Atlus, the Japan-based developer behind the Persona series, is teasing a new project in the Soul Hackers series with a mysterious countdown website. The studio also opened up an official Twitter account for the project, with an ominous bio predicting the “end of humanity”. The countdown website is ticking down to a specific date within the next few days, and features a banner stating that a “Hack Begins” on February 17, 2022, at 8 PM JST (3 AM PST / 11 AM CEST).
When will the Soul Hackers countdown end?
The “Hack Begins” time and date likely indicate some sort of minor reveal, possibly as to the nature of the project itself. Separate from that, the main countdown timer indicates that there will be a major reveal four days from now, on February 21, 2022, similarly at 8 PM JST. As of writing, there isn’t much to go off of on the website itself aside from what looks to be a small polygonal plant and a loading screen that says “analysis in progress”.
There’s a high chance that the new project will be related to the Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers game released in 1997. Atlus later ported the game to the PlayStation in 1999. As part of the Megami Tensei series, the game was a sequel to the original 1995 Devil Summoner for the Sega Saturn. Since then, the title has also been re-released on the PSP but has not seen any further releases since 2013.
In late 2021, Atlus announced that it would release a new game in 2022. In an end-of-year interview, Atlus producer Shinjiro Takada stated that the game would be a new “pillar” for the company. If that’s the case, then this new Soul Hackers project could very well be the next major game series that Takada teased.
In other news, an HBO executive has revealed that The Last of Us live-action series won’t be coming out until 2023. An executive at Electronic Arts also stated that the commercial failure of Battlefield 2042 was a result of the surprise launch of Halo Infinite.
