Report: Sega Interested in Buying Atlus

[Sarah LeBoeuf]

Report: Sega Interested in Buying Atlus

Twenty companies have expressed interest in bidding on Atlus following the bankruptcy of the developer's parent company.

With the newly-bankrupt Index Holdings selling off its assets [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/126131-Atlus-Parent-To-Sell-Off-Operations], Japanese developer Atlus is for sale. According to one report, Sega is among the companies looking to scoop up the JRPG maker. The house that Sonic built isn't alone in its quest, though: the report states that 20 companies are interested in or bidding on Atlus, with the highest bid reaching $203 million.

Atlus seemed uncertain when Index Holdings announced that it was filing for bankruptcy (possibly because of fraud) last month. However, a statement from the studio, perhaps best known for the Shin Megami Tensei series and its various offshoots, seemed confident that work would carry on: "The development and sales of the Atlus brand as well as the consumer business will continue."

With so many potential bidders and such a high reported price, there's probably no need to worry about the future of Atlus. Unless this situation somehow interferes with the making of the next Persona game, in which case there will be hell to pay.

Source: CVG [http://www.bloomberg.co.jp/news/123-MQVZXW6JIJUX01.html]

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[Fappy]

There are enough sad tales coming from the industry. Can't we have this one reprieve?

Let us pray it all works out in the end.

 

[Teoes]

Sega was one of the companies that the community was rooting for in this acquisition, right? To keep Atlas working cross-platform. Just so's I know who to root for. Also would be nice to see people's jobs remaining secure, natch.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

I'd be OK with SEGA. I don't think they'll interfere with the games too much or give them a huge budget that their games won't be able to make back.

 

[jericu]

I've heard about this, and I'll reserve judgement for how well Sega would do with Atlus when, and if, they're the ones who end up winning the auction. But honestly, I'm curious what the other 19 companies interested in buying Atlus are, since NO ARTICLES have mentioned that at all.

 

[xyrafhoan]

I'm not worried about the future of Atlus in Japan. I'm worried about the future of Atlus in North America. Etrian Odyssey and SMT enjoy cult success here, but Catherine, one of their most successful games, only sold about 78,000 copies in North America on their first week. When Sega brings over less than half of their RPG franchises, it's scary to think what the future will be like for English gamers who are treated so well by the current Atlus localization team under Index Holdings.

My fingers are crossed that any buyer keeps the status quo and allows Atlus to work as they currently do.

 

[Charli]

I eghghgmmm ghhgmhhgl. Yeah... okay. I'd be okay with this.

Dunno how this'll pan out for outside Japan released given Sega's oddly xenophobic relationship with outsiders regarding anything that isn't Sonic the Hedgehog... But we'll see.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Works for me. SEGA, for the most part anyway, have been doing some good stuff recently, and Atlus would just add to that quality, and I don't think SEGA would interfere much either.

Plus it may mean that Atlus games don't take an absolute age to reach Europe either, which I know I'd be very thankful for.

 

[Tanis]

I kind of wish XSEED and NIS would merge, buy Atlus, and then make some amazing cross overs.

I just hope Atlus is sold INTACT, and its' IPs aren't broken up.

I also hope Nintendo doesn't buy them because...well...
Nintendo and 'mature' games don't seem to 'fit'.

 

[emeraldrafael]

it still does matter, especially considering who buys them. Personally Im hoping Sony does, cause sony seems the one to leave them the most alone. I'd hate to see sega pull a sonic with SMT or persona or see Square Enix make them into the next FF.

 

[Quiotu]

I'm not worried about the future of Atlus in Japan. I'm worried about the future of Atlus in North America. Etrian Odyssey and SMT enjoy cult success here, but Catherine, one of their most successful games, only sold about 78,000 copies in North America on their first week. When Sega brings over less than half of their RPG franchises, it's scary to think what the future will be like for English gamers who are treated so well by the current Atlus localization team under Index Holdings.

My fingers are crossed that any buyer keeps the status quo and allows Atlus to work as they currently do.

And this is the only reason I'm concerned about Atlus if it falls to Sega. I will take Sega getting them over Nintendo, so they can remain cross platform, but Sega's well known for mostly caring about Japan. Now their acquisition of Relic sort of flies in the face of that, since 40k is an almost purely western fanbase. So right now I'm not sure if Sega is looking to expand interests in the West, or if these are just acquisitions of convenience.

Regardless, if Sega treats Atlus like Relic or The Creative Asssembly, merely publishing their games and not really managing what they actually do, then I'd be quite alright with this arrangement. As it stands, I'm not really comfortable with Sega having the power to steer Atlus in whatever direction they want. They have been pretty bad at catering to anyone other than Japan for a very long time.

 

[Roxas1359]

snip

Alright, you do realize it's SEGA Sammy who wants to buy Atlus, not SEGA themselves right? SEGA Sammy is a holdings company for SEGA, just like how Index was the holding company for Atlus. If SEGA Sammy were to buy Atlus then nothing would change, and unless SEGA Sammy were to force a merger between SEGA and Atlus then SEGA would not control anything at all with Atlus. I've been seeing it a lot that people just see the SEGA part of SEGA Sammy and instantly think doom and gloom. SEGA Sammy does nothing but hold copyrights and investments because it is a holdings company, while SEGA is the business part.

Here's the translated Bloomberg Japan report from Gematsu: http://gematsu.com/2013/08/report-about-20-companies-sega-interest-atlus-bid-20-billion-yen

 

[neonsword13-ops]

Hmm. Not sure I'm completely okay with this.

