Sonic the Hedgehog‘s two films have proven to be major successes for Sega. Now, the company is looking to expand its media outreach by exploring more possibilities in film and TV — especially for games developed by Atlus. That’s right, this includes the shining star of Atlus’ many JRPG projects: live-action Persona. This is according to a report by IGN, which stated that the publisher is “expanding storytelling forms [as] a new and important part of Sega’s overall business strategy.”
The report sounds good for Atlus fans. Sega’s lead producer on the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movies and Sonic Prime TV series, Toru Nakahara, cited Atlus’ “high drama, cutting-edge style, and compelling characters” as a reason for adopting these games to the big screen. Nakahara specifically cited Persona as a franchise Sega would like to expand as a way to expand on the lore.
Reach out to the truth
Sega didn’t confirm if any of these series’ were actually in production at the moment. However, they certainly seem to be a huge interest within the company. While Persona is definitely Atlus’ most popular franchise at this point, I would imagine Shin Megami Tensei‘s general post-apocalyptic setting, demons, and minimalistic storytelling would lend itself to live-action media better than Persona. But then again, this probably wouldn’t play to a larger audience.
The Persona franchise is currently enjoying its 25th anniversary, so it’s possible an announcement for a live-action adaptation is forthcoming. So far, the most major release we’ve seen in the celebration of the anniversary was the re-release of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. There hasn’t been too much in terms of new content for the series. A live-action film or TV show would align perfectly with the anniversary or at least an announcement of it. Either way, let’s just hope that Sega can work out the same magic that was seen in the Sonic films.
