Game developers Atlus have apologised for "threatening" players with strict streaming guidelines surrounding 'Persona 5'.

Persona 5

Persona 5

Earlier this month, the developers of the RPG posted a lengthy blog post on their website which warned players they could face an "account suspension" if they chose to stream gameplay videos past a certain in-game date online as they were concerned it could ruin the story for other players.

Part of their message at the time read: ""If you decide to stream past 7/7 (I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT DOING THIS, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED), you do so at the risk of being issued a content ID claim or worse, a channel strike/account suspension. (sic)"

Now, Atlus have taken to their website once again to tell fans of the game they have relaxed their streaming rules, and to apologise for seemingly threatening their customers.

They wrote: "We recognize that our fans are the reason why the game is the major worldwide success it is, and we continue to want them to be able to enjoy the game without fear of being spoiled. However, we also heard your issues with the guidelines and have decided to revise them. Because we want to give players the most access to the game while respecting the original goal, we're now asking players to refrain from streaming or posting video past the end of the in-game date of 11/19--when the main story gears up for the final act.

"We also want to apologize to those of you who saw the previous guidelines blog post as threatening. We want to be transparent about what we do, and the reason we released the guidelines was to give streamers the right information up front. It was never our intention to threaten people with copyright strikes, but we clearly chose the wrong tone for how to communicate this. (sic)"

The company went on to thank their fans "around the world" for continuing to support the series, and credited them with making the game a "global success".

They added: "Lastly, we want to thank our fans around the world for supporting 'Persona 5' and ATLUS. The game is a global success because of your passion for the series, and we're happy that so many of you are enjoying it. (sic)"