Persona 5 Streams: Atlus Issue Guidelines & Warning
A lot of people expressed disappointment after Atlus announced disabling the PS4 share function and placing limits on Persona 5 streams. Don’t give up though! Atlus USA have come forward with further details on what is and isn’t allowed to help you make the most of your Persona 5 streams and not get into trouble.
Here’s the key things you need to know:
Please, PLEASE do not post any specific plot points or story spoilers, and only talk about the game in broad strokes. (Good example: “The game deals with dark themes right off the bat, with a lecherous teacher and other corrupted individuals.” Bad example: “Players immediately run into trouble with the pervy teacher *spoiler*, whose actions go so far as to cause *spoiler*.”)
You’re more than welcome to talk/show Confidants, the new combat, the Velvet Room, the dungeons, etc. Just please keep in mind that as a singular story playthrough, viewers are *highly* wary of spoilers!
In-game Content Limit: Please limit video content through the in-game date of 7/7.
Video Content
- You can post however many additional videos you’d like, but please limit each to be at most 90 minutes long.
- No major story spoilers, and I’ll leave that up to your good judgment. If you need some guidelines, avoid showing/spoiling the ending segments of the first three palaces. While you can show initial interactions with Yusuke, avoid his awakening scene, and that whole deal about THE painting. Also, don’t post anything about a certain student investigator.
- I know I mentioned not showing the end of each palace, but you can grab footage from the Kamoshida boss fight. However, don’t capture video from the other major boss fights.
- Must not focus solely on cutscenes/animated scenes, should prominently feature dungeon crawling/spending time in Tokyo.
- You can post straight gameplay or have commentary.
Streaming Content
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.
Many streamers and Let’s Players reacted very negatively to Atlus USA’s decision, as you’d expect, but it makes sense that they want to minimise spoiler risks for such an amazing and highly anticipated game. While it is a disappointment, it’s not as though the game is totally off-limits – Atlus Japan were even stricter in their limitations!
The blog post does also mention there’s ongoing discussion about how these policies may evolve in the future. Perhaps this will see a move to more acceptance of streaming not only Persona 5 but their other games, though I doubt they’ll ever be on a par with Telltale about it. Telltale, whose games are super story-driven, yet they allow and even encourage people to share them online… Hm. The drama of it aside though, Persona 5 really is an incredible game, so enjoy it!
Persona 5 is out now on PS4 and PS3. You can read our (spoiler free!) review here.
- AeternoBlade II Out now on Switch and PS4 - October 11, 2019
- Code: Realize Future Blessings Comes to Switch Spring 2020 - October 3, 2019
- Code Vein Out Now, Launch Trailer Released - September 27, 2019
