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[Game] Chapter 291: First Live Stream and the Upcoming Pre-Orders
🕑 Added 2025-07-11 17:40:50 +0000 UTCOn Friday evening, half an hour before the live stream was scheduled to begin, Ichin and the team were already in the studio making final preparations.
After adjusting all the equipment, Ichin turned to the two voice actors and said, “For today’s stream, just follow the plan we went over. I’ll also handle the translation, so no need to be nervous—just act natural as usual.”
The two voice actors weren’t new to this. They had participated in many game and anime-related live events, including ones in China, so they were calm and relaxed. In fact, they started chatting with Ichin about the figurines, even jokingly asking if they could each get two once the production batch was ready.
Of course, that wasn’t a problem at all. Ichin agreed right away—once the final products were completed, they’d be sent to them.
Soon, as everyone waited comfortably, the stream began.
Umiko, who was managing the camera feed, raised his hand for the countdown. Three, two, one—and the stream went live.
Glancing at the monitor in front of him, Ichin turned to the camera and said, “Hello everyone, welcome to today’s live stream. Wow, quite a few people are already here—it seems everyone’s been looking forward to this. Let’s not waste time and go ahead with introducing today’s guests.”
Everyone in the chat was already familiar with the two voice actors. After a brief introduction, Ichin replayed the promotional PV so everyone could review it together. After that, he began explaining the game’s setting.
The stream, originally planned for an hour, ended up running a little over, but it went extremely smoothly. After discussing the game’s world and the core mechanic of “Personas,” the voice actors took over to showcase the battle system in-game.
This was far more detailed than the few seconds of battle footage shown in the PV. It gave viewers a much fuller understanding of Persona’s combat system.
To wrap up the demo, they also showed the feature for switching characters inside the Palace. They controlled Ann Takamaki and had her run a lap through the dungeon.
Ann’s Phantom Thief outfit—a tight red leather suit—matched her tall, model-like figure perfectly. During the demo, many viewers in the chat couldn’t help but comment “Careful, you’re gonna get banned!”
But Ichin was unfazed. Controlling Ann, he performed a swift flip and ambush, stealing a mask from an enemy and showing off a full battle sequence before wrapping up the gameplay demo.
Finally, they introduced the two figurines that had been sitting on the table since the beginning of the stream.
“To wrap up—yes, these two figurines you’ve been seeing here. That’s right, our official web store will be launching soon. Stay tuned to our updates. Once the store is live, pre-orders for these figures will open, starting with the protagonist and Arsène. Morgana and Ann’s figures are also planned, though those prototypes aren't ready yet. Here—check out the gray models.”
As Ichin spoke, Umiko quickly switched the feed to display the gray prototypes of the figures. The chat exploded with comments: “Take my money!” “BUY BUY BUY!”
The camera zoomed in to show the fine details of the two figures. With that, the stream wrapped up successfully.
“And lastly, about the game’s pre-orders—after tomorrow’s YouTube stream, pre-orders will open on the NS, Steam, and Epic Games platforms. We’ll also announce the pricing. Thanks for watching—today’s stream ends here.”
After ending the stream, Ichin let out a breath of relief. He thanked the two voice actors and announced that work was done for the day.
After seeing the guests off, he urged everyone to go home quickly, then drove home with Utaha.
Back home, after a shower, he accepted a tub of ice cream that Utaha had pulled from the fridge. Taking a bite, he asked, “That’s the last one, right?”
“Yeah, just two tubs left.”
Enjoying a spoonful of her favorite vanilla flavor, Utaha said, “Ichin, could we buy a few more?”
Ichin thought about it, then checked the weather forecast for the next month on his phone before agreeing. “Alright, but this is the last time. If you keep eating like this, your body won’t take it. Don’t forget your monthly cycle, either.”
“I knooow!!”
Utaha raised her voice in protest, then sat down beside Ichin and began watching the freshly uploaded stream archive on Bilibili.
“So next is the game’s pre-order launch, right?”
Ichin nodded. “Yeah. Based on how things are going, once tomorrow’s YouTube stream is over, pre-orders on all three platforms will open.”
It had been nearly a year since Hollow Knight released. During that time, the studio had survived off sales from their two games. While they hadn’t run into any serious financial trouble, their funds had been steadily draining. It was finally time to open pre-orders and see the results of the past year’s work.
Rubbing his chin, Ichin asked, “Utaha, how many pre-orders do you think Persona will get?”
Utaha, nibbling on her spoon, thought for a moment. “Last year, Hollow Knight had just under 100,000 pre-orders on its first day. But these two games are on completely different scales, and you’ve done way more marketing this time. The pre-orders should be way better this year. Oh, by the way—Ichin, you haven’t announced the game’s price yet, right?”
“Right. That’ll be announced tomorrow,” Ichin nodded. “On PC, the price for Steam and Epic in the China region will be 218 RMB, with a 10% pre-order discount. For other regions, prices will be adjusted based on local standards. Aside from a few extremely cheap or expensive markets, the difference won’t be too big. As for Nintendo, the price on the Japanese eShop will be 5,300 yen. Other regions will follow suit based on that.”
Persona was always going to be priced higher than the previous two games. With the number of developers involved, plus costs for music, voice acting, and everything else, even this pricing was already cut down quite a bit. Nintendo had initially suggested a 6,500 yen price tag—on par with their own first-party titles.
As long as the final product matched the plan and was well-optimized, that 6,500 yen price on Switch could still yield solid profits with good sales.
But in the end, Ichin chose to lower the price slightly, opting not to go the full AAA route like the big-name studios.
He played enough games to understand how gamers think. Even though he was Chinese and many would support his games out of pride, people still cared about price.
Initially, he considered pricing the PC version at 268 RMB. But after some thought, he dropped it by 50 to 218, plus the 10% discount.
Any lower, and it just wouldn’t be viable. Both studios still had nearly a year of development left, and he needed funding to keep things going.
Seeing Ichin’s expression, Utaha put down her ice cream and took his hand.
“Thinking about the pre-orders?”
Ichin nodded, his furrowed brows relaxing into a smile. “Yeah, a little. But we’ve done all we could. The rest is up to fate. Let’s see what tomorrow brings when the pre-orders go live.”
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