Dear Atlus,

It's been a great year for Persona; with the release of Persona 4 Arena, Persona 4 The Animation finishing this year with the second and final Blu-Ray and DVD collection to come out soon, and Persona 4 The Golden, the game that is probably likely to be most responsible for PS Vita sales. However for fans from Australia, New Zealand and all throughout Europe, this year has been one of frustration.

Now I’m not here to talk about how the only way to get the Persona 4 Anime Blu-Ray or DVD is through import (which I think is something we’re use to at this point); or even how Persona 4 Arena was region locked to stop importing before release, and now the PAL version still hasn’t been released over 4 months after the US version was. (I think all of us have read this http://www.personaeurope.com/faq at this point, and most of us can understand). I here to say how you can make up for it and calm the angry fans down so you can take your time with Persona 4 Arena! AND why it’s a smart idea to do so!

Long before I bought my PS3 I sold some of my PS2 games, and then gave my PS2 and the rest of my games to charity. So when I bought a PSP, I bought Persona 1, 2: Innocent Sin, and 3 Portable. Then before I got my PS3, I heard Persona 3 FES was on PSN, so I hoped to buy it. (Because while I think Portable plays better in all aspects, it still lacks some things that as a fan I miss, ESPECIALY The Answer.) Then to my shock/disappointment I found out it was only on the US PSN. But thanks to a website that allows people to buy PSN cards from other countries, I made a US PSN account to buy and download the game, and thanks to the whole “No region-locking because it’s dumb” thing I can play it on my Australian PS3. Because even though I had to jump through some hoops, I could still buy the game digitally and have it downloading to my console very soon after, because if I have the option to buy something instead of having to resort to piracy because its more convenient, I will buy the thing.

Now you may notice that the RE says ‘Persona 4 on PSN in all regions’, this is because many of us PS3 users no longer own a PS2. Now this issue has been solved by developers in multiple ways; through PSN release, through release of HD collections, and some of the very few bad HD collections have PC versions of the originals *COUGH Silent Hill 2&3 *UNCONVINCING COUGH! Now the close-to solution for Persona 4 was to make an amazing version of the game for the Vita with a ridiculous amount of extra content. Now sales numbers show that nowhere near as many people own PS Vitas as they do PS3’s, as it should considering the Vita came out this year, but the only people that have bought a PS Vita specifically  for Persona 4 The Golden are the hardcore fans with a decent amount of disposable income. Now since "There are no plans to bring Persona 4 Golden to any platform other than PS Vita" – Aram Jabbari (Source: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/08/07/persona-4-arena-bursting-onto-ps3-today/) there is no playable version of Persona 4 for PS3 owners, unless they have one of the original models, or they have jailbroken there console. While it would be nice if Persona 4 The Golden made it to PS3, I think the community can understand it not considering it is one of the few games people seem to be getting a Vita for. But while Portable was made for the PSP with a lot of awesome new features, you still made FES available a year after the final (EU) release of the game, but that does seem way to long.

So with that in mind, why not release Persona 4 on PSN, it and Persona 3 FES could even be sold as a bundle to introduce new players to the series (as they are more player friendly than Persona 1&2), then they could play Persona 4 Arena since it’s a continuation of both stories. Plus the fighting gamers that bought Persona 4 Arena because it won ‘Best Fighting Game’ at the VGA’s and on many popular video game sites, might have been interested in the story and want to go back to those two games. For example, if someone went on the PSN to search for DLC for Arena, they would easily stumble upon Persona 4 and think “Well I think the story is interesting and it’s cheap/very convenient to just download it straight to my console, WHY NOT!” Plus if somebody new to the series buys Persona 4 and loves it, (which they will, because it’s amazing) then finds out there is an even better version of the game that they can play on the go, when a PS Vita price drop happens and they buy one, they won’t be taking a risk on a full price JRPG they have never heard of, instead they will buy it because they would have played the original and loved it.

So to sum up all I’ve been trying to say here, Persona 3 FES is already available as a PSN download for those that want to play the original game of the RPG they play on the go, why can’t the same be done for Persona 4? I mean, why limit who can buy it? As Gabe Newell says “Piracy is almost always a service problem”, so if the game can be stolen online and start downloading to be either emulated on a PC or played on a jailbroken PS3, and the only legitimate way to get the game is to buy another system and spend 7-14 days importing a physical copy, then why not let the game be bought online and start downloading to be played on a regular PS3 system the customer regularly uses?

Yours Truly,
                       An Average Persona Fan

PS: I know if this ever makes it to someone with the power to do this, it will be at a time when P4G has been out for a LOOOONG time. So even more reason to do this?