Atlus Issues Threat to Players who Stream Too Far Into Persona 5

[Lizzy Finnegan]

Atlus Issues Threat to Players who Stream Too Far Into Persona 5

Atlus has issued a warning to anyone planning to stream Persona 5.

Atlus has posted a note to Persona 5 players [http://atlus.com/note-persona-5-streaming/] who may be considering streaming the game or posting gameplay videos.

For starters, you can post as many videos as you want, as long as they are under 90 minutes long, include "no major story spoilers," including the "ending segments of the first three palaces," and don't post anything that includes certain scenes, characters, and cutscenes. Streamers are even more limited. Streamers are warned to not stream any content at all past "7/7" - the early July portion of the game.

If you do decide to stream any content beyond that point, Atlus says "you do so at the risk of being issued a content ID claim or worse, a channel strike/account suspension."

"Simply put, we don't want the experience to be spoiled for people who haven't played the game," the post reads. "Our fans have waited years for the game to come out and we really want to make sure they can experience it fully as a totally new adventure."

This doesn't appear to be a new standard for Atlus, as the post concludes by stating that Persona 5 is a "super special case."

In order to keep yourself out of trouble, check out the Video and Streaming content limitations, directly from Atlus' post, below.

Video Content

You can post however many additional videos you'd like, but please limit each to be at most 90 minutes long.
No major story spoilers, and I'll leave that up to your good judgment. If you need some guidelines, avoid showing/spoiling the ending segments of the first three palaces. While you can show initial interactions with Yusuke, avoid his awakening scene, and that whole deal about THE painting. Also, don't post anything about a certain student investigator.
I know I mentioned not showing the end of each palace, but you can grab footage from the Kamoshida boss fight. However, don't capture video from the other major boss fights.
Must not focus solely on cutscenes/animated scenes, should prominently feature dungeon crawling/spending time in Tokyo.
You can post straight gameplay or have commentary.

Streaming Content

This being a Japanese title with a single-playthrough story means our masters in Japan are very wary about it. Sharing is currently blocked through the native PS4 UI. However, if you do plan on streaming, video guidelines above apply except length. If you decide to stream past 7/7 (I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT DOING THIS, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED), you do so at the risk of being issued a content ID claim or worse, a channel strike/account suspension.

[gallery=7152]


Permalink

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

I think Atlus is about to learn a lesson in the power of spite.

I mean, I appreciate their commitment to not spoiling their game, but this is going waaaaaaaaaaay overboard. People will see this, and post all of that shit on throwaway accounts.

 

[Saltyk]

Yeah, this is stupid. If your fans don't want the game to be spoiled, they shouldn't watch a Let's Play or a stream of the game. If they're watching that and get spoiled when they didn't want to, that's their own fault.

This is just one more example of YouTube's copyright strikes being used badly in my book.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Wow, dick move Atlus. It's like they don't trust people not to spoil things for themselves.

Where are the Phantom Thieves when you really need 'em?

 

[Battenberg]

"If you decide to stream past 7/7 you do so at the risk of being issued a content ID claim or worse, a channel strike/account suspension."

What a crock of shit. I don't have a PS4 or any real knowledge/ interest in the Persona series but this seems like an utterly backwards move. Sad thing is despite these guys effectively openly threatening to abuse YouTube's copyright system we all know YT will let them get away with it and continue ignoring how stupid their system is. Kinda curious about how Twitch would handle this though as they're generally not too bad with copyright; literally all I've seen them enforcing is removing audio on highlight videos that uses copyrighted music, never seen them close out accounts or directly interrupt streams or anything like that.

Hopefully people go well out their way to stick a middle finger up to this kind of behaviour, even if only on a bunch of alt accounts (although tbh I'd kinda love to see these guys get shit on trying to take down a big YTer like pewdiepie down over basically nothing).

 

[WeepingAngels]

I have always been against developers trying to control the experience players have, all the way back to the Game Genie debates (and lawsuit).

 

[fix-the-spade]

Yup, threatening to abuse the DMCA in an attempt to control your publicity, that'll go well.

Begs the question, when they file their false copyright strikes on Youtube/Twitch and the channel comes back with a counter DMCA claim, will they follow it all the way through to court? Of course not, but I'm still waiting for the developer/publisher boneheaded enough to try it.

 

[CaitSeith]

Didn't someone in the forums made a post about rage quitting Youtube because it was spoiling Persona 5? This move from Atlus makes me wonder if there were more reactions like that out there and Atlus decided to become the Youtube police as an answer. Or maybe Atlus is just a control freak.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

Well, time to find a full Let's Play of Persona 5. No need for me to bother buying the game.

 

[Fulbert]

Objective: Be an obedient llttle consumer.

 

[J.McMillen]

Personally, I think the vast majority of Persona 5 fans should take this as an insult to their intelligence. Apparently Atlus doesn't think that most Persona 5 players are smart enough to stay away from Person 5 videos & streams that may contain spoilers. When I don't want something spoiled I make sure to avoid anything with a title that looks like it might contain spoilers.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Wow, way to rain on your own parade there, Atlus.

Here you make what appears to be a terrific game, and then you go and be a giant **** toward people who want to share the love.

 

[Majestic Manatee_v1legacy]

Lol. Overreaching much. Precious must not be spoiled. They hides the precious. We must seeks the precious, oh yes we must!

 

[Vinsin]

Well I'm not a major streamer, so I won't be streaming it or dealing with the headache / have the funds to afford lawyers for it. But I could definitely see this as a cause someone will take up and completely -shatter- in court. Hell I could almost see Jim Fucking Sterling streaming this from start to finish just to show how false these claims are when put under actual legal light, though I think he's had enough destroying companies in court already.

But by god am I now going to -watch- the streams that defy this rather than buy it. If it looks fun for the gameplay I may buy it at a later date, but I'm more content providing people who ignore this a little extra gain and views than those who abide by it.

 

[drkchmst]

This game has been out in Japan for months...gth Sega (I hope it's Sega and not atlus that is the source of this)

 

[Saelune]

If you click on something that says "Finale" on it and complain about being spoiled...go fuck yourself.

If you say "You can stream anything you want...except the beginning, middle, end, sound and video"...go fuck yourself.

 

[Weaver]

I don't want Persona 5 spoiled for me personally, so my ingenious plan is to not watch P5 videos or streams. Simple, isn't it?

 

[Cether]

As a person who streams regularly I'm gonna give a big "F*** YOU" to Atlus. Also I love Atlus as a dev, but if this was a PC release I'd stream the whole game out of spite, and probably title my stream: "Spoiling everything try and stop me" if it'd fit. Considering they'd have to go through Twitch to get anything done I'd be very interested to see how that goes.

As it is they'll just go through Sony who will probably be a lot more amiable towards the corporate dickery.

 

[BarkBarker]

I look forward to those who find a story spoiler mid stream, then just leave the stream on and go do something else stuck on that story spoiler JUST to rub it in. You don't command how people play their games around other people, if you don't wanna get spoiled kill your watch history on youtube and don't watch streams.

 

[Tanis]

Goddamn it Atlus is THIS was SEGA did to you?

Fuck.