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The Results of Atlus's Consumer Survey From May 2022 (Most Wanted Remakes etc.)

Ishaan

Member
Localization, Historian, Reporter
Each year, Atlus conducts a lengthy survey that asks their fans about their playing habits, platforms they own, what games/franchises they like, and so on. This year, the survey was open to participants from both Japan and North America. In a stream today, Atlus shared a few basic insights into what kind of people responded, and what games they wanted to see remade the most.

How many people responded to the survey:
  • 13,971 people responded from Japan
  • 30,760 people responded from North America
  • Total survey respondents: 44,731

Gender breakdown:
  • Male respondents: 64%
  • Female respondents: 32.4%
  • Others/Not specified: 3.6%
Age breakdown:
  • People aged 10-19: 10.6%
  • People in their 20s: 30.6%
  • People in their 30s: 37.1%
  • People in their 40s: 21.7%

Time spent on games:

Weekdays:
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Holidays:
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(Apologies for the quick and dirty Photoshop job.)


Hopefully, this and the recent Persona announcements let people know that Atlus does take these surveys seriously, even if not every game is on every platform. The entire point of this livestream was to demonstrate that they have been looking at their annual surveys.
 
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Most wanted remakes
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Titles people want to see remade most (with % of votes):

1. Persona 3 / Persona 3 FES / Persona 3 Portable: 78.9%
2. Persona 2: Innocent Sin / Persona 2: Eternal Punishment: 78.9%
3. Revelations: Persona: 76.3%
4. Persona 4/Persona 4: Golden: 74.8%
5. Raidou Kuzunoha series: 72.1%
6. Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers: 69.5%
7. Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse: 66.7%
8. Shin Megami Tensei IV: 65.3%
9. Digital Devil Saga series: 62.4%
10. Etrian Odyssey series: 58%


Shin Megami Tensei titles the most people played as their first:

1. Shin Megami Tensei [Super Famicom]​
2. Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei [Famicom]​
3. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne [PS2]​
4. Devil Children: Red Book/Black Book [GBC]​
5. Shin Megami Tensei V and Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne HD​


Persona titles the most people played as their first:

1. Revelations: Persona [PS1/Windows]​
2. Persona 3 Portable [PSP]​
3. Persona 3 [PS2]​
4. Persona 5 [PS3/PS4]​
5. Persona 4 [PS2]​


And that's a wrap on the stream.
 
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Hopefully, this and the recent Persona announcements let people know that Atlus does take these surveys seriously, even if not every game is on every platform. The entire point of this livestream was to demonstrate that they have been looking at their annual surveys.
While i do think that these surveys are important to them on some level, i dont quite follow how these presentation of this data and the relatively late Persona 5 ports announcements are proof that they take these serious. Going multiplattform with your biggest IP doesnt really need this type of survey nowadays, its common sense. People wanting Persona on a portable/Switch as well, games on PC sure, finally on Xbox heck yeah ?

I feel like they took as long as possible to deliver what everyone was expecting for years and want to be celebrated for it now ? Dont get me wrong its really cool that its happening and im looking forward to be able to play P5R later this year. Just dont see the direct connection based on the survey data presented atp.

P4G sales on Steam, Switch general popularity, Phils GamePass money as well a Sony probably having secured the next mainline title finally allow P5R to be released on multiple systems. Might be wrong on it but i just wonder what kind of data they could take from this kind of survey, that would even steer them in a different directions, except the everything is multi unless a plattform holder deal is in place.
 
Crazy how old-school the people answering the survey are. Lots of demand of the first Persona titles despite the shift since 3. Lots of people entering the franchise 20 years+ ago.
The people mostly likely to take a survey are the ones most dedicated and integrated into the franchise.
 
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of selection bias going on. The age range was kind of expected but when I saw the responses to what game they started with I was floored. Still, these ARE the consumers that will likely spend the most money on Atlus brands, so I guess it's still good data to have.
 
Seems like it's pretty much only the most hardcore fans answering this survey. Those most common first games are definitely not the norm
 
Digital Devil Saga (s) can be just a remastered.

But i will faint if Persona 1 and 2 getting full remake.
 
Seems like it's pretty much only the most hardcore fans answering this survey. Those most common first games are definitely not the norm
I also think that the pools were the result of only the JP survey because P1 and SMT 1 being both the first game people played in the West is almost impossible that it is the case for the general public.
 
You could tell right away that the "first played" results were skewed because SMT4 wasn't anywhere on the list, and Atlus said themselves that SMT4 was responsible for introducing a ton of newcomers to the series. SMT5 being so low is a dead giveaway, too.

The results look look to be a mix of extremely oldschool Japanese players combined with western players whose last exposure to SMT was when it was still on PlayStation. Probably not a stretech to imagine that they're more Persona fans who happen to have a passing interest in SMT, but haven't had a chance to engage with the brand since it moved off PS.
 
If Atlus takes these surveys seriously, then it makes sense they will not put anything on Switch going forward. Looks like a survey hijacked by a group of fans that did not correspond to the recently successful games in their IP stable.

Whatever Persona 1 and Persona 2 were, they are not widely played games especially in the light of recent successes, and not many people (Japan or West) showed up for the re"port"make (it's the reason why the P2EP re"port"make is cancelled in the west) when those games had a chance...

AFAIK, DDS 1&2 didn't sell that well either, yet it's also up there.
 
If Atlus takes these surveys seriously, then it's the equivalent of a publisher using the Famitsu Most Wanted chart as quantifiable data to show how their games have performed rather than the weekly Media Create/Famitsu charts.

