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SEGA Sammy acquires Index (Atlus) for 14 billion yen, now a subsidiary of Sega

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M

MechaX

Member
charlequin said:
Right. The concern that Atlus is going to see an inevitable talent drain now, or they'll be pressured to scale their titles up unsustainably, or that they'll start to move into social/mobile gaming over a long period of time -- that's all pretty reasonable. But the idea that Persona 5 is going to come out and not be released in the US is dopey.
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Fuck Persona 5, I think this is the real problem that more people should be seeing about this (not withstanding the issue that Atlus USA might be a pretty redundant entity in the grand scheme of things, leading that to get scaled back/cut even though Atlus USA's lack of transparency, somewhat, with the niche fanbase was one of its strong-points).
 
R

RyoonZ

Banned
Takao said:
Nintendo fans would seethe if Sony bought Index. #ripthatonecrossoverwesawnofootageof
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Nintendo fans are generally generous that they're sad when Bayonetta 2 was announced for WiiU. A lot of them hoped that it could also release on Sony and MS platform so everyone could play it.
 
S

Silky

Banned
Q1rpuqi.jpg


has this been posted? That'll be the last one.
 
E

Eusis

Member
PixyJunket said:
Ugh. The only worse outcome would have been Sony.
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I actually think either Sony or Nintendo would've been about equally bad in different ways, ultimately the core one being how about half of their output gets locked out until a port to the "right" platforms, then there's how each handles localizations, though at least SCEA I can see MAYBE taking Atlus USA staff into themselves while Nintendo goes "who cares" and scraps them.

Well, I guess worst PERIOD is Microsoft. Basically everything that isn't P4A, Catherine, and some games they licensed/took publishing duties on are out the window or need to be ported, there's no handheld platform for them period unless you count WIndows Phone, and Microsoft has a history of completely fucking up developers they buy. Basically everything that could go wrong almost certainly WILL go wrong.
 
O

ohlawd

Member
ok calmed down now hah holy shit

two things I want and that's it:
1. Don't fuck around with localizations. Keep things the same as they are or better yet, expand and have even more shit localized without affecting quality.
2. Do not fuck around with SMT x FE.

I lied.

3. Do NOT fuck around with SMT x FE.
 
K

Kasumin

Member
Taking a wait and see approach on this. I am a little worried, though. I haven't paid much attention to Sega in the past few years, though, so I can't really weigh in much. I just hope they leave Atlus and Atlus USA to do their thing.
 
G

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
yami4ct said:
Seriously, name a bad thing SEGA's done that would be equitable to the ATLUS side. I'm a huge Yakuza fan, but even I'll admit that those games are huge localization efforts. The work that needs to be put into those games far exceeds all but the biggest ATLUS titles. Heck, even the Persona series is probably an easier job. Valkyira Chronicles 3? Again, pretty damn large game and on a dead platform. It's almost a guarantee 2 lost them money. PSO2? An MMO is the BIGGEST of localization efforts. Add on top of that the fact most of the US fans that would play it are already playing and paying via the english patch.

ATLUS games make money, in the US as well. Even their niche titles, like the EO games, do quite well for the size of the franchise. As long as that doesn't change, things are going to be just fine.
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I don't think the localization of Persona is easier than the localization of Yakuza... certainly not the minimalistic level of effort that Sega of America took in localizing 3 and 4.

Unwillingness to fund Bayonetta 2, forcing Nintendo to save the title.

Sega shouldn't fuck with how Atlus is currently run, but I can't help but think that they're going to... and it won't be for the better.
 
V

Valkerionseven

Member
I dunno its pretty reasonable for a lot of people to be cautious about this. SEGA has been the FOX weekly prime time line up of gaming lately. Making some great games, then letting them die prematurely instead of letting their fanbase swell... or putting effort into getting them more exposure.

I mean behind all the crap that they have done in jeeze... only the last 5ish years, all I can say is. Least it wasn't Square Enix.
 
E

Einbroch

Banned
RyoonZ said:
Nintendo fans are generally generous that they're sad when Bayonetta 2 was announced for WiiU. A lot of them hoped that it could also release on Sony and MS platform so everyone could play it.
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That's painting people in a very positive light.

People want validation for their purchases. Exclusives provide this. It's not a Nintendo/Sony/MS thing, it's a consumer thing.

Look at Rayman. People were questioning their Wii U purchases when that went multiplatform. Same with FFXIII and the PS3.
 
A

Aquamarine

Member
9thwonder said:
Nintendo and Microsoft would have been much worse
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I'm happy that Atlus is in the hands of another third-party (and not a first-party), even if the future of Atlus USA is up in the air and the operations of Atlus may take a bit of a downturn from paradigm shifts.

It makes them platform-agnostic, allows the studio to work on the independent titles that complement their strong, successful brands, and it pairs them with a well-respected publisher in the industry who understands the market.

While Sega Sammy isn't perfect, Atlus could have done much worse.
 
Y

yami4ct

Member
Tamanon said:
Realistic: Nobody notices a difference.
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Realistic Scenario: SEGA realizes the popularity of the ATLUS brand. Attaches it to everything remotely Japanese excluding established properties like Sonic. ATLUS collector's editions get slightly worse.
 
A

alfredofroylan

Member
Ok 14 billion are like $141,232,000 USD... that's basically the budget for a blockbuster summer movie or almost half the budget of GTA V!!! I'm surprised that other companies haven't tried to buy Atlus, and to conmemorate this sad moment my first Atlus game:
588764_40445_front.jpg
 
B

BLACK AMERICAN PSYCHO

Junior Member
I guess the good thing about this is that Atlus develops internally is profitable. Megaten(SMT, Devil Summoner and Persona) makes money. Even EO makes it's little money or they wouldn't continue to make them. If they don't lay a bunch of people off from the game division we should be fine. It's Atlus USA that I'm worried about. How many people does Atlus USA have? Would it be too expensive to keep them running?
 
E

EmCeeGramr

Member
clearly sega sammy's executives will see the wisdom of abandoning atlus's inferior turn based series and making trauma center the focus for their 2014 business plans
 
T

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Kintaro said:
Hmmm...

PC ports of Atlus games maybe?
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They've done that in the past... for Japan... only...

EmCeeGramr said:
clearly sega sammy's executives will see the wisdom of abandoning atlus's inferior turn based series and making trauma center the focus for their 2014 business plans
Click to expand...

I'm... okay with this.

No, seriously. If we got a Trauma Team 2 bank rolled, I'd be happy.

But then I'd blame all of you again for not buying it and me being one sell of 5,000. :(
 
E

Eusis

Member
PixyJunket said:
Something something, Konami, something something Hudson.
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Heh, just before my last post.

I was just thinking about that, and how this situation probably WILL mirror it if Atlus gets to operate effectively as their own similar to Hudson, but I suspect for Hudson it came down to failing to pull their own weight (though they should've at least kept Bomberman around), I imagine Atlus can readily do that and thus stay around. Seriously, what GOOD Hudson games came before they shut down? Though Konami definitely should've been pushing to use the IPs more or at least get them available on DD reliably, PSN's kind of anemic for TG16 games, though we do have Ys I & II Chronicles on PSP so I guess getting Ys there wouldn't matter much.
 
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