Persona 5 on PC is happening. After years of other Sega series making their way to PC, Atlus's popular RPG series was one of the last major holdouts. That changed in 2020 with the release of Persona 4 Golden on Steam, which sold well despite being a decade-old game. In 2021, Persona 5 Strikers (the hack and slash spinoff) also launched on PC. Now, at last, we know that Persona 5 Royale is coming to PC too. Hell, so is Persona 3.
Here's everything we know about Persona 5's launch on PC.
Persona 5 confirmed for PC
Persona 5 on PC reveal trailer
After all the speculation and rumors and waiting, we are indeed getting Personas 3 and 5 on PC. This was a reveal during the Xbox Showcase in June 2022 so of course the focus was on the series coming to consoles but there's no mistaking the confirmation that Persona 5 Royale is hitting Windows PCs too.
When does Persona 5 release on PC?
The Persona 5 PC release date is October 21, 2022, which Xbox announced during its summer showcase in June. After all the time we spent asking for Persona 5 on PC, October doesn't seem so long to wait at all.
Persona 5 PC rumoprs
If you want to re-live all the pining and waiting, here's all the rumors, crumbs, and evidence we collected for the years leading up to Persona 5 Royale finally being announced on PC.
Persona 4 and Strikers on PC are good evidence for a Persona 5 release
Persona 4: Golden got a surprise release on Steam in 2020. That's excellent news for fans of great RPGs, but it's also a good sign for a potential PC version of Persona 5. This definitely shows that Atlus is interested in Persona's viability on the PC, so it's hard to believe they're not also considering releasing Persona 5.
Persona 5 Strikers, an action game co-developed with Dynasty Warriors studio Omega Force, launched on PC in February 2021. It's certainly not a guarantee that Persona 5 Royal will come out on PC, but it seems like a good sign, especially considering Strikers' story picks up six months after Persona 5's.
Altus is announcing seven Persona-related projects
As part of a year-long 25th anniversary celebration, Atlus said that it will be announcing seven new Persona-related projects between September 2021 and autumn 2022. They won't all be game projects, most likely. But if a Persona 5 PC port is in the works, the year of anniversary announcements seems like the time for us to hear about it.
Atlus asked players if they would like a PC port for Persona 5
In 2019, Atlus released a survey to its US players with a number of questions about their opinions on the future of several series. Although the survey is no longer available, Persona Central posted a list of questions from the survey that look pretty credible.
Reportedly, Atlus asked players "What do you want to see from Persona in the future?" with "PC Port" being an available option alongside things like DLC content and other platform ports. Of course this question was one of many, including the future of other Atlus series and players' other gaming habits. It's far from a promise, but Atlus likely isn't testing the water out of idle curiosity.
Atlus targeted a PS3 emulator with a DMCA takedown notice over Persona 5
Last year, Atlus issued an aggressive DMCA takedown notice to PS3 emulator RPCS3, initially going to Patreon to request the project's campaign be removed entirely. At the time, RPCS3's page listed instructions on dumping Persona 5's software from a disc or PSN download. RPCS3 has since removed all reference to Persona 5 on both its Patreon and official webpages.
In its statement on the takedown notice, Atlus says "We understand that many Persona fans would love to see a PC version. And while we don’t have anything to announce today, we are listening! For now, the best way to experience Persona 5 is on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3."
Atlus may not necessarily have immediate plans to port Persona 5 to PC, and companies often do take preventative measures to protect their intellectual property, but its harsh stance on the situation may indicate they have more than a passing interest in releasing their own PC port.
A Persona 5 PC listing on Amazon was "an error"
Amazon in France briefly had a listing for Personal 5 Royale for PC. Sega clarified by saying "That listing is an error and we’re looking into having it taken down and how it happened."
They also told IGN that "The listings are not accurate. We have made no announcements to bring these games to PC."
Well, they haven't made any official announcements yet, anyway.
We asked Sega about Persona on PC back at E3 2017—here's what it said
Flash back to E3 2017. We asked Sega's John Clark about the chances of the Persona and Yakuza games coming to PC, a year before Yakuza 0 was announced at our very own PC Gaming Show.
Here's how he responded when we asked specifically why Atlus games hadn't come to PC at that time. "The great thing about being involved with Atlus and you see it through Sega America and Atlus—they’re bringing out Persona 5, which is an Atlus title but they’re bringing out new editions of the Yakuza titles, they’re doing that together—and so it just makes sense that we all talk together about extending all of those, incredible IP, across to Steam and recognise the fact that the PC audience adds to those community and consumer experiences, it doesn’t detract from it and it isn’t anything that they need to be concerned about, so... those conversations definitely happen."
"It just makes sense that we all talk together about extending all of those, incredible IP, across to Steam and recognise the fact that the PC audience adds to those community and consumer experiences."
Sega's John Clark in 2017
We put to Clark that everyone has a wish list of games they want to see on PC from Sega, and that the publisher seemed to be aware of it, based on the release pattern of its old classics. Here's how he responded: "Yeah, if you send that list to us and I’ll [show] you which ones we can tick, which ones are on our list, which ones are possibilities, which ones are not possibilities, which ones we’ve talked about, which ones we’re talking about, which ones we’re working on—they’ll be on that list." This is pretty non-committal—in short, Sega has a big list of old games it could bring to PC, and some are possibilities, while others aren't.
When we asked about Yakuza, Clark said, "It’s on that list, you know?" Obviously, we know how that ended—with Yakuza 0 landing on PC just over a year later and winning one of our GOTY awards. We then pressed on Persona. "Of course, of course—I keep saying ahead of you, I’m trying to guess what you’re going to say next..." Clark seemed to be referring to Persona also being on the aforementioned wish list, here.
"But we don’t feel that anything is off the table in terms of these conversations," he continued. "The fact that as an organisation, we’re having these [conversations], they’re healthy conversations, they’re constructive, we recognise the value, we recognise the value of the community, we recognise the value of the IP. The IP has got continued life to grow bigger and yeah, we’re having those conversations."
Again—all very non-committal, and I definitely suggest reading the full interview for context on our discussion. But the fact that 18 months later we have both Catherine and Yakuza 0 on PC suggests there aren't many limiting factors keeping games off PC.