The fate of Atlus

[Julius Seeker]

Just a bit of background, Atlus is bankrupt and is looking to be sold by the end of this month. So far the speculation has been landing largely on Sony and Nintendo as being the potential purchasers, BUT, it looks like the bidding is tighter than that.

The top bid is reported at 203 million USD, and among the 20 bidders is Sega. Sega is one of Atlus's major partners having published a few titles.

I do think that 203 million smells like a Microsoft bid, they've had a history of wanting to break into the Japanese gaming scene as well as bidding high money for studios. I would like to see Atlus purchased by Marvelous.

http://m.ca.ign.com/articles/2013/08/05 ... -from-sega

[Eric]

I highly doubt Microsoft would invest in a Japanese company that makes Japanese-centric games for a market that they attempted to get into for an entire console generation and failed to do so with their new system which isn't even launching in Japanese territory until 2014.

No, I think Sony/Nintendo are higher chances, BUT I'd kinda hope that they stuck to a publisher that can put games on multiple platforms. Sega is decent, Gungho is another. Ultimately I don't care who wins just as long as those games make it to North America(PERSONA 5 PLZ)

[bovine]

There are some Atlus developed and Atlus USA published games that I love, and I hope it falls into the hands of a company that will let it keep doing what it's doing. I also hope that it is not Nintendo.

[Chris]

oh shit my account still exists. Atlus isn't bankrupt. Index is bankrupt. Atlus is the only part of Index that is profitable and the only division that wasn't doing things like reporting false profits. Atlus will be fine but really my only real big hope is that the company to buy them isn't nintendo or sony. It's going to be intereting to follow and see where they end up. As much as I hate SEGA they actually do publish more than a few Atlus games in Japan so they may actually be ok as long as they stay the fuck out of the way...

[kali o.]

I actually like Atlus...and I generally dislike most Japanese development nowadays.

I'd be OK with anyone but Nintendo or MS buying them. Sony seems like a long shot...they aren't in the best financial shape right?

[Flip]

I'm not sure i've played any of their games:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Atlus_games

Sadly, i have no idea what Shin Megami is.


EDIT: Ah, they did the Ogre Battle games.

[Eric]

Persona 3, 4, Persona 4 Arena, and the new Shin Megami Tensei IV are all great games.

Persona 5 is in development.

[Zeus]

Wouldn't it be great if Squeenix bought them? They're in desperate need of help with their first-party games being shitty for two generations now and they've proven they're gonna leave their purchased companies alone like Eidos, who saved their bacon financially last year. They don't really compete directly even though they both specialize in RPGs as Atlus does smaller games and Squeenix mostly big budget and there's no real direct competition from Squeenix with the Shin Megami series. I think it would be complimentary to Squeenix on a business level, actually

That being said, Sega isn't a bad choice either. They wouldn't really mess with Atlus too much I don't think. Then again, we really need to find out why Atlus is being sold. Is it just the parent company is in trouble and needs to sell off a profitable asset to make ends meet or is Atlus itself not really solvent as an independant entity? I don't know about you guys, but I wouldn't buy nearly as many Atlus games if they didn't have all the extras that came with their games. Same with NIS America, their busineses are built on doing the extra little things for the hardcores on top of releasing quality titles. If they ain't able to sustain that, we may see a drop in the extras which, IMO, would severly hurt the company. But Sammy-Sega ain't gonna let them just do it unless they're profitable.

As for anyone else? I think Capcom would be a good choice, they have nothing that competes with Atlus. Just not sure of what changes, if any, they'd try to make. I'd be a little more comfortable if they were still run by Inafune. Konami is very hands-off on a corporate level with Kojima overseeing all of their development which is now a smaller portion of their business. They may be an ideal purchaser, actually, and would be least likely to mess with them. Activision, EA, and Ubisoft wouldn't work, they don't understand that kind of a business. Microshaft would be a disaster for Atlus (look how they marginalized Rare) and Sony MAY do OK with them but they don't really understand that kind of business model (smaller, niche publishing) and may try to "realize synergies" with Atlus, which would just be horrible. Nintendo wouldn't buy them.....unless they're trying to bring the Persona series to the Wii U a la Fatal Frame. Don't forget, Atlus is mostly a publisher, not much of a developer outside of the Persona series. Most of the development houses they get their games from are little guys in Japan who don't make games for Nintendo's system.

