Atlus softens Persona 5 streaming restrictions

Publisher Atlus has apologised for the over-zealous streaming restrictions that were imposed for RPG hit Persona 5.

Earlier this month the company threatened to take action against anyone who streamed gameplay beyond the in-game date of July 7th. It said the rule was an attempt to prevent spoilers ruining anyone’s enjoyment.

To our surprise, we then saw numerous reactive news articles go up, opinion videos post, and received many emails asking us to please change our Persona 5 streaming/video policy,” Atlus has now said.

We recognize that our fans are the reason why the game is the major worldwide success it is, and we continue to want them to be able to enjoy the game without fear of being spoiled. However, we also heard your issues with the guidelines and have decided to revise them.

Because we want to give players the most access to the game while respecting the original goal, we’re now asking players to refrain from streaming or posting video past the end of the in-game date of 11/19—when the main story gears up for the final act.

We also want to apologize to those of you who saw the previous guidelines blog post as threatening. We want to be transparent about what we do, and the reason we released the guidelines was to give streamers the right information up front. It was never our intention to threaten people with copyright strikes, but we clearly chose the wrong tone for how to communicate this.”

However, note that the game still blocks the use of the PS4’s Share button. And any restrictions at all still put Persona 5 in an unusual place compared to its peers, most of which are delighted to receive the attention of high-profile streamers or YouTubers.