Atlus has changed its Persona 5 streaming policy after negative response from the community.
In a new statement on its website, the company said they were shocked by the response. “To our surprise, we then saw numerous reactive news articles go up, opinion videos post, and received many emails asking us to please change our Persona 5 streaming/video policy” read the statement.
Players can now stream or post video all the way until the in-game date of Nov. 19. This is when the final act of the story begins according to Atlus. The company also apologized for the threatening tone of the original policy.
Atlus’ original policy warned streamers that they shouldn’t show anything after the in-game date of July 7.  Additional restrictions included a limit of 90 minutes for video length and avoiding boss fights. The company advised that going beyond this date may carry consequences. Atlus even went as far as disabling the PlayStation 4’s Share button functionality. The company claimed this was to limit the spread of spoilers.
“If you decide to stream past 7/7 (I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT DOING THIS, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED), you do so at the risk of being issued a content ID claim or worse, a channel strike/account suspension,” read the original Persona 5 streaming policy.
A content ID claim can result in a video being removed from YouTube. If the video remains live, ad revenue can be given to the copyright holder instead of the channel owner. Copyright strikes are more severe and can result in an account and all videos being completely removed from YouTube. While Atlus said “it was never our intention to threaten people with copyright strikes,” their policy didn’t mince words.
Atlus isn’t the only publisher to cause a stir in the streaming/YouTube community. Nintendo’s original YouTube policy was to simply issue content ID claims and take all revenue generated by offenders. While they eventually altered their policy with the Nintendo Creators program they still demanded a 40 percent cut of ad revenue on approved videos.
The Persona 5 streaming policy is one of the few negatives people have brought up about the game. The game itself has received glowing praise from reviewers. In his review, our own Tyler Chancey said, “Persona 5 is one of those rare experiences that brings a lot to the table. On the most fundamental gameplay level there is a lot to enjoy.”
