Atlus USA Understandably Silent on Persona 3 PSP Announcement

The announcement of the PlayStation Portable port of Persona 3 in the latest Famitsu article has left many gamers outside Japan wondering if or when the North American arm of Atlus will announce the localization of the game, which will include among other extras a new female main character and improvements to the game mechanics, such as being able to control your party members in battle.

When Gaming Union asked Aram Jabbari, also known in the Atlus community as Atlus A.R.A.M. (short for "Atlus advertising, resources, and marketing"), he had this to say about Atlus's plans for localizing the game:

Nothing to discuss :)

While this isn't the answer most gamers want to hear, it is understandable. Atlus is in the process of advertising the PlayStation Portable remake of the original Persona. Announcing the localization of Persona 3 Portable would only serve to belittle the sales of Persona, which includes numerous improvements that ties the game in with the newer Persona games and features a completely rewritten storyline that rectifies the changes that were made to the characters in the PlayStation version.

Combining the original Persona 3 and the Director's Cut, Persona 3: FES, Persona 3 as a whole has sold around 300,000 copies, which far exceeds the sales most of the titles Atlus publishes. Thus, it is likely that an localization announcement will come later this year or in early 2010, possibly alongside Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, which is set to be released on the Nintendo DS in October 2009 in Japan.

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