Why Persona 5’s Delay Into 2016 is Actually Good

In September, the Persona 5 hype train kept rolling with another brand-new trailer, which had fans excited with four minutes of awesome footage…until the end, when the game’s 2015 listing was changed to Summer 2016.

So I’m torn. I really am. On one hand, Persona 5 was my most anticipated game of 2015, even more than two other titans in Fallout 4 and Tales of Zestiria. While all of the spin-offs and side games for Persona 4 have been enjoyable, and Persona 4 Golden was a near-perfect version of a game that was already classic, it’s been long enough that I find myself completely ready for 5. Waiting longer is going to hurt.

But going into mid-September, we still had virtually no information on a game that was supposedly coming out by the end of the year. With a game as meticulous and detailed as Persona, that wasn’t a good sign. It’s one thing to play things close to the chest and not leak information (Fallout 4 did a great job of that, actually); it’s another to announce a release date in February and then go dark for months.

Persona 5 will be a stronger game thanks to the delay. For an 80- to 100-hour RPG, I’ll take the most polished experience I can get.

Sure, the current video game market can be frustrating. Games constantly miss their release dates, sometimes being pushed back multiple times before going gold. Others are rushed without the benefit of delays, and need a post-release patch (or patches) just to form an acceptable gaming experience.

Even a handful of titles with exact release dates (as opposed to windows, like a year or a season) fall victim to the same trend, failing to appear for months. Mighty No. 9 comes to mind.

While it would have been nice to get our hands on Persona 5 before the end of this year, it became clear around late summer or so that it simply wasn’t going to happen. Disappointing, sure, but if it means that we get a once-in-a-generation classic as a result, then it will have been worth the wait.

(If you missed it, the trailer is below: check it out for all sorts of goodness like several new looks at the interface, some battle footage, running down a sand dune, and much more.)