Support NeoGAF

[OmegaDL50]

Atlus has nothing to do with Grand Kingdom.

You are aware while NISA is the publisher for Grand Kingdom, Atlus was then distributor for NISA Published games in the West, right?

Refer to this list - http://atlus.com/sales/lol.php

As the topic title states, not only is NIS no longer publishing for ATLUS in Europe, but also ATLUS is halting its distribution for US Published NISA games.

So stuff like Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force, Grand Kingdom, Disgaea, or even Danganronpa which are all NISA Published would now need to be handled by an entirely new distributer in the West.

 

[MLH]

It's high time when Atlus is calling out for being a not-so-good published anymore. I've noticed that a lot of the games they published from 2013 onwards were mostly... Subpar. Like they localized either crappy Japanese games or unknown (and questionable) Western games. It's like they ran out of things to publish (coz maybe Aksys and Xseed publish a lot of these niche games) and just localized whatever.

Atlus may not be that prominent on every console currently but they're the saving grace of the 3DS and their titles on that console have been excellent. Without a doubt one of three reasons I love the console so much.
So many people wouldn't be posting as passionately as they are if they thought Atlus was not-so-good.
Admittedly they don't give a fuck about Europe so they suck it that respect, but you can't knock the quality of their games or their value as a publisher for niche games, when every other publisher would turn their nose up at the opportunity.

 

[jRPG]

I'm genuinely incredibly sad about the whole thing. NISA Europe were a godsend, most importantly we were actually getting several niche Atlus games, but also at a decent rate. I look at all the games in my 3DS collection with Atlus on the cover and despair. Would Sega Europe put out the likes of Stella Glow or The Legend Of Legacy? I can't ever imagine that happening, not when Sega happily sit on the likes of the 7th Dragon series.

I'm hoping it won't affect reprints of existing Atlus titles NISA have already published over here, as I've been meaning to get into the Etrian games for some time (there's 4 of them on 3DS alone!), but never have. Now I'm not sure whether to hoover them up before they're gone, or if it's worth getting into a series whose future output may never reach these shores.

I genuinely despair.

 

[toastyToast]

Didn't they end up self publishing SMT IV after a billion years? Why can't they just commit to that if the alternative is nothing coming out?

 

[Shy]

John Hardin ‏@JohnLHardin 4h4 hours ago
Regarding NISA/EU publishing, I can confirm that Odin Sphere Leifthrasir EU release will not be affected.

https://twitter.com/JohnLHardin/status/724630991856275456

Phew.

 

[ULTROS!]

Atlus may not be that prominent on every console currently but they're the saving grace of the 3DS and their titles on that console have been excellent. Without a doubt one of three reasons I love the console so much.
So many people wouldn't be posting as passionately as they are if they thought Atlus was not-so-good.
Admittedly they don't give a fuck about Europe so they suck it that respect, but you can't knock the quality of their games or their value as a publisher for niche games, when every other publisher would turn their nose up at the opportunity.

For the record, what are the good non-SMT/EO games published by Atlus since 2013? Do the Vanillaware games count?

 

[Flopfan]

John Hardin ‏@JohnLHardin 4h4 hours ago
Regarding NISA/EU publishing, I can confirm that Odin Sphere Leifthrasir EU release will not be affected.

https://twitter.com/JohnLHardin/status/724630991856275456

Well at least there's that.

 

[Guymelef]

You know what would be fine?
Bamco bringing the games to all Europe, here in Spain they are who bring NISA/Atlus games.

 

[MLH]

For the record, what are the good non-SMT/EO games published by Atlus since 2013? Do the Vanillaware games count?

That's purely subjective, I love Vanillaware - Dragon's Crown & Odin Sphere are great. And I also enjoyed Legend of Legacy (although I know a lot didn't), and why shouldn't EO/ SMT series count, because it proves you wrong?
You don't like all their games, that's fine, I'm not interested in Dungeon Travelers 2 for example, but that doesn't make them a bad publisher, ignoring Europe does.

 

[ULTROS!]

That's purely subjective, I love Vanillaware - Dragon's Crown & Odin Sphere are great. And I also enjoyed Legend of Legacy (although I know a lot didn't), and why shouldn't EO/ SMT series count, because it proves you wrong?
You don't like all their games, that's fine, I'm not interested in Dungeon Travelers 2 for example, but that doesn't make them a bad publisher, ignoring Europe does.

What I'm trying to say is for a niche developer, they've been incredibly limited nowadays in their pickups whereas Xseed and Aksys are taking advantage of the niche titles tenfold not to mention Aksys and Xseed are also expanding heavily across these titles.

Xseed is publishing in Europe and has recently been publishing in Asia, Aksys has teamed up with RSG for Europe and they've got good ties until now. Atlus has Sega and they can distribute worldwide but who knows, I'm not so confident yet since there's the whole EU and Sega debacle. I hope the ending of NISA relations means that Sega will be taking over the reigns.

