Directed by Katsura Hashino Person 34 and 5, said in an interview that it was Persona 3 that saved Atlus from collapse and changing the company for the better. It probably would have been the company’s last game if it hadn’t sold well.
Hashino In an interview with Japanese radio station J-Wave, he said that Atlus was on the verge of bankruptcy before Persona 3 was released. Fortunately, the choices made for the game paid off and it was a huge success.
With this game, Atlus was forced to expand its vision and target a wider audience. senior developers They were against it, fearing that the studio’s core fans would disagree with the choice, but eventually agreed.
In the mid-2000s, Atlus was not sailing in good waters and successes were lacking. With Persona 3, Hashino suggested aiming for a broader target rather than targeting hardcore fans, making the game more appealing to a different audience, but that’s an insufficient niche to support the company.
The success got Atlus back on track and the Persona series exploded, with the family of games reaching the huge numbers achieved by Persona 5, which sold over 9 million copies.
Today, Atlus is a powerful studio with many unannounced projects in development and expected to be announced by the end of this year.