Matching Arc System Works’ fighting game knowhow and anime graphics with the Persona 4 license from Index Holdings is a perfect fit. Maybe not even unusual since developers talk to each other all the time. Street Fighter X Tekken and Tekken X Street Fighter, for example, started development because producers Yoshinori Ono and Katsuhiro Harada are buddies. That’s not how Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena came about, though!
"It was Atlus who wanted to do a Persona 4 fighting game and contacted us because our specialty is being a fighting game developer," Minoru Kidooka, President of Arc System Works, said in a Siliconera interview.
"It’s a funny story, [laughs] Atlus first contacted us through a general inquiry e-mail at [email protected]," Kidooka recounted. "It’s rare, but not completely unusual. While we do work with contacts, our front door is also open for all publishers!"
Good thing Arc System Works actually checks their general inquiry e-mail otherwise the Persona 4 fighting game may never have happened! Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena will first be released in arcades next spring and then ship for consoles in the summer. Read our hands-on impressions of the arcade version here.