Don't get me wrong but their Atlus developed games are great and so are the localizations, I just wish they do it to more games that are much more worthy (I mean the FurYu games are eh...) and take advantage of publishing more of their titles around the world now that they have Sega by their side. For now they're limited compared to their more niche counterparts.

 

[IpsoFacto]

Curious fact, most european distribution and publishing actually is handled by an independent company called Koch Media (that includes SEGA, Square Enix, Capcom, Codemasters and a few others).

 

[Aters]

They passed on Theathrythm Dragon Quest. Don't fool yourself, they'd have never localized such a title, regardless of platform.

To be fair, the Enix side of the company has their own way of handling things. That's we have got FF Explorer but not DQVII yet.

 

[dan2026]

Why is it every other company on the planet can release games (in a timely manner) in Europe no problem except Atlus?

They can't seriously be that incompetent.

 

[Rinさとり]

Why is it every other company on the planet can release games in Europe no problem except Atlus?

They can't seriously be that incompetent.

Atlus and Victor Ireland go hand in hand in being Incompetent in releasing stuff outside of US.

 

[Oreiller]

Atlus and Victor Ireland go hand in hand in being Incompetent in releasing stuff outside of US.

It's somewhat understable for Gaijinworks because of the size of the company. Atlus doesn't really have that excuse.

 

[MLH]

What I'm trying to say is for a niche developer, they've been incredibly limited nowadays in their pickups whereas Xseed and Aksys are taking advantage of the niche titles tenfold not to mention Aksys and Xseed are also expanding heavily across these titles.

Xseed is publishing in Europe and has recently been publishing in Asia, Aksys has teamed up with RSG for Europe and they've got good ties until now. Atlus has Sega and they can distribute worldwide but who knows, I'm not so confident yet since there's the whole EU and Sega debacle. I hope the ending of NISA relations means that Sega will be taking over the reigns.

Don't get me wrong but their Atlus developed games are great and so are the localizations, I just wish they do it to more games that are much more worthy (I mean the FurYu games are eh...) and take advantage of publishing more of their titles around the world now that they have Sega by their side. For now they're limited compared to their more niche counterparts.

I see, yeah I agree with you now. Rather than expanding like Marvelous/XSEED, Atlus have been remaining stagnant regarding new business opportunities and market expansion, like a move to multi-platform development including PC/ Steam (for the development studios) or attempts at publishing in Europe (for their publishing branch). They're certainly stubborn.

 

[OmegaDL50]

I see, yeah I agree with you now. Rather than expanding like Marvelous/XSEED, Atlus have been remaining stagnant regarding new business opportunities and market expansion, like a move to multi-platform development including PC/ Steam (for the development studios) or attempts at publishing in Europe (for their publishing branch). They're certainly stubborn.

A company is only stubborn to a point which it starts to affect their bottom line which then they become more open to ideas.

I read a statement in this topic about Atlus putting up their flagship franchise Persona 5 up for bid. If this is the case that is quite some hubris.

I don't even think Square-Enix would put up their Final Fantasy series up to bid in terms of releasing to specific region. That's just leaving potential money on the table.

 

[Narroo]

A company is only stubborn to a point which it starts to affect their bottom line which then they become more open to ideas.

Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that; companies are run by humans and humans can be stubborn beyond all reason.

Anyone remember the Sega of America president back during the Saturn era? The guy who blocked a ton of quality games from reaching America because they weren't in 3D, despite the fact that the Saturn was terrible at 3D and specialized in 2D sprites and arcade hardware based ports? The guy who was one of the major factors in sinking the Saturn?

Actually, the Sega Saturn is pretty much a video game based case study in poor business decisions. If we were to go outside games, we could find even more examples.

 

[OmegaDL50]

Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that; companies are run by humans and humans can be stubborn beyond all reason.

Anyone remember the Sega of America president back during the Saturn era? The guy who blocked a ton of quality games from reaching America because they weren't in 3D, despite the fact that the Saturn was terrible at 3D and specialized in 2D sprites and arcade hardware based ports? The guy who was one of the major factors in sinking the Saturn?

Actually, the Sega Saturn is pretty much a video game based case study in poor business decisions. If we were to go outside games, we could find even more examples.

You are talking about Bernie Stolar, no?

I wouldn't say Atlus runs their business the same way he did, despite being owned by Sega doesn't necessarily mean they would operate in a similar fashion.

History repeats to a degree, but I would hope, Atlus isn't that shortsighted to create kerfluffles with NISA at this point especially when their supposedly largest most anticipated game they got in the works has a major announcement more in a week or so time.

It seems like just a poor timing for this situation to happen when puts a dark cloud over the questionability of a European date for Persona 5.

While I do believe Persona 5 is too large for Atlus to ignore for a worldwide release. Their existing behavior with European releases doesn't give me much confidence.

While honestly this situation does not effect me much since I'm from the US, however I have friends from Europe so I can understand at a certain level being a fan of Atlus games myself.

