Persona 5 is a chill game, so it’s only fitting that the developers at Atlus would have no chill whatsoever, openly threatening content claims and strikes for anyone who streams too far in the story.
Today on their website, Atlus USA posted a note to streamers, asking everyone to refrain from spoiling Persona 5 and to avoid posting too many plot-heavy videos. They also slipped in this nugget:
This being a Japanese title with a single-playthrough story means our masters in Japan are very wary about it. Sharing is currently blocked through the native PS4 UI. However, if you do plan on streaming, video guidelines above apply except length. If you decide to stream past 7/7 (I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT DOING THIS, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED), you do so at the risk of being issued a content ID claim or worse, a channel strike/account suspension.
That being said, Persona 5 is a super special case for us and we’re in ongoing discussion about how our policies may evolve in the future. Thanks for reading and good luck in the Metaverse.
By “7/7”, Atlus is referring to July 7 in the calendar of Persona 5‘s school year, which begins in April. Essentially, they’re asking streamers to stop playing once they have gotten through about a third of the game.
Insanely, Atlus has also decided to block Persona 5‘s sharing features on PlayStation 4. It should be noted that these policies undoubtedly come from Atlus’s main headquarters in Japan (rather than Atlus USA), where developers can be a little sensitive when it comes to spoilers and streaming in general. (See: Nintendo.) It is also, as the kids might say, resoundingly unchill.
Comments
11 responses to “Atlus Threatens To Go After People Who Stream Too Far Into Persona 5”
On one hand we want mature, deep and engaging stories in our games.
On the other hand, we want to just really get the plot over and done with quick smart to talk about it online with our friends.
Streamers/influencers/content creators are clearly not going to adhere to what Atlus is requesting, that’s a given.
Atlus Japan have every right to do this, that’s what articles like this tend to ignore.
It’s lost revenue for them if I just hop on a stream and watch the whole thing played for me.
It’s something I was (and still am) considering.
Atlus USA is at pains to mention that this game is a rare exception to things, and as a company Atlus as a whole will put further energy into working out how it has to deal with Youtube/Twitch/etc in the future.
After all that, I don’t see how you can begrudge them for politely asserting this course of action, all in the name of wanting to protect and cultivate potential customers of theirs and fans of their work.
And yeah, fuck Nintendo while we’re at it again eh. I would have bought Persona 5 on Switch but oh well.
Maybe I’m weird, but I find watching other people play games to be pretty dull. I certainly can’t even imagine watching somebody else play a 100+ hour RPG instead of spending that time playing it (or something else) myself.
Completely agree. Maybe it’s a generational thing, I don’t know.
If I was going to watch a stream I’d want it to be a specific reason like perhaps a speed run or someone showing glitches or playing a game in a creative way that it was perhaps not intended to be played.
Simply watching someone play a game all the way through is boring AF.
Just play the game!
I honestly believe that if you are considering to watch the whole game on a stream or youtube instead of buying the game, you were never going to buy the game in the first place, and Atlus probably haven’t lost any revenue as you were never going to contribute to it.
Don’t use streamers and LP’s (and apparently brand loyalty as well) as an excuse for you not wanting to support a game. No one is forcing you to watch those instead of playing the game, that’s all your choice, you choose to spoil the game for yourself and you choose to not buy it.
this won’t stop anything. There’s always streamers or websites who’ll show everything past the embargo chapter and will never get caught. While those who comply with the embargo get screwed out of views. This only hurts those who try to do the right thing. Those who want to spoil will always find a way to do so
I can totally understand this as you don’t really want people spoiling the story too early, at least for those who wish to play the game.
However more of a middle ground solution would be for the best, perhaps after a month or so drop this “restriction” and people can finish off their streams or at least can post their recording of such streams after X amount of time to youtube etc.
That being said said streamers/letsplayers (even tho it is pretty obvious thing to do) should at least warn people that they risk going into spoiler territory if they want to continue watching.
It sounds insane, but when you think of something as story-driven as Persona, in some places it borders on a visual novel. So if you think of it getting close to someone streaming a brand new movie on Twitch – I don’t know – Rogue One, or maybe something in cinemas right now like Ghost in the Shell, it maybe begins to make a little sense.
Not 100% on board with the idea, but it’s definitely a grey area – I get it.
Well at least ATLUS were fair and went after all the people streaming the Japanese version when it came out… Oh wait…
ATLUS used to be cool but in the last few years they’ve become class A jerks.
threatening their fanbase is never a good thing
No, not at all. They’re asking streamers to stop streaming the game. Streamers are free to continue playing the game, so long as they don’t stream it.
The rights holders are well within their rights to do this as this is their intellectual property and game streaming is in no way covered by fair use. The only way you could make a case for fair use is if the streamer recorded gameplay and then edited out more than 50% of the work and provided commentary that critiques, educates or parodies the game.
If streamers are able to stream a game in its entirety, this is because the rights holder permits them to.
Makes perfect sense to me. You don’t see a notice at the cinema “turn off your recording devices after about 1/3 of the movie”