Atlus Japan files for bankruptcy

[needler420]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNlbIJeLkTA



Sucks that this is happening to the company who made demons souls and snowboard kids. I own all the persona games on PSP but haven't played them. I even bought Catherine love is over deluxe edition just to support this niche company. I guess it didn't help. This is a big surprise to me because I thought they had a new wave of fans. I never heard of this company until October 6,2009 the day that demons souls released I bought a copy from gamestop. I went on to platinum the game and it's my 2nd favorite PS3 game to MGS4 so naturally I took notice to the developer and publishers.

[Rickstilwell1]

Nooooooooo! Now who's left to devlop turn based RPGs? NIS?

[Graham Mitchell]

Wow, I didn't see this one coming. They've had prime floorspace at e3 for the past few years, and appeared to be fairly successful. It's weird to think how long they've been around, though, considering how inconsistent the quality of their products has been over the years (though they've had a string of truly awesome stuff the last 2 generations.). Who would've thought they'd outlive Hudson and irem?

[Zama]

I believed Fromsoftware developed Demon's Souls while Atlus covered the published rights for NA. Anyhow, it is sad news for the parent company and I hope that this does not effect the current status of their upcoming releases like Dragon's Crown :puppydogeyes:

[Rickstilwell1]

I believed Fromsoftware developed Demon's Souls while Atlus covered the published rights for NA. Anyhow, it is sad news for the parent company and I hope that this does not effect the current status of their upcoming releases like Dragon's Crown :puppydogeyes:

Maybe Dragon's Crown could be their "Final Fantasy" as in what happened to Square, then bounce them back... wishful thinking.

[Polygon]

It's actually their parent company that's filing, not Atlus themselves. Still, it's shitty news regardless.

[JakeM]

:( This is incredibly sad. I hope theres a Persona 5 one day.

[theclaw]

I believed Fromsoftware developed Demon's Souls while Atlus covered the published rights for NA.

Yeah and it's Sony owned. They presumably have final say if we see anything else.

[Aussie2B]

It was only in 2006 when Index acquired Atlus, anyway, so it's not like Atlus has never existed as an entity separate from Index. Worse comes to worst, maybe another corporation will acquire Atlus. I'm not too worried.

[JakeM]

Im gonna play Persona 4 now.

[LaughingMAN.S9]

Literally anyone other than microsoft, capcom or ea picking them up would be fine with me


This would be a really good pick up for Sony or namco, i feel like they would be an awesome home for atlus, but definitely not with any of the axis of evil publishers i mentioned above.

[JakeM]

This would be a really good pick up for Sony

Sony I bet knows how much Persona 5 would be as a exclusive to the PS4. Microsoft I dont see going for them, its obvious theyve given up on Japan, and plus I dont think theyd want to be associated with certain things in the SMT series or theyd change them and then itd be pointless to buy it.

[The Adventurer]

I really would hate to see Atlus go Sony exclusive. I LOVE all the 3DS support they provide.

[JakeM]

oh my god oh my god oh my god!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This game RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Honestly, anyone out there who isnt into JRPG or anime need to change their minds and play this. It keeps you on your toes thinking "oooh, what if I do this on this day and that on that day?"

AND THE COMBAT IS AWESOME!

[Flashback2012]

Sounds like Sega needs to swoop in and snatch them up. They've maintained a good rapport with Atlus during the Saturn days.

[BetaWolf47]

If Konami, Platinum, Namco, or Sega picked them up, that'd be great. Actually, I could see Square-Enix picking them up if they weren't having financial troubles themselves. It'd suck if a console manufacturer picked them up, though. It'd be bad for everyone if you had to own one exclusive system just to play Atlus titles.

[LaughingMAN.S9]

Sounds like Sega needs to swoop in and snatch them up. They've maintained a good rapport with Atlus during the Saturn days.


Hadnt even considered sega, youre right, sega would be a great home or atlus, i dont get the sega hate from people these days, apart from the sonic pimping, sega has put out a shitload of sleeper hits like the club and valkyria chronicles, not mention the yakuza series, them partenered with atlus would be a development powerhouse

[The 1 2 P]

I don't care who gets them as long as they bring out more games like Catherine.

[The Adventurer]

i don't care who gets them as long as they bring out more shin megami tensei.

ftfy.

[The 1 2 P]

ftfy.

Nope, I've never played any of the SMT games so they don't matter to me.

[JakeM]

Nope, I've never played any of the SMT games so they don't matter to me.
Im absolutely loving Persona 4.

[LtDicai]

That means we won't be seeing Persona 5 anytime soon? That's bad news, I really love the Persona series.

However this might be a perfect opportunity to beat Persona 3 for once and for all.

[Aussie2B]

Considering how long the Persona series delayed the creation of SMT4, I think Persona fans can stand to wait a little while.

