The Persona series is best-known for RPGs involving high schoolers going on extradimensional adventures while summoning demons, but there is also a spinoff series of Persona Dancing rhythm games that use songs from across the franchise.

Atlus recently held a contest that encourages fans in Canada and the USA to send videos of themselves dancing to a remix of "Last Surprise" from Persona 5 as part of a promotion for the Persona Dancing series and the recent release of Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight. The official webpage for the contest states that "The Approximate Retail Value (“ARV”) of the prize is One Hundred U.S. Dollars ($100)" which is easy to read as the prize being one hundred dollars worth of goods or that amount of money in cash.

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It's apt that "Last Surprise" was chosen as the song, as the participants would never see the truth about the prize coming. A user on the Persona Reddit page named gmessad was one of the winners of the contest, yet they never heard back about the prize. In order to learn more about the prize, gmessad messaged Atlus and received this response.

Thank you for reaching out. As noted in the contest rules, the prize awarded to contest winner(s) is having a portion of their videos featured in the compilation video that may be exploited on our digital and/or social media platforms. The monetary value listed in the rules is simply the approximate amount corresponding to the experience/opportunity, and as noted in the signed release, in consideration for the value of individuals being chosen as one of the winners of the Persona Dancing Contest and included in the Video (the prize), such individual grants Atlus the right to include their image & recorded footage, among other things, in and as part of the compilation video. We are excited for you to be a part of this video and hope you have enjoyed the experience! Best Regards.

It turns out that the prize for winning the contest was to be included in a compilation video that was used to promote the game, which is somehow worth $100 in promotion.

It's odd that Atlus would use this excuse, as the contest rules specifically state that "The video should not contain any personally identifiable information such as last names, addresses, phone numbers, or email addresses". It seems that the most promotion the winners will receive is a mention of their YouTube channel name, which isn't worth much to people who only created an account to enter the contest.

It's shameful behavior on Atlus' part to dress up a nothing prize as being worth money. The people who won the contest are going to be used in a video that advertises one of Atlus' products and you usually have to pay people to star in commercials. Bank tellers and landlords don't take exposure after all and to offer that as a prize to their dedicated fans is embarrassing behavior by the people at Atlus.