ATLUS has now been bought by SEGA, thoughts?

[Nameless 24]

I am optimistic about this.

ATLUS would have to localise their games to Europe in a timely fashion for starters, since it's SEGA's biggest region for profits.

In addition to this, SEGA has an established JRPG IP in SMT and Persona, in addition to a unique genre from Trauma Centre.

The only downside is that I don't believe ATLUS' games don't sell THAT well, at least for SEGA.

I can see ATLUS' Etrian Odyssey series being put on a back burner for 7th Dragon (but isn't that a good thing if SEGA localises it?), and Vanillaware using SEGA as a publisher for their games too.

ATLUS fans are concerned as SEGA aren't good at advertising, but I believe ATLUS grew their fanbase from Persona 4 and it didn't really budge since...so whoever buys their games already will.

I understand the concerns from most people, but I could see ATLUS retaining their division for having a brilliant record of creative games that sell well, it's up to SEGA to decide if they could make money off of them now.

Not sure if SEGA would own Madhouse though...but we shall see.

By the way, I am not a fan of ATLUS in any way, shape or form...I can blame being european for this but meh...they're games aren't as interesting for me.

[Pao]

I like their games, but I'm not sure they would be good for SEGA financially.

[Aki-at]

Buying them solely for their games would be the biggest waste of money SEGA has done in over a decade. SEGA managed to purchase The Creative Assembly, Sports Interactive and Relic all for under $100 million whilst they would be paying double that for Atlus.

It should also be noted any one of Company of Heroes, Total War or Sports Interactive sell significantly more than most Atlus titles so I see little point in buying them based on potential sales of their product.

So a big nay on me.

Not sure if SEGA would own Madhouse though...but we shall see.

Index only owns 10% of Madhouse.

[fernandeath]

I don't know how that 'purchase' would work.
Would Sega keep the atlus brand? Would Sega 'fuse/blend' the companies? would Sega incorporate Atlus' staff and IP's to the Sega brand ? Would Sega just finance Atlus new projects, and wouldn't that hinder the finance of Sega's own projects ? How can Sega still make some profit from Atlus' past IPs ?

hehe, it seems too much complicated for me. i'm sure Sega's expert ivnestors are going to choose the best for the comapny, but IMNO (I mean, In my Nonprofessional Opinion) Sega should not buy it.

[Nameless 24]

Buying them solely for their games would be the biggest waste of money SEGA has done in over a decade. SEGA managed to purchase The Creative Assembly, Sports Interactive and Relic all for under $100 million whilst they would be paying double that for Atlus.

It should also be noted any one of Company of Heroes, Total War or Sports Interactive sell significantly more than most Atlus titles so I see little point in buying them based on potential sales of their product.

So a big nay on me.

Index only owns 10% of Madhouse.

I agree that the price is too much(I would say this for ANY company who buys them), but perhaps SEGA are seeing something we're not?

I understand Catherine sold 200,000 (which I believe was a success to them), whilst SEGA's PC output does more than triple that. So financially, it's likely a bad move.

Ah right. So they don't have any meaningful say into Madmouse even if they owned the full 10%.

[ROJM]

I don't know how that 'purchase' would work.
Would Sega keep the atlus brand? Would Sega 'fuse/blend' the companies? would Sega incorporate Atlus' staff and IP's to the Sega brand ? Would Sega just finance Atlus new projects, and wouldn't that hinder the finance of Sega's own projects ? How can Sega still make some profit from Atlus' past IPs ?

hehe, it seems too much complicated for me. i'm sure Sega's expert ivnestors are going to choose the best for the comapny, but IMNO (I mean, In my Nonprofessional Opinion) Sega should not buy it.

SegaSammy has been hovering over Index/Atlus for some time now.  Sega already has some distrubution and publishing deal with their parent company so they already have their foot in the door so to speak. And while Atlus aren't big sellers they do sell significant numbers and that combined with Sega's/segasammy's other stuff would still increase their market share overall.

[OriginalName]

I'm surprised that I haven't seen more speculation on the idea that Sega may be interested in Atlus not just for their IPs, but for the capable and well-renowned localization facilities they have on the Atlus USA side. Is it too much wishful thinking to hope that this could be the start of a more complete and dedicated approach to localization?

[Emmett The Crab]

I'm surprised that I haven't seen more speculation on the idea that Sega may be interested in Atlus not just for their IPs, but for the capable and well-renowned localization facilities they have on the Atlus USA side. Is it too much wishful thinking to hope that this could be the start of a more complete and dedicated approach to localization?

That's what I was hoping too. 

[ROJM]

Unfortunatly this is really to do with the japanese and asian markets with SegaSammy wanting to expand their digital buisness on the mobile side of things and Atlus would be helpful in acheiving a bigger presence for them considering the number of games they have on that platform.
Even if they did get them what's the guarantee that the developers that have spearheaded some of Atlus's well known IPs would stay with the company? And Sega Sammy really doesn't have a good record when it comes to its western asserts. Selling off Visual concepts,closing down its sammy divisons and selling them off ,the recent cull on Sega subsidiries...

[Sieghardt]

I'm surprised that I haven't seen more speculation on the idea that Sega may be interested in Atlus not just for their IPs, but for the capable and well-renowned localization facilities they have on the Atlus USA side. Is it too much wishful thinking to hope that this could be the start of a more complete and dedicated approach to localization?

if that happened it could be great but I worry it could go the opposite way and we'll just end up with Atlus games not getting localised either

[fernandeath]

It's funny because Sega Sammy has been the only name (among the 20 who placed bids) to be spread throught the internet.
Does that mean Sega is the only company who did not ask for confidentiality ?
Or is it because Sega the 'biggest' name (and Sony; Nintendo; etc, didn't even bid) ?
I've read other companies who are trying to acquire Index are not even from the gaming industry....

[ROJM]

Sony and nintendo has bigger things to worry about than trying to acquire Index/Atlus. They don't necessarly need them anyway. With nintendo, why would they need to bid? If sega gets Atlus its a win -win situation for them considering how chummy Sega and the big N are at the moment. Why pay extra moolah on a company when they'll end up on your system anyway without the added cost. The Nintendo bid talk is nonsense because a company like nintendo only buys companies if  they have a specific importance to their IP and market. Like they did with Rare at one point. If they were going to buy anybody its the company that helps create the Pokemon franchise, yet nintendo doesn't own Gamefreak.

[Nameless 24]

I think Nintendo not buying Game Freak is a wise move. Despite Pokemon being important to their franchise IP portfolio, they will never know when the bubble will burst (they will still make money on it, but there will be a time when it won't be as popular), so creating a contract basis of owning the IP but GF make the games is a wiser move.

[pcm92]

It would be about as effective as when they bought Relic Entertainment. Little to no effect. At least they aquired franchises from Relic though. Sega should probably not buy out too many companies, or else they will end up being criticized for the same thing EA is being criticized for.

[crackdude]

or else they will end up being criticized for the same thing EA is being criticized for.

EA is criticized over anything.

Also, Sega knows how to handle bought studios.