SEGA Sammy Acquires Atlus owner Index Corp. for 14 Billion Yen

segatlusNikkei reports that SEGA Sammy Holdings has succeeded in the bid war to acquire Index Corp. This means the company now completely owns Index as well as it’s subsidiaries including Atlus Co. Ltd. All assets and properties will transfer ownership by November. Appearance of Atlus property to appear in Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed? Still up in the air, but suffice to say, Atlus is now going to be part of SEGA’s growing empire. SEGA is certainly no stranger to the company as they have assisted in publishing Atlus titles in Japan. Surely though, the most important news is they can collaborate once again to make a true sequel to the hottest Dreamcast title, Maken X.

We will report on more as it develops.

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19 responses to “SEGA Sammy Acquires Atlus owner Index Corp. for 14 Billion Yen

  1. betablocker says:

    How lazy can journalism get?

    You can’t even tell us how much in dollars the buy out was?

    1 USD equals to 100 Yen, so that makes it a 14 Million Dollar transaction, unless I don’t know the number of zeros Billion and Million have, which is also possible.

    But seriously, put some effort in your news post next time.

  2. Ben says:

    “How lazy can journalism get?

    You can’t even tell us how much in dollars the buy out was?

    1 USD equals to 100 Yen, so that makes it a 14 Million Dollar transaction, unless I don’t know the number of zeros Billion and Million have, which is also possible.

    But seriously, put some effort in your news post next time.”
    ———————-

    ^Actually no, the number translates to around $141 million spent by SEGA-Sammy. Currency exchange rates aren’t quite that simple.

    Anyway, please note at the bottom of the article;

    “We will report on more as it develops.”

    This is a developing story.

  3. Bartman3010 says:

    Well, not everybody lives in America. It won’t do people in the UK much good if I told them the estimate in US Dollars would it?

  4. Nux says:

    This is a pretty big story. I think there are more important details here then the amount of US dollars involved.

    I…don’t know what to think. On one hand, this is SEGA’s first big Japanese acquisition in a long time. Atlus is a great developer and publisher, and I love the idea of the SEGA name being attached to something like that. I also love the idea of Atlus potentially having access to SEGA properties.

    On the other hand, Atlus has a reputation of publishing a lot of niche and obscure titles most other companies, SEGA included, often neglect to localize.

  5. Nux says:

    OH MY GOD. I forgot this was an acquisiton of all of Index. SEGA owns fucking MADHOUSE?! They are one of the best animation houses around! Nice!

  6. Sigma says:

    Hopefully Atlus can help with the localization of some of SEGA’s games.

  7. Mandobardanjusik says:

    this is mahen x by the way http://www.segaretro.org/Maken_X

  8. DCGX says:

    Wooooooo!! This is totally going to help the Dreamcast out! Oh…wait. Crap!

    Pretty cool though. I’m interested to see what SEGA does with Atlus, but my hope is that they leave it intact and let them do what they always do.

  9. Trippled says:

    Atlus USA is now our hope

  10. SkyBlue says:

    SEGA: Now that you are with us, you can now get cracking on localising your games in Europe!

    ATLUS: We’ll do that….so long as your games makes it to the West.

    SEGA: FUCK!

    In all seriousness, ATLUS better improve in Europe through this…SEGA titles not being localised non-withstanding.

  11. InTheSky says:

    Sigh, I’m not excited about this. I’ve read statements saying that Atlus/Index plans to not have their new parent company affect their development decisions, but as noted Atlus titles seem to have a hard time making it to Europe on time, while Atlus USA is good on that front.

    I want them as separate as possible. Sega’s Dream Corporation has control of all assets (IP’s and such) and then there’s this:

    ” The operations conducted by Index including the Digital Game Business (design and development of console games and social games); Contents & Solutions Business (delivery of contents, development of systems, consigned development related to amusement machines, internet advertising, etc.); Amusement Business (development and sales of commercial amusement machines) and related businesses. ”

    =( I liked Trauma Center, Radiant Historia, and the occasional SMT. It bothers me that Sega spent this money on more expansion instead of nurturing their own franchises/newer ones.

  12. Correction says:

    Index used to have a controlling interest in Madhouse, but they sold most of their shares to NTV years ago. Thus, Sega does not own Madhouse.

  13. zeek says:

    Yes, as much as I love Sega, I am worried about the future of Atlus developed titles in the west. Will they come at all? And if they do, will the same care be put into bringing the games over?

  14. Ben says:

    My hope is that Sega leaves Atlus more or less to their own devices, and just reaps in the profits.

    From what I gather, Sammy’s excited to use Atlus’ characters and franchises for Pachinko machines. Which is whatever, as long as they continue being able to make actual games.

  15. I need to read Heist, but from what I HEAR these two are meant to be. Both total badasses but also kind of sweet once you get to know them. YAY that this feature is back!

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