Fans have been clamoring for a western for a long time, and finally the highly anticipated Persona 5 spin-off/sequel is coming to the west. Realizing one of the earliest gameplay concepts for the base game, Persona 5 Strikers adopts the musou format and melds Dynasty Warriors action combat with Persona's elements of turn-based battles. The game's been available in Japan for several months already, but after the leaked trailer, the localized version is coming a year later in February 2021. That being said, even though Strikers' localization is very good news, it does beg a pretty big question thanks to its release on Steam: Where's Persona 5's PC port?
Many would make the assumption that, since Persona 5 Strikers is not only being localized but ported to PC as well, the game it's based on would also theoretically come to the PC platform. As much as Strikers is a spin-off game, it is still very much a sequel to the events of Persona 5/Persona 5 Royal. Players are going to get invariably more enjoyment out of Strikers if they've played Persona 5, which is obviously going to be very hard to do if PC players never owned a PS4. However, SEGA and Atlus have shown a renewed interest in the PC platform as a whole in the last few years, for multiple reasons. The Strikers port is almost certainly a sign of what's to come.
Persona's Popularity on PC Specifically Lends Hope
The Persona series in general saw a pretty big boost in popularity this year, but the PC platform in particular is seeing a lot of love from Atlus. For the first time since its release on PlayStation Vita, Persona 4 Golden was surprisingly ported to PC after spending years on the Sony handheld. The Steam port alone saw huge adoption from fans, with over 500,000 copies sold on Steam within the first month. SEGA and Atlus saw this as a clear success, and made several statements expressing renewed interest in old titles and bringing them to PC. However, Persona 5 Strikers coming to Steam is a pretty clear indicator SEGA's PC plans extend beyond just legacy content.
It's also relevant to point out that, at the moment, Persona 5 is technically playable on PC currently via the RPCS3 emulator. However, you would need to rip an ISO from a legal copy of Persona 5 (or acquire one through more nefarious means) to play it. Of course, that ended up being a pretty big concern for SEGA and Atlus, as videos on YouTube and a Patreon page started gaining traction in 2017 for depicting the PS3 version of Persona 5 running on PC.
Atlus USA filed a DMCA takedown of the Patreon page for RPCS3, but specifically targeted any mention of Persona 5 rather than the software itself. Releasing Persona 5 officially on Persona 5 may be SEGA and Atlus' way to circumvent that issue.
Strikers Releasing Without Persona 5 Wouldn't Make Sense
As a result, theoretically speaking, it wouldn't make sense for Persona 5 Strikers to release on PC without releasing the game its based on. At least, not eventually. Persona 5 doesn't need to release day-and-date with Strikers, but at some point the base game should (and likely will) be ported to PC as well. Not porting Persona 5 would be like if Persona 4 Arena was ported to PC before Persona 4 Golden had been. Even if Strikers is technically a spin-off, the game is largely regarded as a sequel (similar to Persona 4 Arena's story) and wouldn't have the same impact on new players. Character relationships and dynamics wouldn't make any sense without Persona 5's context.
Pair that with the public messaging SEGA and Atlus have stated regarding the PC platform, the publisher seems to hypothetically agree. In the past, SEGA has mentioned the company's intentions to "aggressively promote the porting of previously launched titles to Steam and other new platforms," in reference to Persona 4 Golden's success. Persona 5, or more likely Persona 5 Royal is likely on the way to Steam at some point, though it's unclear when that may happen.
The Likely Release Window for Persona 5 on PC
With Persona 5 Strikers coming next February, there's two big possibilities for a Persona 5 Royal port's release date. Firstly, and perhaps the less likely scenario, SEGA and Atlus could shadow-drop Persona 5 on the same day as Persona 5 Strikers' release. Persona 4 Golden dropped on Steam in June with no pre-release announcement, and saw pretty great success regardless. Either that or it still releases in February, but there's a short trailer announced beforehand at something like The Game Awards.
It's less likely compared to the alternative, which would be to release Persona 5 Royal on the one-year-anniversary of its release on PS4. Final Fantasy games have had timed-exclusivity on PS4 before, so Persona 5 Royal could be in a similar situation. That would mean Persona 5 Royal theoretically hits Steam on March 31, 2021, assuming a port is already in development. Either way, for most fans waiting for a Persona 5 port to PC, it's more a question of "when" than "if" at this point.
Persona 5 Strikers releases on February 23, 2021, for PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch.