4 Golden, which impressed Atlus. The opening was designed to have a different tone to the opening of Persona 4 Golden, as Arena was a different genre. Release Persona 4 Arena was first announced in August 2011 alongside Persona 4 Golden. The arcade version was set for release first in 2012, with PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions following the same year. The arcade version began distribution in Japan on March 1, 2012. It was released for Taito Type X2 arcade models. Originally scheduled for console release in August, the date was changed to July 26. The game was localised for the West by Atlus USA. It had the same team as the mainline Persona series, led by Yu Namba. Namba supervised the whole process, and according to him they focused more on being consistent with the narrative localizion than appealing to a particular player demographic. The Western title was considerably shorter than its Japanese one, as the team thought it sounded "awkward". The game also dropped the "Shin Megami Tensei" moniker used for Persona 4 and other Megami Tensei titles as it made the title too long. For the localization, Atlus USA did its best to bring in all the original voice cast, but due to what they described as "unspecified circumstances", the team decided to recast a couple of roles. These were the characters Teddie, with Sam Riegel replacing Dave Wittenberg due to scheduling conflicts; and Chie, where Erin Fitzgerald replaced Tracey Rooney after the latter decided to decline the role when Atlus offered it to her again. A North American release of the console versions. was announced in February 2012. The game released in North America on August 7, 2012. The PS3 version was region locked, the second game for the console to have this feature. According to Atlus, this was done due to price differences between regions potentially affecting sales. Despite the region locking, online servers remained global. A European release was announced in May 2012. Due to lacking a branch in the region, Atlus went through a third-party publisher; in this case, they partnered with Zen United. Originally scheduled for 2012, the game was substantially delayed. This was explained by Zen United as being due to testing and development due to regional differences related to the game's online elements. The game eventually released in the region on May 10, 2013. Standard and limited editions were