Sega seems to be doing fairly well, and they publish some niche titles from time to time, so it could be an okay fit. But it just doesn't sit right with me. NIS, Nintendo, or Sony should be picking them up.

Oh man, I'm starting to get nervous.

But hey, maybe Sega could make them develop another Valkyria Chronicles game for PS3/PS4. That would be somethin'.

 

[Roxas1359]

snip

Actually it's SEGA's holding company SEGA Sammy that's looking to buy it, and they don't seem like they are in too much financial trouble right now..
Plus, they could use Atlus USA to perhaps help localize more SEGA stuff if they so choose to.

 

[Tony2077]

i hope a multiplaform let atlus do its own thing group buys them

 

[ClockworkUniverse]

I love how the actual story is that 20 companies are bidding for Atlus, and yet every time I see it on a gaming news site, they write it as "SEGA WANTS TO BUY ATLUS! also some other companies want to as well."

 

[hermes]

I would begrudgingly accept this. Truth to be told, there are worst cases than Sega (Activision, EA, Ubisoft), but I still can't forget them for losing Bayonetta to Nintendo, Aliens: Colonial Marines, the lack of Yakuza 5 plans for NA, turning Valkyria Chronicles into a portable game and the whole "we only focus on our 5 core franchises".

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Sega was one of the companies that the community was rooting for in this acquisition, right? To keep Atlas working cross-platform. Just so's I know who to root for. Also would be nice to see people's jobs remaining secure, natch.

Not particularly. Sega's not got a great history of bringing games to the West. They tend to leave the more niche stuff as Japan-only. Given that Atlus is pretty much nothing but niche (in a good way, of course), that would leave a lot of their games potentially being released only in Japan.

Also, it's worth remembering that Sega canned Bayonetta 2 even though the first one did over a million in sales, that would be a bit worrying looking at some of Atlus' games, many of which can never hope to get anything like 1 million in sales. Not that it's in any way a bad thing, but Atlus are what they are: developer and publisher of very niche games.

I'd say that Sega's been better about releasing games to the West since the tail end of the PS2XboxGC era. Yakuza came to the West as a random filler title. Sega was afraid to release the sequel but the game proved more popular than they thought. Every sequel Sega has been kind of afraid to release to the West, and every time there's a petition to release the Yakuza games that pushes Sega against their fears. Hell, even a Yakuza spin off had been released here. And for a franchise that's essentially a spiritual sequel to Shenmue (one of their most niche cult classics ever) I'd say kudos to them. They also do still give us the last real hurrah of Japanese games that aren't tailor made to the Western Market.

I also think its a bit unfair to say that Sega canned Bayonetta 2 and not explain the whole situation. Platinum Games had a four game publishing deal with Sega. They made Bayonetta, Infinite Space, Vanquish and MadWorld. When MadWorld flopped on the Wii Sega tried to bring the property in an upgraded format onto the PS3/360 as Anarchy Reigns with. That flopped too. Infinite Space didn't sell too well on the DS and Vanquish flopped as well. All great games but the only game that garnered any reputable sales was Bayonetta, and the PS3 version was handled by someone else due the fact that Platinum Games at the time had no idea how to code on the PS3. That means more money out of Sega's pocket.

That's also Sega having to pay two companies to make a game one company should have been able to make.

Needless to say, Sega lost money working with Platinum Games overall. If most publishers were in the position of Sega they would have pulled away from working with Platinum Games as well. They make great games but they seem to always either come up short with the know how or not be able to generate a buzz outside of the niche tendencies the games they make have. They were lucky to sell 1.35 million copies of Bayonetta at all.
OP:
I hope that Sega gets ATLUS because of how good Sega's been to the PC community lately. A lot of the Dreamcast's most known hits are on Steam and I think PC gaming could benefit from having more Eastern titles available.

FF7 sold well on Steam as predicted. The Last Remnant's best version is surprisingly its PC port. It'd go right along with them publishing the always award winning Total War franchise. My point is I think Sega could make a mint off of porting the games ATLUS has made to the PC. If the sales and cult following behind Recettear and To The Moon are any indication, it'd be Sega hitting a nearly untapped market of PC costumers in the West.

 

[Cybylt]

I kind of wish XSEED and NIS would merge, buy Atlus, and then make some amazing cross overs.

I just hope Atlus is sold INTACT, and its' IPs aren't broken up.

I also hope Nintendo doesn't buy them because...well...
Nintendo and 'mature' games don't seem to 'fit'.

XSEED is too small and poor, also an American company so they're not allowed to buy it because Japanese trade laws. It would be their parent company, Marvelous AQL, that'd be buying them, and if that happened they'd probably shut down XSEED since Atlus USA is such a better localization firm that it's not even funny.

NIS on the other hand is probably in a better position to buy it but I'd be against it since they're far too pandering to weeaboo/otaku culture.

And on that last statement, when it comes to subsidiaries and third party studios, Nintendo has a history of being very hands off and letting them do what they want. They picked up Bayonetta 2 when SEGA wouldn't, they picked up Resident Evil 4 when Sony wouldn't. This is also the company that had the least censored version of Conker's Bad Fur Day under their belt.

And on top of all of that, SMT4/Strange Journey have more cursing, violence, and themes of the absolute end of all than their sony system counterparts of recent years. Hell Persona's the one taking off on Playstations and that's the lighthearted spinoff series at this point.

In the end though, I still say a holding company will pick them up and just let them keep going as is as long as it's profitable, which kinda sucks for Europe since there's no ATLUS EU but pretty good for everyone else.

 

[Roxas1359]

Whoops, accidental double post, the one on the bottom is better.