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

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P

Pureauthor

Member
Lazy vs Crazy said:
I don't think SEGA has "improved" much of anything in the past 12 years or so.

I mean they may want to, but their execution on, well, everything kinda sucks these days.
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They improved Sonic.

Granted they were also the ones who nearly murdered Sonic, but they definitely improved him afterwards.
 
T

toddhunter

Member
Not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand, things could be a lot worse and Sega could do the big games justice. On the other hand? It will likely mean the death of smaller franchises and any PC releases will be price gouged.

ambivalence6fpln.gif
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Yeah officially it's not announced yet:

Bloomberg said:
Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. (6460) won an auction to buy Index Corp., the bankrupt Japanese developer of handheld games, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

The acquisition may be valued at about 14 billion yen ($141 million), said one of the people, who asked not to be identified before an announcement scheduled for as early as today. Index’s bankruptcy advisers plan to complete a deal with Sega Corp., a unit of Sega Sammy, in early November, they said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...on-to-buy-bankrupt-japan-gamemaker-index.html
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Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
RustyNails said:
How the fuck does sega has that much cash?
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Tell me about it, where'd they get 14 billion yen from?

Well way I see it, SEGA is prob. just gonna let Atlus/Index do what they used to do but without the shady money dealings.

Best case scenario: Atlus USA offers assistance for more localizations @3@
 
V

vinnygambini

Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
Nirolak said:
Generally companies prefer to make their own acquisition announcements than have other companies leak them.

I suspect that's what we're seeing here given Bloomberg and Nikkei are rock solid.
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True but why go against the drift and say we haven't made any announcements even though Bloomberg and Nikkei confirm the acquisition? Furthermore, it doesn't seem Sega Sammy investors have reacted to positively to the report even though it solidifies their gaming market. Shares were at 2800 high now down to 2725.

We will have to wait until an official press release I guess.

Edit: Just saw the Bloomberg report
 
P

polyh3dron

Banned
NOOOOOOOOOO

FUCK

I'm guessing this means we get almost none of their games here in the US after they inevitably "restructure" it.

FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Femmeworth said:
So it's a deal with SEGA and not SEGA Sammy.
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grandjedi6 said:
So its Sega once again asking Papa Sammy for some cash for the weekend.
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Well I mean it doesn't make sense for them to be a subsidiary of anything else since all the legal structures are already in place for Sega, especially since Sega is going to be the one managing them.

Like for example Ghost Games and Easy are actually subsidiaries of DICE, not EA, for similar reasons.
 
J

jj984jj

He's a pretty swell guy in my books anyway.
It really doesn't change anything, Sega is not separate from Sammy Sega at all so Atlus ending up on the consumer side of their business makes sense. Not sure why some are trying to make it seem like Sammy Sega would be better than "Sega" when it's the same company.
 
C

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Sega specifically and not Sega Sammy is a bit concerning. If it was the holding company buying it would make sense for them to remain independent as long as they're profitable. Sega means they may get absorbed.
 
G

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
Nirolak said:
Well I mean it doesn't make sense for them to be a subsidiary of anything else since all the legal structures are already in place for Sega, especially since Sega is going to be the one managing them.

Like for example Ghost Games and Easy are actually subsidiaries of DICE, not EA, for similar reasons.
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True. I mean I expected that to be the end result anyway but I wondered whether it was Sega or Sammy acquiring it initially.
 
Y

yami4ct

Member
Gonzo The Great said:
Interesting indeed, considering SEGA would be on the verge of bankruptcy if they didn't have Sammy. How can they afford this?
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Sonic and their PC division are doing great in the west, while Yakuza and Hatsune Miku do good numbers over in Japan. Don't really think Sega is that hard up for cash right now.
 
K

kuppy

Member
yami4ct said:
Sonic and their PC division are doing great in the west, while Yakuza and Hatsune Miku do good numbers over in Japan. Don't really think Sega is that hard up for cash right now.
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I meant that Sega Sammy was denying and Sega not talking about this story because they want to have the honor by themself and not through a side note (Nikkei & Bloomberg).

But yes, they are doing great.

Edit: Ok, no problem.
 
Y

yami4ct

Member
kuppy said:
I meant that Sega Sammy was denying and Sega not talking about this story because they want to have the honor by themself and not through a side note.

But yes, they are doing great.
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Haha. Just realized I quoted you by mistake. Meant to quote the "sega would be bankrupt without Sammy" post.
 
D

dragonlife

Member
I'm really curious what this will mean for Atlus games on PC. Maybe nothing, but it's probably the only exciting possibility from all this.
 
Y

yami4ct

Member
kuroshiki said:
and they are spending 10% of what they have to purchase Atlus? Seems like a pretty steep price.
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I'd love to know what kind of profit Atlus brings in a year. It might not take that long for this investment to pay off for Sega. They have a relatively fast turnaround of cheap, but profitable games and the heavy hitter of P5 coming up.
 
M

Meia

Member
Positive outcomes:

Altus is left totally alone.
Atlus games start showing up on PC.
Atlus USA is allowed to localize some major Sega games that Sega themselves haven't.


Negative outcomes:

Atlus USA is dissolved by the end of the year because having two localization companies is seen as redundant.
Sega gets their mitts on some of the SMT properties with "ideas".
Going with #1, we see a drastic decline on BOTH niche and major Atlus platforms(at best, not translated; at worst, nothing at all).



Am I missing any on either side here?


At any rate, how am I going to treat this? With bated breath and to wait and see what they do about Atlus USA. That will probably say all that needs to be said in terms of which of the above outcomes we're getting...
 
S

Sage00

Once And Future Member
kuroshiki said:
and they are spending 10% of what they have to purchase Atlus? Seems like a pretty steep price.
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No one spends cash at hand for acquisitions. You take out loans and repay them with the increased profit from the new company (or, failing that, asset strip).
 
G

GnarkillZA

Member
Here in South Africa this is somewhat good news,as this means a new distributor will be taking over the Atlus stuff here.The current distributor is doing a piss poor job getting these titles to our country.The only way to get games like Persona 4 Golden here is via importing it and it seems like Dragons Crown will be heading for the same path.
 
S

Sponge

Banned
I don't see much of a problem with this besides maybe a few titles not getting localized.

Persona and SMT are pretty big, I think they'll come over just fine.

We might even see Atlus have a take of some of Sega's old IPs!
 
S

Samurai_Heart

Member
Meia said:
Positive outcomes:

Altus is left totally alone.
Atlus games start showing up on PC.
Atlus USA is allowed to localize some major Sega games that Sega themselves haven't.


Negative outcomes:

Atlus USA is dissolved by the end of the year because having two localization companies is seen as redundant.
Sega gets their mitts on some of the SMT properties with "ideas".
Going with #1, we see a drastic decline on BOTH niche and major Atlus platforms(at best, not translated; at worst, nothing at all).



Am I missing any on either side here?


At any rate, how am I going to treat this? With bated breath and to wait and see what they do about Atlus USA. That will probably say all that needs to be said in terms of which of the above outcomes we're getting...
Click to expand...
Pro:
  • Ability to use Sonic and his demonic friends on the SMT franchise as well
  • Sega may be able to share game engines
Con:
  • Likely poorly stocked games
  • Unexplained/moronic delays to games *cough*Anarchy Reigns*cough*
 
TaroYamada

TaroYamada

Member
I personally think it's a poor investment considering the price they could have probably had a studio like volition for alongside their Relic acquisition. Not to say Atlus is bad, I just think this is too high a price to pay for Index.
 
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