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Index (Atlus) under criminal investigation for fraudulent accounting

S

SMT

this show is not Breaking Bad why is it not Breaking Bad? it should be Breaking Bad dammit Breaking Bad
duckroll said:
Vanillaware does not own the rights to the game. Previously Ignition did, but Index bought the rights from Ignition and took over as publisher for the game, funding the rest of development. If they are unable to release the game for whatever reason, an interested publisher would have to purchase those rights from Index in order to release the game.
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I have a feeling that Sony will be the one to publish Dragon's Crown, and that will push them to buy Atlus. When I think Smt, I think of something dark, hip, trendy, cool, and I could see it becoming more than just associated to the Sony brand. I look at output, and I see Sony studios putting out many games, when I look at Nintendo and their novelty franchises such as fire emblem, I see less and less instalments with every system. The truth is FE awakening was going to be the last game in the beloved series. Also, Nintendo bought monolithsoft, but we were greeted with one solid game last gen. Now we have x and project x zone. I'm happy, but is that all we can look forward to? If hypothetically Sony can get Atlus to keep the same pace in terms of output, I'll be happy, but I just can't see Nintendo doing this company's legacy justice, as disorganized as they are now. Hard times ahead, but I'm sure someone will scoop them up if it comes to it.
 
C

charlequin

Banned
This is definitely bad news, guys, but all the talk about who's going to buy Atlus is a bit premature. I'd wait to see if Index's corrupt and terrible management live to screw up again first. :p
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
charlequin said:
This is definitely bad news, guys, but all the talk about who's going to buy Atlus is a bit premature. I'd wait to see if Index's corrupt and terrible management live to screw up again first. :p
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I'm wondering how Atlus even got in the bind of being acquired by the likes of them to begin with.
 
S

Soriku

Junior Member
Pyscho_Mantis said:
Yeah MS is the worst choice after EA and if Atlus were bought by Nintendo I fear they would not be given as much creative freedom.
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Nintendo has given Monolith some pretty good creative freedom...

Let's get real though, the only reason people want Nintendo or Sony to buy Atlus is to prop their favorite first party company up. But no thank you.
 
W

Watashiwa

Member
Kusagari said:
I don't know what I'd think about Nintendo acquiring Atlus.

Can't help but feel they would try to tone down SMT.
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Ever play Genealogy of the Holy War? That went places SMT never dared. A Nintendo buyout could be bad for Atlus, but it's much more likely it'd signal good things for Nintendo. Besides, the harshest stuff has always been in the main series, and most of that's on Nintendo consoles.

Honestly though, the ideal here would be Atlus going independent at last.
 
P

Psycho_Mantis

Banned
Soriku said:
Nintendo has given Monolith some pretty good creative freedom...

Let's get real though, the only reason people want Nintendo or Sony to buy Atlus is to prop their favorite first party company up. But no thank you.
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True. Ideal scenario is that they stay independent. Atlus has several Ip's across both platforms so its best if they stayed multipaltform.
 
Glass Rebel

Glass Rebel

Member
Soriku said:
Nintendo has given Monolith some pretty good creative freedom...

Let's get real though, the only reason people want Nintendo or Sony to buy Atlus is to prop their favorite first party company up. But no thank you.
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Pretty much. Sony buying them would probably kill Etrian Odyssey and make a new Trauma Center even less likely while Nintendo buying them could lead to less experiments like Radiant Historia and wouldn't allow them to publish stuff like Dragon's Crown.
 
C

charlequin

Banned
Soriku said:
Let's get real though, the only reason people want Nintendo or Sony to buy Atlus is to prop their favorite first party company up. But no thank you.
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Also the only reason anyone actually thinks something like that is plausible. An operation like Atlus (with a well-developed publishing arm, a series of niche markets, and development infrastructure oriented around multiple companies' platforms) is rarely an efficient investment for a platform-holder.

If we get to the point where we're actually having a real conversation about "who will buy Atlus" (and we're really not anywhere near that now), you're much more likely looking at another third-party Japanese publisher who believes Atlus' stable of properties could complement their own.
 
davepoobond

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
charlequin said:
Also the only reason anyone actually thinks something like that is plausible. An operation like Atlus (with a well-developed publishing arm, a series of niche markets, and development infrastructure oriented around multiple companies' platforms) is rarely an efficient investment for a platform-holder.

If we get to the point where we're actually having a real conversation about "who will buy Atlus" (and we're really not anywhere near that now), you're much more likely looking at another third-party Japanese publisher who believes Atlus' stable of properties could complement their own.
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Square Enix maybe, just to kill the competition

Capcom or Konami would benefit the most from an RPG-oriented development wing
 
davepoobond

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
AznSniper said:
Or Tecmo Koei. Just imagine. Tecmo Koei Index or Tecmo Koei Atlus.
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i dont think they have enough capital, do they?


if i were going to guess which one, it'd probably be Konami since they have a little bit of a history with RPGs with Suikoden. It'd be a way for them to re-enter that market.
 
