Atlus director admits Metaphor: ReFantazio PC sales blew past company expectations

Japanese RPG maker discovers PC gamers really like their games too.
Riley Fox
Anime characters inside a steampunk submarine setting.
(Image via Sega)
TL;DR
  • Metaphor: ReFantazio sold way more on PC than Atlus thought it would, showing they didn’t expect such big Steam interest.
  • This win is a big deal for the usually console-focused Japanese developer.
  • Don’t be surprised if future Atlus games—and other Japanese RPGs—launch on PC the same day as consoles.

Katsura Hashino, director of Atlus’ latest RPG Metaphor: ReFantazio, has revealed that the game’s PC sales have significantly outperformed what the company had anticipated. While no specific numbers were shared, his comments suggest the Steam version was a major success that caught the studio by surprise.

This news marks a real turning point for Atlus, a publisher that’s always focused on consoles—especially PlayStation and Nintendo. Only in the last few years have they started paying serious attention to the PC crowd, with Persona 4 Golden‘s 2020 Steam launch being their first big attempt.

Metaphor: ReFantazio dropped at the same time on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on June 11, 2024. It’s Atlus’ first brand-new IP in a long while, bringing together a fantasy setting with turn-based battles very much in the Persona tradition.

According to Sega itself, the game moved over a million copies on Steam alone, and pulled in at least 89,000 sales on its very first day, if you go by third-party tracking. Its strong showing can probably be credited in part to the pre-release demo, which let players dig into a good chunk of the game’s opening.

Atlus hasn’t always been super enthusiastic about the PC market, pointing to worries over piracy and what they saw as not much demand. That attitude started to shift after Persona ports did better than expected on Steam—but the Metaphor launch has apparently surprised even the higher-ups who were feeling good about things.

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