If you guys didn’t know, Atlus’ parent company, Index Corporation is in a finical mess. The company is in over $2.4 billion yen in debt and is also being investigated for fraud. The company recently talked about selling assets, but now it seems that they might just be bought out whole.
Bloomberg reports that 20 companies are in the race to buy Index, one of those companies is SEGA-Sammy Holdings who is leading the pack. It seems that bids have exceeded the $150 million everyone thought Index was worth, the current bid is at $200 million! It is said that bidding will be narrowed down by next week and if all goes well we will find out what company gets Index and their assets.
But lets say that SEGA does buy Atlus, would that be a great thing for gamers? I mean, I love SEGA and I love Atlus games, but Atlus always brought obscure games over from Japan for Wesetern audiences. Without them we wouldn’t have Demon Souls or even the recent Dragon Crown, while SEGA seems more hesitant to bring over titles (Yakuza 5, Valkyria Chronicles 3 and more). What are your thoughts?
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I wouldnt be against that
Seems like a terrible waste of $150 million.
They bought all of Creative Assembly, Sports Interactive and Relic for less than $200 million, and each studio sells more software than Atlus’ entire software sales in a year looking at their past performance (With certain exceptional years)
If Sega has the money for it just now, I’d say yes, good of them to increase their IP portfolio, they could do with it. Atlus has a unique style.
I’m not surprised they’re interested in buying the company, and Sega-Sammy does have the money to do so. Normally I’d see this as a good thing, but with Sega not localizing many of their games I’m not sure if I really want Sega to buy them. And $200 million is a lot of money. Still, anything would be better than having Nintendo acquire them.
On one hand, I would be very happy because it would mean SEGA’s portfolio would become much more focused on the kinds of games I enjoy. On the other hand, I worry that SEGA would simply stop localizing most of Atlus’s games. They are one of the few mid level publishers left, and most of their games aren’t localized over here. Though I imagine Index may be taking that into consideration as they choose the bidders. Hopefully, if SEGA does buy Atlus, this won’t affect localization.
As someone who isn’t interested in ATLUS’ games…this does excite me.
For once they could cater to European fans for a change.
GO GO SONIC WARRIOR!
Games like Demon’s Souls and Dragon’s Crown are good, but most of Atlus’ games are dorky. SEGA already has Miku for hairy fat guys into hentai, they do not need Persona.
Thank you for insulting me for loving Persona 4. Really, thank you.
Even tho I disagree, I loled
shemnue 3 sega please
Maybe SEGA should’ve been doing some of this when they were still making the Dreamcast (yes I know they didn’t have the money then).
My only concern?
Sega’s been having a bit of a problem localizing games, at least certain bigger titles, if they don’t feature a certain blue rodent on there. Should this happen, how many of these titles will even see Western release?
SoA’s mostly been busy with digital titles or trying to re-re-reboot Miku in the West.
Honestly, Anything that would make SEGA more money to have the time to “LISTEN” to their fans would be worth it… Then again, I’m not their treasurer xD, however it would be great if SEGA bought Index Corp… it would also be great if they would just bring over the games the fans want like, I dunno…. PSO2? Yakuza 5? Shenmue 1&2 HD? Valkyria Chronicles 3?
Sega buys Atlus. Sega sucks every last bit of ambition and creativity out of Atlus by restricting what they can make. Atlus staff become frustrated, leave the company, and form their own studio. Sega is left sitting on a ton of IPs (90% of which they will never do anything with).
Sound about right?
It’s not like Atlus has been creative or very demanding of budget
Catherine was their new IP on consoles and have been mostly on handhelds
Doesnt sound too different from Sega now really?
The new “5-point-plan Sega” wouldn’t make a game like Catherine.
Well they are going to release a game about a school kid getting into debt and needs to make over a billion yen by fighting in boxing matches whilst dressed as the Japanese yen. So they probably still could if someone catches Nagoshi on a good day.
I’d be more worried if the game ever gets localised, that’s the bigger concern.
A lot of very understandable concerns that Sega wouldn’t be bringing over the titles that Atlus is known for — but then again, maybe they’d use Atlus not just for the IPs, but as a base of operations to port their own titles as well?
I am very skeptical of this move, even as someone who played and liked some Atlus games (radiant historia, some trauma center, DeSu)
I especially don’t think this is a good move in the midst of a console generation transition. If dev costs are apparently high, I don’t think financial resources should be spread so thin. The relative lack of localizations notwithstanding. Also, we do want more Yakuza and more Valkyria Chronicles and other Sega Japan franchises, an end to the “awesome franchise gets squandered” that litters Sega’s history.
Also, I’m wary of the effects Sammy might have on Atlus as far as its business decisions. Atlus is a fundamentally niche company, I don’t know if Sammy will change them.
I would rather them take that money and give us Shenmue 3 already.
Please NOOOOOOOOOOO SEGA DONT TOUCH ATLUS. Im pretty sure they would release an atlus ip with no marketing. it would fail and then they will bury all of atlus’s gems like they have done with most of their own ips. Not to mention they will not localize any games outside of japan.
Fuck sega. I love their games but hate the company and its dumbass decisions.
If this happens we can say goodbye to any future Atlus games coming here.
This would be awful.
Goodbye to ATLUS games in America? Try living in Europe dude.
To be honest, SEGA buying ATLUS would mean that ATLUS games could arrive in Europe much more easily.
Regarding marketing…ATLUS rarely, if ever market their games…and they already have their fanbase who are always in the know to care about the marketing, so it wouldn’t make any difference on ATLUS’ part.
The only concern is that SEGA don’t seem to be investing into their OWN divisions.
Atlus isn’t worth $100 million, let alone 200. They certainly have their niche, but it’s not going to bring in much money, and stylistically I don’t think it fits with Sega’s identity although it is creative. I think their moves in taking over the RTS market are smarter than messing around with a boutique developer like Atlus. If they’re going to invest in a smaller, quirky developer, it should be Platinum.
Platinum Games was already SEGA property when there was the publishing agreement of the first titles, then more or less during the time of the development of Anarchy Reigns there was a buy-out.
The Atlus games, in Japan, are currently distributed by SEGA moreover.
Actually, Platinum had a contract with Sega that they’d make four games for them (which was later extended with Anarchy Reigns). Platinum has always been independent.
SEGA was, is, and always will be better than this shitty company for weaboos, deal with it. Nobody needs fatlus.
Sega could have had Platinum but Sega’s already fucked that one up.
They didnt fuck up anything. Platinum themselves rather stay a freelancer studio.
I was thinking the same. Sega buying Atlus would mean a ton of games never getting released outside of Japan. But then I thought of something else. How about Sega just sacks SoA and replaces them with Atlus US. They’ve stayed afloat for awhile on super niche games. I think they know what’s up. They’ve done a great job at garnering a good group of fans.
“They didnt fuck up anything. Platinum themselves rather stay a freelancer studio.”
Mostly due to Sega’s handling of Anarchy Reigns (which Inaba was very outspoken in his frustration with, telling Western fans to import it rather than waiting and buying the Western versions) Sega essentially really seemed to do their best to make sure that their relationship went out on a sour note.
Which is too bad. Because I personally thought it was a good fit.
I’ll put it this way. I’m not happy with Sega at the moment, and the fact that a website, run by and visited by Sega fans…has a comments section under an article about Sega potentially buying an iconic studio…and the comments are hoping it *doesn’t* happen…that’s not a great sign for Sega, lol, and a pretty sad indicator of where they currently sit in the eyes of their fans.
Speaking for myself. I really dont care either way. SEGA isnt as great as it used to be ands theres nothing wrong with that If they still produce some great games every now and then from their own inhouse studios. Platinum or atlus being part of SEGA or not wouldnt make the games any better or worse. Unless theyre not localized. Which did happen with all platinum’s games. Having said that, if sega/sammy buys atlus i think they shoulds be kept totally independent
I love SEGA… well mostly the “old” SEGA more than the “current” SEGA, but I wouldn’t like for them to acquire Index.
One major reason is that SEGA stinks at localizing games overseas. For example, Phantasy Star. It was literally a god send that even Miku came overseas, but that was after like 5 games in like a 7 year old series.
That is not to say that Persona and other games that got localized overseas with a big following won’t get localized, it’s just that compared to the speed at which they have been localized as of recent, if SEGA get’s a hold of those properties it seems it would take longer to even get them over here… if at all.
And another reason that comes to mind is SEGA’s marketing… which speaks for itself.
“SEGA isnt as great as it used to be ands theres nothing wrong with that ”
Ehhhh.
I’m not necessarily expecting them to be as good “as they used to be” but they certainly can be doing a bit better, IMO.
Maybe I just dont care anymore, but I see that as a good thing tbh. I’m less of a fanboy and more just a fan of their good works. As long they make good games, i’ll be happy. I dont care for their state or whatever. SEGA isnt the only one in the industry.
To get back on topic. SEGA, if they purchase index, I’d hope as well that they wont screw up. SEGA is pretty terrible at localizing and stuff sadly
Well, they should care their IP if they got a money for other’s.