What if they and NIS America were able to merge? They would corner the niche, oddball, hardcore market that was, for a short time, Working Designs' domain. And they would be able to, I think, be stronger together than separate. More regular and diverse releases (Atlus releases more than just RPGs; NIS is almost exclusive RPGs) and NIS totally gets Atlus' business; they're their only real competition. That would be the most ideal situation IMO

[Zeus]

I'm not sure i've played any of their games:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Atlus_games

Sadly, i have no idea what Shin Megami is.


EDIT: Ah, they did the Ogre Battle games.

Flip, you would cry if I told you how many of those that were released in North America that I actually own..... ;-)

[SineSwiper]

Wouldn't it be great if Squeenix bought them? They're in desperate need of help with their first-party games being shitty for two generations now and they've proven they're gonna leave their purchased companies alone like Eidos, who saved their bacon financially last year. They don't really compete directly even though they both specialize in RPGs as Atlus does smaller games and Squeenix mostly big budget and there's no real direct competition from Squeenix with the Shin Megami series. I think it would be complimentary to Squeenix on a business level, actually

Alex, I'm going to go with NO! Actually, on second thought, I'll pick FUCK NO!

Squeenix is going down in corporate flames. Square died when they merged with Enix. Don't let it drag Altus into this. Hell, I'm not the biggest Altus fan in the world, but I'd prefer a good game developer stay around with the freedom of their creativity.

[Julius Seeker]

I think Square died when Sakaguchi, Takahashi, Matsuno, and other major talents left, in addition to Wada becoming president.

Joining with Enix was mostly a positive for Square as it solved their economic problems. The creative structure of Square wasn't effected by the Enix purchase, as the president was still Yoichi Wada and the production staff on the Square studios remained internal.

I agree though, it would only be bad if Square purchased them.

[Julius Seeker]

Sega purchases Atlus for 141 million.

http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... 1000000%2F

[Eric]

Was just coming here to post that. Hopefully we still get localizations of their games.

For Atlus USA the following things that could happen

1. Atlus USA close. All games are now release by Sega USA.
2. Atlus USA and Sega merge. That could affect which game get localized due to change in management.
3. Sega USA close and Atlus USA stay open. Unlikely since Atlus USA is smaller.
4. Sega keep both Atlus USA and Sega USA. Unlikely due to redundancy.

[Zeus]

It wouldn't surprise me to see Atlus USA close and merge with Sega USA. It would almost be stupid if that didn't happen, actually. We're talking about eliminating redundancies in administration, it's a no-brainer. One thing that will for sure remain is Atlus' name on the front of the box. Sega might be added to it but it would be incredibly stupid to remove the Atlus name. That's the entire reason it built itself up enough to be worth something to begin with.

The wildcard in all this will be the publishing decision-making process. Atlus does it's own thing, releases titles for far different reasons and does far different things than the big boys. You think EA or Activision would give us a box and music CD with nearly every first-run of every 3DS game released? I honestly believe Sega is saavy enough to understand this since they're a games company at their core. Even Sammy dabbled in gaming (ironically, most heavily on the Dreamcast). But the question is: do the big wigs at Sega-Sammy live with the conservative business model with relatively minimal yields and let Atlus just do their thing? I give that a 50-50 shot.

If they're smart and leave Atlus as their own division within the larger corporate structure, what you may actually see is synergies the other way. Sega, who's still a decent-sized publisher, will use the synergies they realize with the acquistion of a company with which they have basically no overlap and start releasing more smaller titles themselves. We may actually see an INCREASE in these titles and Atlus release even more titles like that, even if some come under the Sega name. That would truly be ideal

I really wish Atlus and NIS would have just merged, that woulda been the most ideal scenario. We'll see how this works, though.

[SineSwiper]

It wouldn't surprise me to see Atlus USA close and merge with Sega USA. It would almost be stupid if that didn't happen, actually. We're talking about eliminating redundancies in administration, it's a no-brainer. One thing that will for sure remain is Atlus' name on the front of the box. Sega might be added to it but it would be incredibly stupid to remove the Atlus name. That's the entire reason it built itself up enough to be worth something to begin with.

You say the word "stupid" as if corporations don't do that sort of thing on a daily basis. This is Sega we're talking about here. They are almost as bad as Square in the "fucking up things" dept.

[Zeus]

It wouldn't surprise me to see Atlus USA close and merge with Sega USA. It would almost be stupid if that didn't happen, actually. We're talking about eliminating redundancies in administration, it's a no-brainer. One thing that will for sure remain is Atlus' name on the front of the box. Sega might be added to it but it would be incredibly stupid to remove the Atlus name. That's the entire reason it built itself up enough to be worth something to begin with.

