Persona

E3 2023 has been canceled, but there are a number of big-time summer gaming shows coming up, beginning with Sony's PlayStation Showcase on May 24. Events from Microsoft, Ubisoft, and other companies will follow in June and beyond. Naturally, not everything stays a secret. In this post, we're rounding up some of the leaks and rumors we've come across so far.We will keep updating this story over time and will add more information as it comes to light. Bear in mind, too, that we have not been able to…

The Persona series has topped 17 million in sales, while Yakuza (also known as Like a Dragon) has surpassed 20 million units sold.This comes by way of a recent Sega and Rovio press conference detailing key financial stats for the company's top games. Elsewhere during the presentation, Sega announced that Sonic the Hedgehog has surpassed 1.4 billion units "sold," though it's important to note this stat includes free-to-play mobile downloads--such as Sonic Dash, which has reached over 500 million downloads…

Identity management used to mean making sure you had your driver’s license when you left the house, but these days it’s not so easy: Identity fundamentally underpins how we engage with the digital world, and identity services can take on many forms (and, unfortunately, abuses). I’m excited to host a TechCrunch Live event with Persona co-founder and CEO Rick Song, one of the early movers in the space, about how his company identified ID management as an opportunity. This TechCrunch Live event takes place on Wednesday,…

Persona 5: The Phantom X is a new mobile and PC spin-off of the very popular Persona 5. It's currently only slated for release in China, with no news of an international release yet.P5X's very first closed beta ended on March 31, and we've listed below what we know so far about the gameplay and story. Keep in mind that mechanics and other details revealed during the beta may change for the full release.Who's making the game?Publisher Perfect World and developer Black Wings studio are making Persona 5: The…

When Jeremy Kamil started to sequence samples of the rapidly spreading pandemic coronavirus in the spring of 2020, it was clear where he should deposit the genetic data: in GISAID, a long-running database for influenza genomes that had established itself as the go-to repository for SARS-CoV-2 as well. Kamil, a virologist at Louisiana State University’s (LSU’s) Health Sciences Center Shreveport, says he quickly struck up a friendly…

Gameplay footage of what appear to be a full-blown Persona 3 remake and the next Jet Set Radio game has reportedly emerged online. The leaks supposedly stem from a 2021 internal meeting at SEGA Japan and features a five-second clip of Persona 3 protagonist Yukari Takeba firing a barrage of arrows at an airborne Shadow. The clip then transitions into a cinematic for 2022's Sonic Frontiers, before showing a glimpse at a character resembling Beat from Jet Set Radio dancing in the streets of Shibuya, Tokyo. Persona fans have…

Persona 5: The Phantom X is a new spin-off of the series designed for the Chinese smartphone market. And while it features familiar environments and characters, one of them is suspiciously absent: Joker's barista friend, Sojiro Sakura.We've already seen that the mobile game will feature both new and returning characters, including the Phantom Thieves themselves, as well as a new cast of misfits. However, while the coffee shop Cafe Leblanc features as a location in the The Phantom X, a screenshot posted to…

Atlus is expanding its Persona 5 universe once again, this time with a mobile game for iOS and Android that is being developed by Chinese studio Perfect World Games under supervision from Sega and Atlus.Titled Persona: Phantom of the Night, the game features artistic contributions from Persona series designer Shigenori Soejima, as well as plenty of the trademark action from the fifth entry in the action-RPG series. You can see more for yourself in the trailers below (via Gematsu) ahead of the game's first…

Mobile spinoffs based on beloved console games can sometimes be hit-or-miss. But based on an initial pair of trailers, I’m cautiously optimistic about the newly announced Persona 5: Phantom of the Night (aka The Phantom X). Following a tease in April 2021, “P5X” is now official, and is in development for Android, iOS, and Windows. Unfortunately, none of the press materials mention an international launch, so it sounds like it might be exclusive to China.That’s a shame, because (from the trailers at least) this looks like…

A new group of Phantom Thieves will be stealing hearts in Tokyo. Black Wings Game Studio, the developer owned by Chinese company Perfect World Games, has unveiled a new mobile game set in the Persona 5 universe. The previous spinoffs of the title, Persona 5 Strikers and Dancing in Starlight, feature the original gang, but this one comes with a brand new cast of characters. While it wasn't created by Atlus itself, Persona: Phantom of the Night (or Persona 5: The Phantom X, shortened as P5X) had SEGA's blessing. It was also…