Demon's Souls Pushes Atlus USA Into Profit

[Logan Westbrook]

Demon's Souls Pushes Atlus USA Into Profit

A combo of surgery, giant swords and dying a heck of a lot has done wonders for Atlus' balance sheet.

After making an operating loss of just over $1.1 million in fiscal year 2009, Atlus USA has bouced right back in FY2010 with a profit of $5.39 million, mostly due to From Software's fiendishly tricky and unforgiving RPG, Demon's Souls [http://www.amazon.com/Demons-Souls-Greatest-Hits-Playstation-3/dp/B002AB7TX8/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287754702&sr=1-1].

In April, Demon's Souls' US sales were said to be nearly four times higher [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99980-Demons-Souls-Sales-Triple-Expectations] than expectations, and then in August, Atlus reported [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102575-Demons-Souls-Amazing-Success-In-UK-Gives-Sequel-Hope] that it had seen more interest than anticipated in the UK as well. The sales figures for the game stand at around 380,000, which is impressive for a title with such a niche audience. Other big sellers for the 2010 fiscal year were 3D Dot Game Heroes [http://www.amazon.com/3D-Dot-Game-Heroes-Playstation-3/dp/B002I0J45C/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287754726&sr=1-1], Persona 3 Portable [http://www.amazon.com/Shin-Megami-Tensei-Portable-Sony-PSP/dp/B00356GVRW/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287754754&sr=1-1], and medical game Trauma Team [http://www.amazon.com/Trauma-Team-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B002BHSPXO/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287754779&sr=1-1].

These numbers might seem almost trivial compared to the like of Halo: Reach, which made $200 million on its first day of release [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103518-Halo-Reach-Makes-200-Million-on-First-Day], but Atlus USA doesn't publish huge mainstream games. Instead, it publishes games with smaller audiences that might otherwise never make it out of Japan, so for it to post a $5 million profit is quite the accomplishment.

Source: Siliconera [http://www.siliconera.com/2010/10/21/the-demons-souls-effect-on-atlus-usas-profits/]


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[lazyslothboy]

A combo of surgery, giant swords and dying a heck of a lot might not sound has done wonders for Atlus' balance sheet.

Confused by the wording here. Are you saying that all doesn't sound good, but has done wonders?

 

[Therumancer]

I've always thought that Atlus' problem has been lack of promotion of their products, combined with some rather bad release desicians. Cow towing to censorship, and cancelling heavily anticipated titles like "Soul Hackers" back in the day.

I will also say that I'm a bit wary whenever a company gives numbers about their profits, and especially when a company claims a loss. Given that some titles like the "Persona" games are pretty mainstream nowadays I'm not entirely sure I can see them losing that much money. Demon's Souls didn't strike me as being as successful as say Persona 3 and 4 were going by the number of people I've run into talking about them. The "Strange Journey" game was apparently a failure, but at the same time that game seemed to hardly be promoted, and the box art makes it look so cheap that I'm not surprised it didn't attract many casual buyers. Going by appaerances, if you were following RPGs you'd probably assume that the game was some kind of direct-to-the-bargain-bin cut-rate shooter given how that looks.

 

[GeneticallyModifiedDucks]

Good for them. Now about that European branch...

Seriously, Atlus. DO IIIIIT!

 

[Mr. Fister]

Ah, good to hear they're turning a profit. Atlus is one of the better "small" gaming companies out there.

As long as they keep putting out original titles and put effort into said titles, they should continue to do fine.

 

[twm1709]

DS is a very compelling game, but really not as unforgiving as advertised. I've had more trouble with Uncharted 2 and God of War 3 on the highest difficulty settings.
Getting the trophies on the other hand is a thankless task

 

[DTWolfwood]

man i still want to play that game. should probably get me one, one of these days >.<

Too bad my console is currently gathering dust in like of the recent explosion of PC games.

 

[SnipErlite]

Good. It looks like an awesome game (I'll get around to buying it eventually, honest!)

I like these guys (Y)

 

[lhin]

It's nice to hear a company getting what they deserve.

 

[SUPA FRANKY]

Go Atlus! I hope they stay around for a while! They've developed and published so mamny interesting and fun games. If only they could make as much as Triple A developers do.

 

[ZelosRaine]

What's good for ATLUS is good for gamers. Rock on!

 

[Ghostbody]

It is good to see. I am an Atlus fan and I want to see more of their games hit stateside. One of which being Catherine.

 

[Irridium]

Glad they're successful. Hope they stay that way, otherwise how else will I get my weird, insane, and completely amazing games?

 

[Mcface]

Now heres to hoping they keep demons souls 2 the same, and not try to make more money on it.

 

[Wolfram23]

Demon's Souls... <3

Hope for a sequel of some sort!

Also, I agree with some proper promotion it could have been huge.

 

[SantoUno]

I really want to try Demon's Soul one of these days.