Earlier today, Atlus issued DMCA takedown notices to RPCS3, a PlayStation 3 emulator for PCs. Atlus’ move came after the devs advertised RPCS3 as compatible with Persona 5. The DMCA takedown notice affects emulation dev group Nekotekina as well as their Patreon page.
In a blog post, Atlus explained why they felt compelled to take this move: “We believe that our fans best experience our titles (like Persona 5) on the actual platforms for which they are developed. We don’t want their first experiences to be framerate drops, or crashes, or other issues that can crop up in emulation that we have not personally overseen,” they stated.
Atlus also explained that they were listening to Persona fans who looked forward to a PC version, and while there is nothing to announce on that front, they remain aware of that push. “For now, the best way to experience Persona 5 is on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3,” said Atlus.
Atlus expressed appreciation for “the awareness generated by the emulation community” for Persona 5 . “Unfortunately, when our content is illegally circumvented and potentially made available for free, in a format we do not think delivers the experience and quality we intend, it undermines our ability to do so by diverting potential support from new audiences,” said Atlus.
The bottom of the blog post has a big Share button, encouraging fans to continue the discussion elsewhere. Fans took to Twitter to express their thoughts:
I respect them for releasing a statement on this. Most pubs often are seen as the "enemy" with the DMCA, but it's their right to protect IP.
— imalsodan (@drd7of14) September 26, 2017
People want your games on PC! Listen to them!
— pav (@pash1k) September 26, 2017
While Patreon ultimately didn’t take down the dev team’s page, the team chose to “proceed with caution” and resolve the situation by removing every reference to Persona 5 on their webpage as well as Patreon page.
“Why Atlus would choose this time to target this project will probably never be known. We choose not to speculate about the reasons at this time and hope for there to be open communication with Atlus. We firmly believe we operate within a legal framework and will continue to work on RPCS3, undeterred,” the RPCS3 team posted on Reddit.
They added, “RPCS3 as a project and the Patreon itself are safe. And whatever people may wish, there's no way to stop any playable game from being executed on the emulator.”
What do you think of Atlus’ statement and RPCS3’s stance? Was Atlus in the wrong for requesting a DMCA takedown of the team’s Patreon “without any prior communication”? Are you looking forward to an official Persona 5 game on PC? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below.
- Gripping, twisty-turny story
- Collect all the waifus!
- Rapid-fire turn-based combat
- Infectious soundtrack
- Literally everything
- A cat making you go to bed when you're not tired
- Say goodbye to your actual life