You say the word "stupid" as if corporations don't do that sort of thing on a daily basis. This is Sega we're talking about here. They are almost as bad as Square in the "fucking up things" dept.

Cost cutting is one thing all corps know how to do. They'll at the very least put them in the same building unless they're stuck in a lease or key personnel threaten to leave

[Eric]

Naoto Hiraoka, President and CEO of the North American subsidiary spoke out on this recently:

Naoto Hiraoka, the head of consumer software for the Atlus game brand, issued a statement on Wednesday to assure fans that business will continue as before. Sega Sammy Holdings confirmed earlier in the day that Sega will form a wholly owned subsidiary to take over the operations of Index Corporation by November 1. Index owns and manages Atlus, a former independent company and the current brand of games such as Etrian Odyssey, Shin Megami Tensei, and Persona.

Hiraoka acknowledged that the Atlus brand will become part of the Sega Sammy Group (specifically, the new subsidiary Sega Dream), but added that the entire consumer game unit will remain focused on developing titles for future release. He said that his brand has maintained a good relationship with Sega from before, and added that he thinks the current potential for business synergy is very high. He specifically highlighted Sega's strong distribution network as beneficial going forward.

He apologized for causing fans to worry, asked for their continued support, and asked them to look forward to further developments from Atlus.

Since last year, Hiraoka has also been the president and CEO of Atlus U.S.A., Inc. in North America.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... -as-before

Here's the full statement from Hiraoka.

Dear fans and customers,

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for your support of Atlus products.

As announced Tuesday through various news channels, we are going to continue with our business operations as part of Sega Sammy Holdings effective November 1, 2013.

As you may already know, Index Corporation filed for Civil Rehabilitation Proceedings in Japan on June 27 and since then, has been searching for a solution which would allow us to continue our business of making great games.

Atlus has consistently received support and praise from our faithful and our respected customers, and made great progress in recent years. So the recent incident must have surprised and worried all of you dearly. For that, I would like to express my deepest apologies.

We have nurtured a great relationship with Sega Inc. for a long time, especially concerning our consumer games business in Japan. I believe the collaboration between the two companies at this time will be mutually beneficial for the following reasons:

• Sega understands our drive to achieve quality and to expand awareness of the Atlus brand.
  Our respective strengths in game development complement each other well.
  We are extremely happy to be able to continue with our business, and be able to report this good news to our fans and customers. Again, we would like to express our gratitude to everyone who has supported us.
  Currently, we at the Consumer Software Division in Japan are focusing on developing future titles, and are willing to take on new challenges to further achieve growth and success.

Please stay tuned for future updates.

Naoto Hiraoka

President and CEO

[Zeus]

Sounds like exactly what the fans wanna here for sure. But let's see what the reality is once they start reporting figures up to their corporate overlords. Maybe Sega-Sammy will let them operate the way they always have, maybe they won't.

[Eric]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2 ... of-america

Layoffs at Sega of America

Sonic maker institutes job cuts, saying it "must adapt and adjust" to compete

Sega of America has reportedly undergone some layoffs. A Sega spokesperson confirmed for VentureBeat that an unspecified number of jobs were eliminated at the publisher.

"As the gaming industry continues to evolve, companies must adapt and adjust in order to compete and succeed in an ever-changing environment," the representative said. "As a result of this, Sega of America has recently undergone a restructure that will enable the company to focus efficiently on developing new and existing content across digital platforms as well as continuing to focus on key brands for packaged goods."

VentureBeat reports that the number of laid off staff is small.

Last year, Sega announced a restructuring of its Western business intended to streamline its operations. Since then, the publisher shuttered five of its European offices and closed Sega Studios Australia, developer of the London 2012 Olympics game. However, it hasn't all been contraction for Sega. Last month the company won a $140 million bidding battle to acquire Japanese RPG developer Atlus from its struggling parent, Index Corporation.

[Anarky]

My buddy at Atlus is currently looking into new employment just in case. He only took the job 6 months ago, but when your company is going through a buyout you have to do what is best for your family.

[Zeus]

My buddy at Atlus is currently looking into new employment just in case. He only took the job 6 months ago, but when your company is going through a buyout you have to do what is best for your family.

That's what a lot of people at Blackberry are saying in town here :-)