P-Studio

P-Studio
Founded	2006
Headquarters	Setagawa, Tokyo, Japan
Owner	Index Corporation (2006-2013) Sega (2013-present)
Key people	Katsura Hashino Shigenori Soejima Shoji Meguro
Products	Persona series Catherine

P-Studio, also known as Creative Department 2nd Production, is a development studio and subsidiary of the publisher Atlus, formerly owned by Index Corporation and currently under the ownership of game developer & publisher Sega as of 2013. Since 2006, the team has been primarily responsible for the development of the Persona series, a sub-series of role-playing games that is part of the wider Megami Tensei franchise. In addition to solely developing the series' main entries, P-Studio has also served as a co-developer and supervisor on various spin-offs or collaborative titles with other developers both within and outside of Atlus, such as Persona 4 Arena & Arena Ultimax with Arc System Works, and Persona 5 Strikers with Omega Force.

Company history

A new development team, simply known as "Creative Department 2nd Production", had been established within the publisher Atlus during the production of Persona 3 in 2006, to co-exist with the Creative Department 1st Production team, who were primarily responsible for developing entries in the main Shin Megami Tensei series at the company. The 2nd Production division would instead become the primary stalwart studio in charge of producing and supervising all games and other products related to the Megami Tensei sister franchise, Persona, after previous entries in the series on the original PlayStation (Revelations: Persona (1996), Persona 2: Innocent Sin (1999), and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (2000)) had been largely developed by the Creative Department 1st Production team. Leading the new Persona development team would be primary producer Katsura Hashino, who also served as the director of Persona 3 and other prior Atlus games such as Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne (2003). Hashino would go on to also reprise his director duties for Persona 4 in 2008, and Persona 5 in 2016. Meanwhile, character designer Shigenori Soejima would become the lead character designer of the series' subsequent entries beginning with Persona 3, after having contributed secondary character designs during the production of Eternal Punishment, and Shoji Meguro would lead the sound team at the studio, coming off of his duties as composer for other Atlus games such as Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner (2004).

P Studio was formally acknowledged as the name of this division on October 19, 2012 along with its official trademark in Japan's trademark database "for use with video games and online games." However, the "Persona Team" had been referred to oftentimes before then as the development team responsible for Catherine (2011), Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Golden (both 2012). The studio's logo first appeared on the back of the Persona 4 Golden box on June 14, 2012.

In 2016, following the Japanese launch of Persona 5, Katsura Hashino officially announced his intent to depart P-Studio and retire his commitment to the Persona series, citing a desire to move onto another project due to his feelings that Persona 5 would mark a shift in the series' overall direction. He would eventually found another internal studio within Atlus known as Studio Zero, which would become responsible for developing original IP and content adjacent from the Megami Tensei franchise including future Persona games. Studio Zero would release its first project, the enhanced re-release Catherine: Full Body for PlayStation 4 in 2019, while a version for Nintendo Switch would be released the following year. They are currently developing the untitled RPG Project Re:Fantasy. Atlus USA (now known as Atlus West) would thereby release a press statement on December 23, 2016, clarifying that while Hashino's preoccupation with developing the upcoming RPG Project Re:Fantasy with Studio Zero dispelled any possible involvement with the Persona series at present, "P-Studio, the production team in charge of Persona, will continue to operate at full strength to develop new entries to fulfill demand for the series". Additionally, Atlus reaffirmed that series character designer Shigenori Soejima and composer Shoji Meguro, would continue to reprise their respective duties for future Persona projects simultaneously with their involvement in Studio Zero and Project Re:Fantasy. Meguro himself would subsequently depart Atlus full-time in 2021, out of a desire to pursue freelance composing and partake in designing indie games, however he reasserted his continued involvement with Atlus as a composer.

List of games

As Creative Department 2nd Production

• Persona 3 (2006) - PlayStation 2
• Persona 3 FES (2007) - PlayStation 2
• Persona 4 (2008) - PlayStation 2
• Persona 3 Portable (2009, 2023) - PlayStation Portable, Nintendo Switch
• Catherine (2011) - PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC

As P-Studio

• Persona 4 Arena (2012, with Arc System Works) - Arcade, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
• Persona 4 Golden (2012, 2023) - PlayStation Vita, PC, Nintendo Switch
• Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (2013, 2022, with Arc System Works) - Arcade, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch
• Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth (2014, with Atlus' Etrian Odyssey team) - Nintendo 3DS
• Persona 4: Dancing All Night (2015) - PlayStation Vita
• Persona 5 (2016) - PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4
• Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight (2018) - PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita
• Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight (2018) - PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita
• Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth (2018, with Atlus' Etrian Odyssey team) - Nintendo 3DS
• Catherine: Full Body (2019, developed original game) - PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch
• Persona 5 Royal (2019, 2022) - PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
• Persona 5 Strikers (2020, with Omega Force) - PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC