Former Index CEO Masami Ochiai and his wife, former Index president Yoshimi Ochiai have been arrested. Index Holding used to own Atlus and after a string of financial and legal troubles last year they got bought out by SEGA-Sammy Holdings.
According to the statement, they are arresting them on the accusation of messing with financial records. To see a full list of charges, hit the jump.
Gematsu is reporting that SEGA will be dividing the recently acquired Index Corporation into two companies: Atlus and Index. The division, which will go into effect on April 1st, will also see Index’s Western subsidiary change its name to Atlus U.S.A., Inc. SEGA Sammy’s reasoning for the division is to “maximize the creation of synergies within SEGA Sammy, as well as within each industry of the SEGA Group”.
Atlus will be heading game planning and development with 121 employees, and current SEGA managing director and Index company director Yukio Sugino will be acting as Atlus’ new representative. Meanwhile, Index will handle content and solutions business with 166 employees, the current Index representative director and executive vice president Yasuhiko Hamada will be acting as Index’s representative.
It will be interesting to see what comes of this new division in 2014 and beyond, most intriguing is the mention of creating synergies between Index and Atlus and SEGA’s operations. Could we see Index taking on SEGA IPs, or vice versa?
In a recent Famitsu interview, SEGA Sammy’s Chief Operating Officer, Naoya Tsurumi, talks a little bit more about the future of Atlus brands and its relationship with SEGA Corporation.
There are some interesting tidbits in the Famitsu interview as Tsurumi-san explains that Atlus will continue developing their brands, making them bigger and for SEGA to sell them. The interview also mentions a line of SEGA IPs such Sakura Wars, Jet Set Radio, and Space Channel 5 as Tsurumi explains that the company has just started but definitely will give it more thought.
You can read the entire interview here. What are your thoughts about Atlus using dormant SEGA franchises?
This week on the Swingin’ Report show George and Barry the Nomad are accompanied by Bartman (writer for Sonic Retro) where he talks about his time in Pax, we discuss SEGA now owning Atlus and our thoughts on Phantasy Star Nova! Tune in and tell us what you think! Hit the jump to see the show notes.
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?