilKatarn: I think you're confused. This game isn't being developed by Atlus, it's going to be an Arc System Works title.

@Vade said:

@EvilKatarn: I think you're confused. This game isn't being developed by Atlus, it's Arc System Works.

Yes it is. Both developers (Atlus and ArcSys) are working on this game in a development capacity. Atlus is publishing it.

@FluxWaveZ: Oh cool.

Well anyhow, Atlus doesn't do EU releases so very unlikely that they'll start now. Probably going to be pushed out by Arc if at all.

EU release confirmed guys. It's being handled by the same company that brought the BlazBlue series over here.

http://www.personaeurope.com/

http://www.facebook.com/PersonaEurope

Surprise!

Well, not really. I'm guessing latelate 2012 though.

@sameoldstuff: Very nice!

Oh thank god, I just learned of this. I'll buy whatever crazy collector's edition Zen United comes up with.

Zen United is a company composed of only 6 people (based on this interview), which might explain some things. P4A will have the same box art as the other versions in EU and there will be a Limited Edition and a "Super Special Edition" as well (wonder why North America didn't get a LE...).

 6 people

I have this thing on my iphone that tells me it's coming out on the 7th of august? is that the american release? is it bullshit? you be the judge

@Ethan_Raiden said:

I have this thing on my iphone that tells me it's coming out on the 7th of august? is that the american release? is it bullshit? you be the judge

It's the US release date.

Shopto.net says 7th of September which seems plausible, either way there's been no official announcement other than it'll be out before the end of the year.

I'm in the process of trying to convince everyone in Europe to speak the same language so these games get localized quicker.
 
But look on the bright side, hopefully all the networking issues will have been ironed out before it releases here in December.

@Sploder said:

Shopto.net says 7th of September which seems plausible, either way there's been no official announcement other than it'll be out before the end of the year.

Yep, word on the street is that P4A is releasing in Europe on September 7th. A month later than North America isn't too bad.

If this game isn't in my house by the 7th of September, I may actually implode.

@Sploder said:

Shopto.net says 7th of September which seems plausible, either way there's been no official announcement other than it'll be out before the end of the year.

Yep, word on the street is that P4A is releasing in Europe on September 7th. A month later than North America isn't too bad.

@EvilKatarn: Play.com and amazon say 31st August .

@pompouspizza: I also noticed that on Amazon. Seems too good to be true, so I won't be getting my hopes up just yet.

Seems like everyone other then Shopto seems to be going for 31/8/12 http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/828955-games-release-schedule-new-releases-on-xbox-ps3-wii-and-more this is the release schedule I follow, here's hoping.

also just found this http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-07-atlus-launches-impassioned-defence-of-persona-4-arena-ps3-region-lock

"It highlighted what it considers to be "a number of triumphs" for its US publishing division: the inclusion of dual language audio in the US version, and the reduction in time between the Japanese and Western release (the game goes live in the US two weeks after it does in Japan. UK publisher Pqube told Eurogamer yesterday it's working towards a 31st August 2012 release)."

This is great news!

I hope there's some fancy stuff we get in the box too, but that's mainly been there when Ghostlight has published Atlus' games, right?

@EvilKatarn: I'd assume that Zen will be doing a 'Super Special Limited Edition' since they pretty much have done for all their previous releases. As for a normal limited edition, most of the online retailers don't seem to have anything listed beyond the game itself.

Calamity Trigger had such a rough launch that I'm not willing get optimistic. The delays week after week were unreal.

It's September 7th.

@FluxWaveZ said:

It's September 7th.

Balls.

I'm actually pretty happy with the release date. August 31st seemed like a placeholder at best and I was expecting to wait until late October or something awful. A month behind the US isn't great but it could be much worse, like if they delayed it repeatedly

A month out isn't too bad considering that it took 8 months for Catherine to come to the EU. So glad that I imported that game when it came out in the US

@dropabombonit: You and me both, man.

But yeah, I'm actually really happy if this turns out to be true. I mean European players are used to WAY more delays than that. I was expecting at the end of the year or next year even. A month ? It's NOTHING at this point :'D

Sounds alright. Please let this be definite...

I am relieved that the wait is only a month. Was afraid it may have shared the same delay time as Catherine. Now altus better make sure Persona 5 is week of US release.

From a Zen United twitter account: https://twitter.com/PersonaEurope/status/232520315052380160

We have not yet announced an official release date. We'd like to assure you that we are doing all we can to release P4A ASAP.

Just putting that out there, I'd guess that they're just holding off the announcement though, unless for some reason the UK release date will be different.

From a Zen United twitter account: https://twitter.com/PersonaEurope/status/232520315052380160

We have not yet announced an official release date. We'd like to assure you that we are doing all we can to release P4A ASAP.

Just putting that out there, I'd guess that they're just holding off the announcement though, unless for some reason the UK release date will be different.

There's a little part of me that hopes that they keep the placeholder box-art. Reminds me of European Final Fantasy box-arts of old:

Oh, and it could do with coming out soon please.

I'm playing through Persona 4 and watching some of the endurance run. Getting me pumped for this game! :D

I might be a bit late, but to anyone interested it looks like information about the limited edition(s?) will be available soon. At www.personaeurope.com/shh though it's still empty, you can see what looks like "LIMITED E" at the top left and Teddie recommending you check back later. I'm hoping that they'll reveal the release date while they're at it, but extra stuff is great nevertheless.

In the newest swedish PC Gamer magazine is an ad for Persona 4 Arena and it says Release 28/8, but I still don't think it is anything confirmed

@DazzHardy said:

@Chibithor said:

From a Zen United twitter account: https://twitter.com/PersonaEurope/status/232520315052380160

We have not yet announced an official release date. We'd like to assure you that we are doing all we can to release P4A ASAP.

Just putting that out there, I'd guess that they're just holding off the announcement though, unless for some reason the UK release date will be different.

Well, that's just heartbreaking. If it's out much later than the 7th then it's going to walk right into a bunch of big releases over here :\

It is, and always was, going to sell to persona fans and arc systems fans. Selling cold to the general gaming audience was always going to be tough.

Apparently PQube, the Uk publishing group were aiming for a September 7th release, but they can't release the game until the other publishers are ready. Unfortunately Koch Media have no idea when they'll get around to it. Looks like we could be waiting for a long time. If this story is true anyway.

Yeah. Seems like people are talking about October now.

  @FluxWaveZ said:

Yeah. Seems like people are talking about October now.

As predicted, the game will probably be dead in the tournament scene before we even get to touch it.

Lets hope they can at least beat the 12 month delay that Blazblue had.

Yes, I'm still bitter I can't import.