I

Instro

Member
Glass Rebel said:
Pretty much. Sony buying them would probably kill Etrian Odyssey and make a new Trauma Center even less likely while Nintendo buying them could lead to less experiments like Radiant Historia and wouldn't allow them to publish stuff like Dragon's Crown.
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Why would any of those things happen?
 
C

Cyrano

Member
charlequin said:
This is definitely bad news, guys, but all the talk about who's going to buy Atlus is a bit premature. I'd wait to see if Index's corrupt and terrible management live to screw up again first. :p
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Yeah, even if Index is held liable in some sense, it doesn't necessarily mean the company will be disbanded or even dissolve. Some people at the top might be arrested or charged some hefty fees, but assuming they survive that, the company will likely keep on toiling.
 
Glass Rebel

Glass Rebel

Member
Instro said:
Why would any of those things happen?
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Because Etrian Odyssey and Trauma Center wouldn't work or lose a lot on Sony hardware and Nintendo has not only been pretty risk-averse in many regards but doesn't publish stuff on other hardware either.
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
GungHo really does seem like the most likely choice to purchase Atlus if it comes to that. They seem to be trying to build into being a bigger player in the industry. They bought GameArts several years ago and recently picked up Grasshopper.
 
D

Dracandros

Banned
First, this is a huge problem. If this was in the US, there would be a storm the size of Texas right now especially since there will be Congressional hearings over the problem of being able to pay for getting an consumer confidence index report 2 milliseconds before its released.

Index may or may not survive this (or may not want to survive this), so anything can happen. I know I don't trust most game companies to truly bring justice to anything, so the picture is really bleak.
 
C

Caerith

Member
duckroll said:
As the investigation continues, it seems that they've uncovered over 100 companies connected to this Index scandal. They are affiliate companies and business partners suspected of being part of the scheme to inflate the share price and accounts of Index via round tripping. The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission believes that Index has been carrying out this fraudulent scheme continuously and on a large scale for some time now.

Trading of Index shares have been suspended by the Osaka Stock Exchange since yesterday.
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If Index is found to be fraudulent through and through, with a history of criminal activity predating their acquisition of Atlus, can the acquisition be invalidated and Atlus set free?

I don't see Atlus being bought like the THQ devs were bought. It's more likely that Index will sell Atlus or Atlus IPs or some other douchey move... if they're even allowed to.
 
F

fertygo

Member
Man the idea SE buying Atlus.. maybe we can got final fantasy with Shoejima chara design that way, glorious.

But LOL, nope.

godammit this better not halt Persona 5
 
D

duckroll

Member
ShogunDarius said:
I live in hope, as at least if NIS did get Atlus we may actually get timely EU releases on Atlus games at last...
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Oh so you mean you don't know anything at all about the size and finances of these companies and you're just randomly shooting in the dark based on what you think would result in better localization options for you? Lol. Okay then. :p
 
M

mclem

Member
Just take it with you. said:
Man, this thread is full of terrible suggestions.

Nintendo buy Atlus?

Sony buy Atlus?

Square buy Atlus?

Level-5 buy Atlus?


i can't
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To be fair, the general theme of for god's sake, someone else please buy Atlus is pretty sound. The only dispute is who.

I'd like it to be a company aware of Europe, though.
 
S

ShogunDarius

Member
duckroll said:
Oh so you mean you don't know anything at all about the size and finances of these companies and you're just randomly shooting in the dark based on what you think would result in better localization options for you? Lol. Okay then. :p
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I just want to live in hope.... *sobs*
 
D

duckroll

Member
Samurai_Heart said:
So these 100 of companies connected to the scandal? Are they primarily entertainment companies/videogames/something more shadier?
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I think the majority of them are paper companies set up for the purpose of the alleged scam. The volume simply indicates that they were trying hard to hide their trails, not that a ton of people in the industry are involved.
 
L

li bur

Member
I'd like to know the status of atlus right now, are they a separate entity and works as a subsidiary of index?

I thought I read on gaf awhile ago that atlus is being absorbed by index.
 
D

duckroll

Member
li bur said:
I'd like to know the status of atlus right now, are they a separate entity and works as a subsidiary of index?

I thought I read on gaf awhile ago that atlus is being absorbed by index.
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No. Atlus is just a brand name used to promote their consumer games to existing fans. The company is Index Corporation.
 
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