According to a blog post from PlayStation revealing its April lineup for PlayStation Plus, the gaming service is removing the wildly popular Persona 5 from the platform.
PlayStation covered a lineup of new additions to the PlayStation Plus service coming in April, specifically Hood: Outlaws & Legends, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated and Slay the Spire. Buried at the tail end of the blog post, the company revealed that players have until May 11 to download Persona 5 before it leaves PlayStation Plus. Players who download the game before it goes can continue to play it as long as they maintain an active PlayStation Plus account.
PlayStation Plus launched alongside the PlayStation 5 back in November 2020 and has seen little change-up in its content since. Just yesterday, PlayStation announced a revamp of the PlayStation Plus to make it more competitive with the Xbox Game Pass. One of the prevailing issues the new PlayStation Plus has compared to the Xbox Game Pass is the lack of new games on day one of release, which critics say can only be mitigated by PlayStation, including a competitive back catalog. The removal of Persona 5 could surprise many, given this and the game's enormous popularity.
The Persona series began as a spin-off of the popular Shin Megami Tensei series but has since easily eclipsed the original games. Persona 5, released Sept. 15, 2016, is often considered one of the best JRPG games and is undoubtedly one of the most popular. Developed by Atlus, the game takes place in modern Tokyo. It follows a high school student going by the pseudonym "Joker" after transferring to a new school following a false assault accusation. Over the course of the story, he and several other students awake to new powers and join together to become a vigilante group known as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. They battle while using a physical manifestation of their psyches known as Personas.
Removing Persona 5 might come as something of a surprise, given both its popularity and the expectation of more to come for the Persona series this year, given its recent 25th anniversary. A remaster of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax was released just this month, while a complete collection of Persona's soundtrack releases on vinyl this fall.
Persona 5 remains available for download until May 11 on PlayStation Plus. Besides removing Persona 5 in May, PlayStation Plus subscribers have until April 4 to download the March PlayStation Plus games, Ark: Survival Evolved, Team Sonic Racing, Ghostrunner (PS5 version only) and Ghost of Tsushima: Legends.
Source: PlayStation