Persona 5 is Atlus’ best-selling title to date, with millions of copies sold for both the original game and Persona 5 Royal. However, with the games only available on PlayStation, non-console players have no way of experiencing one of Atlus’ best RPGs.
That’s not to say that fans haven’t been clamoring for a Persona 5 PC port. On the contrary, the community has been consistent in asking Atlus to release its games on other platforms, like PC and even Nintendo Switch. Sadly, the developer has yet to say anything conclusive about the matter. Be that as it may, Atlus would no doubt benefit from releasing its games - Persona 5, especially - on PC.
Bringing Persona 5 To A Wider Audience
What many main Persona titles have in common is that they’re only available on PlayStation consoles. This sets them apart from other JRPGs, like Final Fantasy and Yakuza. Even so, the series is widely renowned, with a strong community supporting it. However, it’s this same community that persistently calls for Atlus to port the Persona games to PC.
Atlus has already proven that it can release a Persona game for PC platforms and have it perform well. Persona 4 Golden became available on Steam in 2020 and was a huge success. Despite having been released in 2008, the PC title sold over 500,000 units in less than a month. If anything, this shows that mainline Persona titles would do well when released on PC.
This is especially true with Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal, which are the newest mainline titles in the series. The games feature a unique, stylized visual design that fans believe would look best on a graphically capable PC. Game consoles can, admittedly, be limited by their graphical capabilities as opposed to PCs that are infinitely more upgradable and customizable. Given this, many fans think that playing Persona 5 on PC would offer the best visual experience.
Aside from graphical improvements, a Persona 5 PC port would undoubtedly bring the title to a wider audience. A huge portion of the gaming community is made up of PC gamers, so naturally, the game would be far more accessible on that platform. Plus, considering that so many of the current fanbase is calling for a PC port, some of them will likely purchase the game again — meaning there are sure to be sales.
Rumors of A Persona 5 PC Port
Given that Atlus has yet to release a Persona 5 PC port, the community took matters into its own hands. In 2017, a group of people tried to get the game to run on a PlayStation 3 emulator known as RPCS3. Atlus attempted to stop the project, citing that Persona 5 is best experienced on the platform it was developed for. However, the company was unsuccessful, and Persona 5 is now playable on the Playstation 3 emulator.
Still, Atlus’ statement on the matter was interesting. The company said that it was aware that many Persona fans wanted a PC port and that the developers were “listening.” This led the community to believe that there may be hope for a PC port. While Atlus went on to release Persona 4 Golden in 2020, there is still nothing conclusive on whether Persona 5 or Persona 5 Royal will get the same treatment.
Still, rumors of a PC release are cropping up again after Atlus updated its Steam page to display 14 game listings, rather than the previous 13 in mid-December of 2021. Given that the Atlus Steam page currently displays 11 games, the developers might have three new PC titles in store for the community. Unsurprisingly, fans are hoping one of them is Persona 5 Royal.
Persona 5 is available now on PS3 and PS4.