The news that SEGA had acquired Index Corp, and by extension Atlus, shook the gaming world yesterday and left many fans worried for the future of the developer. Atlus’ Head of Consumer Software has released an open letter to the customers to reassure them of Atlus’ future:
Nikkei 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.
Hey, this week on the Swingin’ Report Show Barry the Nomad and George talk a lot about Sonic Lost World, the upcoming Castle of Illusions remake and of course the newly announced Yakuza: Ishin. So sit back, listen in and enjoy. Don’t forget to subscribe to our Youtube or iTunes feed.
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?
What does this big deal mean? Does it mean that Atlus will be publishing all those cool SEGA Japanese games West? Nope. Actually Atlus has inked up a deal for SEGA to distribute their games in Japan. Starting on April 2012, Atlus games will be hitting Japan under the true and blue SEGA logo.
It is already known that the deal will not effect digital titles and it is so far unclear of how this will affect Atlus’ publishing outside of Japan. The deal came because Atlus’ holding company, Index Holdings, has a constant decline in revenue and isn’t really able to support Atlus’ growth in its most important market. Should SEGA just buy out Atlus and call it a day or should this niche company stay where its at in the States?