[PreZZ]

Sega needs to buy Atlus, then release a new console with all the greatest exclusive games ever seen. Then put ms, sony, and ninty out of business. Just dreamin!

[otaku]

I think they can pull through this bankruptcy doesn't have to be the end. a buyout is still a possibility also I think a company like sony (being the company benefiting from so many of atlus's games) would be a nice option

[JakeM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViiSTAgwdoM

Persona 5 is registered yeah yeah!

[Xander]

This makes me happy.

[Tron 2.0]

Can't wait for dragon's crown i did preorder it months ago,beside it coming with a artbook.Good to know what atlus has in development is coming still.

[LaughingMAN.S9]

Looks like atlus is going to be sold afterall and sega seems to be the main bidder.


There are still 20 something bidders showing interest tho. Sega sounds like it would make a good home or them however i am worried that they may not localize some of their games if sega's own history of niche titles is anything to go by.

[The Adventurer]

Interesting. Sega would be a good choice as you can bet they will continue to support the Nintendo platforms into the future. Which is where most of of my game interest lays right now.

[Aussie2B]

Hmm, I would hope that it would be a corporation that doesn't already publish localized English versions of games. I'm happy with the work that Atlus USA does, and I wouldn't want to see anything happen to them or future Atlus Japan titles handled by a different localizer.

[JakeM]

I would really hope Sony buys them, if Sega gets them and Nintendo is who they go with most then all their RPG's will be scaled down to the 3DS. Forget the thought of buying a PS4 for SMT Persona V. But if Sega really wants Persona 5 to be on a console and Nintendo is starting to try and attract older gamers to the Wii U Persona V would be a great addition.

[The Adventurer]

Oh man, Wii U exclusive Persona V.

You can already hear the gnashing of fanboy rage from here.

[Flashback2012]

Sounds like Sega needs to swoop in and snatch them up. They've maintained a good rapport with Atlus during the Saturn days.

Called it. :p

http://kotaku.com/atlus-is-becoming-part-of-sega-1338653981

For those too lazy to click on the link (full credit to Kotaku for this btw)...

Atlus will soon be a Sega brand, reports Japan's Nikkei.

The Japanese news source reports that there have been substantial steps forward for Index Corporation (Atlus' parent company) to transfer management control over to Sega Sammy Holdings (Sega's parent company).

This comes as Sega will formally purchase Index for 14 billion yen (US$141 million), and Index's game business is being reorganized under Sega.

Last August, there were reports that Sega was among twenty companies bidding for Index, which was going through financial proceedings. This summer, Atlus said its brand would carry on and was "unaffected" by the financial troubles.
Related


Update: Sega Sammy Holdings has issued a statement regarding the Nikkei story via Inside, stating, "Today, according to a media outlet, there is a report that our company is taking over Index's operations. However, this is not an announcement our company made."

Update 2: Sega has now confirmed the purchase. Please be gentle with the Persona series.


I can only hope that there's enough smart people in charge at Sega who understand the appeal of the niche brand that Atlus has built up over the last 15 or so years. At least on the Japan side, I'm sure they get how popular the MegaTen series is and will be relatively hands off. I am somewhat concerned on the USA side which is what I was referring to more in my first sentence. I hold out hope because of moves like picking up Creative Assembly and Relic. Also, it seems better to me than what would happen if other companies picked them up like Capcom, Konami, or Square-Enix (or even worse companies like Activision or EA but I doubt US based companies had any legit chance of being considered).

[kupomogli]

I'll post the same thing I've posted elsewhere. Looks like Atlus is irrelevant now. Even if they do release good games, they won't sell enough for Sega to consider them as worthwhile localizations.

Although, who knows. Maybe Sega doesn't release games that have heavy localization to the west because they don't have a good localization team and have to outsource too often for this kind of stuff. Now that they own Atlus USA, they could always start pushing more games out to the west.

Let's hope it's the second over the first.

[JakeM]

I hope to god now that Hatsune Miku will be in Persona 5.

[goob47]

Nooooooooo! Now who's left to devlop turn based RPGs? NIS?

Yay more Disgaea! :)

Just kidding, it sucks that this happened... :(

[Graham Mitchell]

So it appears Sega Sammy is puchasing Index Holdings....

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/18/sega-sammy-to-acquire-atlas-parent-company

Personally I think this is a pretty decent outcome. At least that leaves the Atlus games the chance to show up on multiple platforms. How it affects the company in other ways I'm not so sure...

[Haoie]

Atlus should translate Yakuza 5! Do it!

[kupomogli]

Atlus should translate Yakuza 5! Do it!

This is what I thought. Sure overall, I think something bad is going to happen now that Sega owns Atlus, but I was thinking that maybe the reason Sega hasn't translated a lot of games we've been asking for is that they have no dedicated localization team. They're always outsourcing for localizatioins. So now that they own Atlus USA, maybe they'll be able to have them work on some of their bigger projects so we'll actually get more localizations from them.