Atlus

SEGA Japan CEO talks about earning gamer’s trust, learning from Atlus and focusing on quality titles

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HarkuiSatomi

[Update: It seems that their might have been some mistranslation when it came to Siliconera’s reporting on the story. While it said it was Hajime Satomi who was interviewed, according to Gematsu it was actually his son and newly crowned president of Sega Games co that was interviewed. It makes sense since he barely got the job in April during the restructure.]

Its easy to see that there have been issues at SEGA that they have been trying to get patched up. One thing is for sure is that SEGA Japan’s in-house gaming studios haven’t delivered titles that have been up to par and it always seems that they are trying to go triple A development and falling short with unpolished titles being released. It seems that long time SEGA CEO and President Hajime Satomi understands fan’s frustrations, he talked to Famitsu about how SEGA Japan has actually been learning from Atlus’ model of game creation:

“As far as the Western market goes, we learned a lot from Atlus. If we can make a title with proper quality, I believe there’s a good chance for it to do well even in the West for players that like to play Japanese games.”

It also seems that Satomi is really eyeing the Playstation 4 as a future console they want to release titles on, while the company has been only focusing on the Nintendo Wii U in the West in the last few years (it seems that might change):

“It may look rough if you look a it from a Japanese standpoint, but on a global scale the PlayStation 4 has a record-selling history, so I believe there’s a good opportunity there,”

While we know SEGA will have a big focus on mobile games, considering that a huge percentage of Japanese gamers are using the platform as its main gaming machine, Famitsu asked him what they are looking to focus more on when it comes to console games. Answer? Quality.

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Here’s that new Persona 5 trailer Atlus doesn’t want you to see

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So in Japan, all new copies of Persona 4: Dancing All Night include an exclusive new trailer for Persona 5. Meaning that the normal way to see this trailer is to import an early copy of the game. But of course that’s not going to stop people from putting it online, whether Atlus wants it or not. So if the video above gets taken down, it probably won’t be too hard to find it somewhere else.

The new trailer, which uses a mix of old and new footage, gives some more hints as to what the story is about. Like in other Persona games, you play as a high school student. Except this time around the main character will have a separate identity as a thief during the night. This is also the first time we hear some of the Japanese voice acting. The game will be released for PlayStation 3 and 4 later this year in both Japan and the US.

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Atlus and ACE Team proudly present The Deadly Tower of Monsters

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Atlus just announced a new game by ACE Team, the people behind Abyss Odyssey, Zeno Clash and Rock of Ages. This new top down game, called The Deadly Tower of Monsters, is heavily inspired by old B-movies that heavily rely on cheap practical effects. In this game you will have to climb a giant tower on which you’ll encounter various “stop-motion” enemies such as lizard-men, UFOs, nuclear ants, dinosaurs and even robot apes.

You can look forward to seeing the game on Steam and PlayStation 4 this fall. You can see various screenshots below and of course the trailer above.

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Persona 4: Dancing All Night American launch details revealed

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Atlus has revealed Persona 4: Dancing All Night‘s American release details, with the game confirmed to release this Fall. No specific date is known yet, but we now know that the game will receive two editions: a Launch Edition and a Disco Fever Edition. The launch edition, seen above, costs the same as the regular game ($49.99) but will include a PS Vita skin and ten wallpapers as bonuses. The Disco Fever Edition, seen after the break, costs a bit more ($79.99) and includes the skin, wallpapers, and additional bonuses including 14 DLC costumes, a song, a Teddy keychaun, and a physical 2-disc soundtrack, and a reversible pouch for your Vita. Basically, Atlus wants Persona 4 to take over your Vita. You can learn more at the official site.

No news on Europe, but as soon as we hear something we’ll news it!

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Atlus releasing Lost Dimension July 28th, free timed DLC detailed

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Atlus has now confirmed that Lost Dimension, a SRPG for the Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita will launch in North America on July 28th. As for Europe, you can expect the game to be released sometime this summer (no solid date has been given yet).

The game will give you free DLC content for the first two weeks. The retail value of this DLC is $20 dollars. This means that if you buy the game at launch, you will be given $20 dollars worth of content for free, once the game is out for 2 weeks new buyers will have to purchase the DLC.

So whats all the DLC you’ll be getting? Hit the jump and find out.

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Stella Glow developer Imageepoch files for bankruptcy

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stella glow

After suffering millions in losses, employees heading to other companies, and last month’s disappearance of their CEO, Imageepoch will be filing for bankruptcy.

Founded in 2005, Imageepoch enjoyed moderate success as a JRPG developer. Some hardcore SEGA fans may know them through their work on the DS’s Sands of Destruction. They also developed the 7th Dragon series, which was produced by Skies of Arcadia and Phantasy Star creator Reiko Kodama and published by SEGA. The company was set to celebrate their 10th anniversary next month with the release of the SEGA-published 3DS JRPG Stella Glow.

The company was doing well through September 2011, when they reported 1.7 billion yen in profit. Unfortunately, not long after the company announced they would start self-publishing some of their games, they began to run into problems. Just two years later, the company reported a mere 400 million yen in profits. Many of their self-published games were met with mediocre reviews and sold poorly. Now, the company has 1.1 billion yen in debt owed to 43 creditors, with an additional 3 million owed to five creditors through affiliate company Smile Online.

