Atlus had previously mentioned that they didn't want people spoiling Persona 5's story, so they disabled the share button on the PS4. They had worked really hard on the whole thing and wanted to avoid all of it being posted online. Well, they just posted up the guidelines for streaming... and they're pretty harsh.
Over on the official Atlus website they have a "Note on Persona 5 Streaming" where they reveal rules on live-streaming and sharing video content of the game. And, it's not pretty.
Atlus USA mentions that Atlus Japan (the parent company) is very wary and very strict about what gets showcased in the game. The reason? It's a single playthrough game and you only get one linear experience with Persona 5's story. They feel that if players post the story online, or live-stream all of it, then it will spoil the experience for many and they could lose sales.
So, to avoid spoilers, Atlus has issued some harsh rules for streamers and video content uploaders. For instance, you cannot stream past the in-game date of 7/7/2017. The story related content in Persona 5 from then on will get you a copyright strike or an account suspension or Atlus will come down hard on you with their lawyers if you attempt to stream past that in-game date. So if you value your account, do not post story spoilers on your Twitch account or your YouTube account!
For clarity, Persona 5's story unfolds over the course of an in-game calendar, chronicling the adventures of Joker and the other Phantom Thieves. The game starts very slow (it'll require a few hours of gameplay before you get the gist of what's going on) but it eventually evolves into an anti-corruption tale of kids rebelling against corrupt authorities. How this corruption unfolds and what the corruption involves is something Atlus also doesn't want streamers and live-streams exposing.
Atlus, apparently, doesn't want major story spoilers for Persona 5 revealed involving any of the major boss fights, either. There are dungeons called Palaces that players will have to battle through, and this means that streamers will need to avoid showing any of the end boss fights due to some of the other story-related content in the game.
They mention that the very first boss fight with one of the characters can be shown in its entirety, but they don't want streamers to reveal the corruption involved with the first boss fight. In fact, they have examples of what they expect and what they don't want streamers to talk about regarding each of the Palace bosses and the corruption some of the characters are involved with.
It's a really complicated set of rules and ultimately they only want people uploading certain kinds of Persona 5 content up until the in-game 7/7 date, so if you want to stream the game or upload walkthrough footage... you're playing with fire.
Some people mentioned how ironic it is that the theme of the game centers around rebellious youth attempting to fight against corporate/government overlords who have rigged life to be an "unfair game", and yet the publishers of the game are attempting to restrict people from showing content, and will bring in lawyers if you attempt to rebel. It's like a video game in real life... but it involves a video game. Crazy.
Persona 5 is available right now for the PS4.
