Persona fans were incredibly excited and high on expectations for a new entry as the world stepped into the year 2026. This is because Atlus will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the popular franchise.
Preparations for it have been going smoothly, with new artwork and animated video clips that were promoted. Everything seemed fine until an announcement on the official Fitness Boxing Twitter/X account mentioned an official collaboration game with Persona 5.
The mood in the fanbase has not been the same ever since. Fans banded together to ridicule the fact that they were getting another spin-off in the Persona 5 series instead of a completely new sixth entry to properly celebrate the anniversary.
The history of Persona game releases
There is no question about the fact that the Persona franchise is currently one of the most popular JRPG series in the world. It single-handedly brought back mainstream faith into turn-based combat games, since Square Enix was letting go of it with Final Fantasy XV.
The Persona series started off as a spin-off of the popular Shin Megami Tensei monster-collecting franchise. It eventually became its own game franchise, with the popularity skyrocketing due to game Director Katsura Hashino helping the game design evolve to new heights.
But sometimes overpopularity can also be detrimental for a franchise’s life line. We have seen it multiple times happen to some of the most popular video games in existence, such as the Assassin’s Creed games and the Call of Duty series, which have become yearly affairs.
It is a common fact that Atlus is a meticulous developer who actually takes their time in releasing new entries, making fans wait for decades. Persona 5 is the entry that garnered way too much mainstream success. Atlus could need all the time in the world to develop the sixth entry into something that far surpasses that success.
The problem arose when the impatient fanbase started getting annoyed by how much of the waiting time got hogged by Persona 5 spin-offs over the whole decade. This is not an isolated drama with the community, as we saw disappointed reactions from fans during the Persona 25th anniversary year.
Fans took to Twitter/X to express their frustration with having to wait for Persona 6, using various memes and images that make a lighthearted note of mockery towards their beloved developers.
This is not the first Fitness Boxing collaboration
On the Brighter side, fans of the Fitness boxing franchise seemed to be delighted as this means a new entry in one of their favorite franchises. The Fitness Boxing game series is a rhythm-based boxing game that was originally released for the Nintendo Switch.
It utilizes the hardware’s Joy-Cons to train players in rhythm-based boxing. This is another of many attempts by Nintendo to innovate gaming technology beyond sitting down on a couch.
The Fitness Boxing franchise is developed by the talented people at Imagineer, and this is not going to be the first time that this game series will see a crossover with a popular IP. World-famous Vocaloid Idol Hatsune Miku had also made a collaboration appearance in one of the titles.
All said, the creators of Persona are still not in the deep and have time to win back the trust of their fans. But patience has since been wearing thin as the demand for a new entry keeps increasing every day.