According to Siliconera, this bankruptcy won’t affect the release of Stella Glow, which has been completed for some time. Stella Glow was originally announced as a self-published title, before SEGA picked up publishing duties in mid-March.

If you want an in-depth look at the fall of Imageepoch, you might want to take a look at this article. I’m not familiar with the website, but a lot of the information inside it seems to check out with what I’ve read elsewhere.

Stella Glow will be released by SEGA on June 4. It’s set to be localized by Atlus later this year.

[Via: Siliconera]

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Abyss Odyssey: Extended Dream Edition announced for PlayStation 4

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Atlus just announced Abyss Odyssey: Extended Dream Edition for the PlayStation 4. This new edition of ACE Team’s procedurally generated platformer will include new features that were patched into the PC version, like an online two player versus mode. There will also be various gameplay additions, including new combos and moves, a harder difficulty mode, and new mini bosses including Golem from Zeno Clash 2.

The original game launched for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, which Bartman reviewed last year. There’s no date yet for the Extended Dream Edition, but when it launches it’ll cost $14.99.

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Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker 3DS theme is now out in North America

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3DStheme

Atlus has now released their Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker 3DS theme in the North American e-Shop and is available to purchase for only .99 cents.

Its nice to see some companies aren’t scared of releasing their Japanese 3DS themes in America. I wonder when SEGA will release those awesome SEGA console 3DS themes?

Want to see the new theme in action? Hit the jump.

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SEGA’s Stella Glow stream shows an extensive preview of the game

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If you have been living under a rock and missed the news that SEGA was going to publish Imageepoch’s 3DS SRPG Stella Glow, now you know. Another good piece of news is that the game is also coming to the west thanks to Atlus later this year.

Above is a Japanese live stream that shows off what you can expect form the game when it comes out. Including a look at the artistic graphics, variety of places to visit and much more. Also, lots of anime babes (if that is your thing).

So what do you guys think about this game? Worth your time?

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New Persona 4: Dancing All Night Trailer shows off the cast’s dancing moves

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Here’s a new trailer for Persona 4: Dancing All Night, Atlus’ dancing rhythm game for the PS Vita. P4: Dancing All Night features characters from the popular Persona series- you guessed it, dancing all night. But this trailer boasts more than just a jig with a boy in a bear suit. Dancing All Night features a pretty meaty story mode, told through animated cut scenes and Persona style talking heads. Plus an impressive selection of songs and outfits to dress your favourite Persona 4 characters in.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night will release on June 25th, 2015 for the PS Vita in Japan. Western dates still to be announced sometime within the year.

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NIS America bringing Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker, Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold and Etrian Mystery Dungeon to Europe

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As you might already know, Atlus usually isn’t that great with releasing their games in Europe and usually needs the help of other publishers to release them there, with the publisher in Europe often being NIS America. So it makes sense that they’re the ones who’ll bring over Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker and Etrian Mystery Dungeon this fall. They also announced that Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight will be coming to Europe in early 2016.

NIS America also released trailers for Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker and Etrian Mystery Dungeon, though they’re no different from the trailers that Atlus had already released for the US releases.

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Kanji shows how a real man dances in Persona 4: Dancing All Night

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In case you were wondering which Persona 4 character is the best at dancing, I think Kanji makes it pretty clear that he is in this new Persona 4: Dancing All Night trailer. His dancing style is pretty much what you can expect that of a guy who frequently screams “Get bent!” to be like, which is what makes it so great. Just be sure to get the full experience of watching Kanji dance by replaying every song he dances to over and over again until you’ve gotten a perfect score on the hardest difficulty once the game comes out. Or at least, that’s what I’m going to do.

The trailer also features Persona 4 Arena‘s opening theme “Best Friends” and of course more plot stuff and unlockable costumes. This is the sixth character trailer for Persona 4: Dancing All Night, with previous trailers focusing on Chie, Yosuke, Kanami, Yu, and Rise. And like all of the other trailers, this new trailer was translated by bobrossfreak.

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Atlus publishing Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains in the west

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The Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem trailer wasn’t the only thing Atlus revealed on Nintendo Direct last night. It was also revealed that they’ll be publishing Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains in both North America and Europe. The game will be released exclusively on the 3DS eShop in May.

This isn’t the first we’ve heard of Atlus’ localization. The Australian Classification Board leaked that it’d be released in Australia back in October last year. To coincide with this announcement, Nintendo released the first two episodes of the Attack on Titan anime on the eShop.

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Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem trailer shows that the game does indeed still exist

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Back in January 2013, Nintendo announced that they were working together with Atlus to make a Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem cross-over game for Wii U. Since then they hadn’t shown anything of this project, but today Nintendo finally shared the first trailer featuring a first look at the game’s cutscenes and gameplay on Nintendo Direct.

The game, which is now titled Geiei Bungoku #FE in Japan, will be released this winter. It’ll be released in the US and Europe as well, though they didn’t say what the game’s English title will be nor when we can expect the game to launch in those territories. It was also confirmed that the game is being developed by Atlus. And while the game will feature various Fire Emblem characters, it seems like the characters on the Shin Megami Tensei side will be original.

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