Persona 6 Development Status Clarified by Insider, Persona 4 Revival Outsourced to Tose

In the ever-evolving landscape of Japanese role-playing games, few franchises command as much anticipation as Atlus's Persona series. As of late 2025, with the Persona franchise approaching its monumental 30th anniversary in September 2026, fans have been eagerly awaiting news about the next mainline entry. Recent clarifications from a prominent industry insider have provided much-needed context about the development status of Persona 6, while also shedding light on the production of the recently announced Persona 4 Revival.

A well-known leaker, NateTheHate, has recently stepped forward to address growing concerns within the community. On December 12, 2025, he directly dismissed notions that Persona 6 was trapped in development hell, a fear that had been festering due to Atlus's prolonged silence on the project. This statement served as a significant reassurance to the fanbase. The insider's comments came in response to questions about a previous report from May 2023, where he had suggested Atlus was internally targeting a 2024 release for the game. While the implication of this timeline shift points to a potential delay, the leaker emphasized that the project's progress remains steady, not stalled. He did not, however, provide specific details on what may have caused the adjusted schedule or offer a new potential release window.

This development update is set against the backdrop of the project's known history. The first official acknowledgment of Persona 6 occurred over four years ago, in July 2021, when Atlus published job listings on the Japanese website Green. These listings included a statement from Atlus executive producer Naoto Hiraoka, who explicitly mentioned the company was hiring additional staff for Persona 6 due to rising fan expectations. "Exceeding [Persona] 5 will be difficult with the current staff," Hiraoka stated, highlighting the company's ambition for the title from its early stages. This early recruitment drive indicated that pre-production or active development was underway at that time, setting the stage for a project that has now been in the works for several years.

In a related and revealing disclosure, NateTheHate also provided new insights into Persona 4 Revival, the remake of Atlus's beloved 2008 JRPG that was officially unveiled at the June 2025 Xbox Games Showcase. The insider clarified a crucial detail: Atlus is not the primary developer for this remake. Instead, development has been outsourced to Tose Software, a Kyoto-based company founded in 1979. Tose is renowned as one of the world's largest game development outsourcing firms, often working behind the scenes on major titles. A November 2025 report from Japanese outlet GameBiz identified Atlus and Square Enix as Tose's two largest clients over the past year, accounting for more than 22% of the company's total revenue for 2025. This outsourcing arrangement is a key piece of information for understanding Atlus's current workflow.

This structural detail has significant implications for the development of Persona 6. The fact that Persona 4 Revival is being handled externally suggests that the project is not diverting critical internal resources away from the next mainline entry, alleviating a common fan concern. This means Atlus's internal P-Studio—the team formerly known as Creative Department 2nd Production—can remain fully focused on Persona 6. Given that modern AAA development cycles often average around five years, and with Persona 6 known to have been in development since at least 2021, there exists a fascinating theoretical possibility. It is not outside the realm of possibility that Persona 6 could see release before Persona 4 Revival, despite the remake having been announced first and the sequel remaining officially unannounced.

Atlus has a notable history of such scheduling intricacies. The development and release patterns of their recent major titles provide clear precedents:

• Metaphor: ReFantazio was first revealed as 'Project Re:Fantasy' in December 2016 but did not launch until October 2024.

• Shin Megami Tensei V was both announced (January 2017) and released (November 2021) entirely within that long gap.

• Persona 5 Royal was announced in December 2018 and released in March 2020, also during the extended wait for Metaphor.

This pattern demonstrates Atlus's capacity to manage multiple major projects with staggered announcements and releases. The announcement of Persona 4 Revival without a specific release window further supports the idea that it may still be years from completion, potentially aligning its launch window with or even after a surprise reveal and release of Persona 6.

As the franchise's 30th anniversary in September 2026 draws nearer, Atlus will soon have a natural and highly anticipated platform to finally break its silence on Persona 6. Whether this comes in the form of a teaser, a full reveal, or even a surprise shadow drop, the anniversary presents the perfect milestone. The insider's confirmation that development is proceeding steadily, coupled with the strategic outsourcing of Persona 4 Revival, paints a picture of a studio carefully managing its resources and ambitions. For fans who have been waiting since that first job listing in 2021, the path forward, while still shrouded in mystery, appears to be on solid ground rather than in developmental purgatory. The coming year promises to be a pivotal one for the Persona series, potentially bringing the long-awaited next chapter into the light.

According to coverage from SteamDB, Steam release patterns and app metadata often reveal how publishers stage announcements and rollouts, which is useful context when weighing fan speculation about whether a long-in-development flagship like Persona 6 could surface ahead of an already-revealed remake such as Persona 4 Revival.