In fairness, it would not be surprising to hear that's how many publishers have conducted their research and made their decisions in regard to their home market in recent years.

It would also subscribe to the ancient rules of "less data is better" and "context doesn't matter."
 
Shin Megami Tensei titles the most people played as their first:

1. Shin Megami Tensei [Super Famicom]​
2. Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei [Famicom]​
3. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne [PS2]​
4. Devil Children: Red Book/Black Book [GBC]​
5. Shin Megami Tensei V and Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne HD​


Persona titles the most people played as their first:

1. Revelations: Persona [PS1/Windows]​
2. Persona 3 Portable [PSP]​
3. Persona 3 [PS2]​
4. Persona 5 [PS3/PS4]​
5. Persona 4 [PS2]​
This seems to imply that the "which SMT game did you play first" question excluded Persona titles (which is technically true, but do most users really know about that distinction? hard to say).

In either case, if a plurality of respondents first played Persona 1 (the PS1 or PC version), that means they would've probably been at least around 10 years old when it came out in 1996. The fact that the SMT question came up mostly SMT1 and NES Megami Tensei of all things suggests the respondents are very much over the age of 35.

Just going off of vibes, I would've guessed most fans picked up the Persona series (at least in Japan) started with 1, 3, or 4, with a big gap in between. Persona 1 (PS1) was, until P5, I think the best or one of the best-selling games in all of MegaTen.
 


In kinda related news Devil survivor 2 has its anniversary today in japan. I wish enough people wanted these games in the survey.
 
I would rather we have DeSu 3 on the chart there. But at least some people still remember Etrian unlike Trauma Center.
 
It’s true that there seems to be selection bias with this survey but… there’s always selection bias with internet surveys. I always felt it was a bit silly to see anger about Atlus NOT taking surveys seriously enough. It’s an internet survey, one way or the other it’s going to have a big heap of selection bias.
 
It’s true that there seems to be selection bias with this survey but… there’s always selection bias with internet surveys. I always felt it was a bit silly to see anger about Atlus NOT taking surveys seriously enough. It’s an internet survey, one way or the other it’s going to have a big heap of selection bias.

They are not angry, they are hangry.
 
You could tell right away that the "first played" results were skewed because SMT4 wasn't anywhere on the list, and Atlus said themselves that SMT4 was responsible for introducing a ton of newcomers to the series. SMT5 being so low is a dead giveaway, too.
To be fair I’d argue the same thing about the Persona results. I mean P5 is really low on the list P1 is older than a lot of the respondents.
 
The platform preferences doesn't´t have on video?
No,but it isn't the only thing they haven't shown though and I suspect that even the rankings of the 1st entry of the Megaten/Persona franchises are the ones from the JP survey only because if not they make no sense especially the Persona one because P1 PS1/PC didn't release in the West.
 
No,but it isn't the only thing they haven't shown though and I suspect that even the rankings of the 1st entry of the Megaten/Persona franchises are the ones from the JP survey only because if not they make no sense especially the Persona one because P1 PS1/PC didn't release in the West.

 
The people mostly likely to take a survey are the ones most dedicated and integrated into the franchise.
Yeah, it´s best to make a survey on the streets at random ( Japanese big cities, an example) than an online survey. Online surveys demonstrate core market angles and biases. But strangely no platform preferences, this is not a good explanation without platform preferences. Strange. It´s incomplete information, not platform preference, asking consumer´s future purchase, asking platform buying intention.
 
Soooo. Turns out we might be getting Raidou Kuzunoha remasters on Steam.

Coincidence or not, that lines up perfectly with the survey results from 2022:

Titles people want to see remade most (with % of votes):

1. Persona 3 / Persona 3 FES / Persona 3 Portable: 78.9%
2. Persona 2: Innocent Sin / Persona 2: Eternal Punishment: 78.9%
3. Revelations: Persona: 76.3%
4. Persona 4/Persona 4: Golden: 74.8%
5. Raidou Kuzunoha series: 72.1%
6. Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers: 69.5%
7. Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse: 66.7%
8. Shin Megami Tensei IV: 65.3%
9. Digital Devil Saga series: 62.4%
10. Etrian Odyssey series: 58%

The interesting thing here is that the Raidou games are probably a little more difficult to remaster than the Digital Devil Saga duology. This is because the DDS games are more or less built on top of Nocturne, in that they're third-person dungeon-crawling RPGs. The Raidou games, on the other hand, are more like Devil May Cry, with pre-rendered backgrounds that would require the upscaling treatment for a re-release.

That said, there actually is likely a good reason that the Raidou games are happening first.

For one, Raidou Kuzunoha 2 actually beat expectations in Japan, back in the day. It was expected to ship 120,000 copies and instead shipped 180,000. It may seem like a small figure today, but we're talking 2009, when Atlus was a much, much smaller company. Of all the SMT games on PS2, I believe Raidou 2 may be the only one that actually beat expectations. (We know that Nocturne sold below expectations, as did DDS2.)

The Raidou games were also popular enough in North America that Atlus USA felt it was worthwhile to give them both reprints—yes, actual PS2 reprints—in 2013, to coincide with the release of the Soul Hackers port on 3DS. (At the time, they couldn't be released on PSN, because they weren't compatible with Sony's PS2 emulator.) And of course, it also doesn't hurt that Raidou was also a guest character in the final re-release of Nocturne, and was present in the marketing cycle for the HD remaster.

So, yeah... That's the somewhat-unknown story behind Raidou Kuzunoha's popularity.
 
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