 

[R_thanatos]

John Hardin of Atlus USA sympathetically addressed the Europe situation today (for both Atlus and SEGA games, I believe), during a SEGA livestream. Here's a (hopefully accurate) transcript of what was said, that I quickly jotted down:



https://www.twitch.tv/sega/v/62785208?t=04m39s



Nothing particularly new, I suppose. Just confirmation that they know.

I'm surprised , surprised i tell you , SURPRISED !

well not really , it actually feel so familiar..

 

[Pyros_Eien]

Don't care too much about the PS4 stuff cause I can always just buy digital US versions, but it sucks for the 3DS games with the whole region lock nintendo nonsense. Hopefully EOV makes it, but I guess SMTIV Final won't.

 

[Dremark]

Yeah like PS3 is region free and we got to play P4A that way... Oh wait.

Ouch.

For what it's worth I boycotted that game even though I wanted it badly because that was such a screwed up thing for them to do. I *think* they learned thier lesson after the backlash on that though, but I suppose we'll see.

 

[Eusis]

It's somewhat understable for Gaijinworks because of the size of the company. Atlus doesn't really have that excuse.

I think Atlus had that excuse initially, but then times changed, they got bought, and it starts looking nonsensical. But it's probably a case of an awesome American division being kind of hamstrung by a Japanese parent.

 

[BKK]

Curious fact, most european distribution and publishing actually is handled by an independent company called Koch Media (that includes SEGA, Square Enix, Capcom, Codemasters and a few others).

Distribution, yes, but publishing is separate. Sega publish their own games, even if they use a third party distributor. Namco Bandai also has a pretty big European distribution business, which they bought from Atari (formerly Infogrames) a few years ago.

 

[Faustek]

Has EOV even been announced for a NA release?

Anyway I Don't see why that would make it over here and SMTIVF wouldn't(after a full year and digitally only).
Atlus and Sega are majorly bad at console releases here. Can barely wrap my head around the Valkyria release on PS4. I can barely wrap my head around that Sega Europe knows anything outside PC releases though.


Edit: for Gaijin works, I remember Vic didn't understand that the it was the PSP store that was down but you could still buy PSP games and transfer them to your PSP/V here in Europe. The only comment he said was that he was going to look in to it though.

Buy I have to ask myself.... How come every indie manages but not Atlus? Heck even Aksys have been hit'n'miss a few times but it looks like they have an, so far, unmentioned plan.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

Don't care too much about the PS4 stuff cause I can always just buy digital US versions, but it sucks for the 3DS games with the whole region lock nintendo nonsense. Hopefully EOV makes it, but I guess SMTIV Final won't.

At the very least I hope Atlus USA self publishes their titles on the eShop again if they really can't find a publisher for some of their smaller titles. Though I guess it depends on whether the responsibility for these titles remains with Atlus or goes to Sega of Europe.

While they messed up SMT IV, they at least handled Conception II and Attack on Titan alright. And with the eShop now supporting the IARC rating system (fill in survey, get ratings systems for loads of different boards around the world) there's no excuse.

As I might have mentioned earlier in the thread, Aksys has been doing this with recent 3DS titles, ensuring they get a simultaneous North American and European release. Which, if this happens, would mean none of Sega of America or Atlus USA's online marketing or buzz for the US release is wasted.

 

[qualitydisc]

Atlus shrugged

Should have been first post

 

[i-Jest]

This doesn't bold well for both sides of the pond, yeah Europe is going to lose out but didn't Atlus also bring games over from NisA?

 

[OmegaDL50]

This doesn't bold well for both sides of the pond, yeah Europe is going to lose out but didn't Atlus also bring games over from NisA?

Atlus did distribution for NISA published games in the US.

 

[AniHawk]

This doesn't bold well for both sides of the pond, yeah Europe is going to lose out but didn't Atlus also bring games over from NisA?

not ever

 

[witchedwiz]

do we have a list of affected game?
odin sphere is not affected which is good..
other games? i suppose
possible shin megami tensei iv: apocalypse
possible etrian odyssey v
(remotely) possible 7th dragon
(future) persona 5
any other game?

 

[Azure Phoenix]

SAM MULLEN: Yeah, we're working on it. Hang tight. We understand, we're all plugged-in -- we know, we hear you guys.

You've had almost a decade to "work on it" after the Persona games exploded in popularity, and you've continued to do nothing about it.

Here's a thought for you Atlus, Idea Factory International were using NISA to publish their games outside of Japan up until 2 years ago - now they're a more consistent publisher in the West than you are. They've got their own online store in the US and Europe which sells collectors edition games, they release stuff in both regions less than 1 week apart, they port almost everything to Steam. And they're doing it all off the back of a few mildly profitable Neptunia games. Take a long hard look at what they're doing and let it sink in why we're sick of your shoddy treatment of European customers.

 

[Spieler Eins]

any other game?

Well, any future Atlus game. Hopefully after P5, they move more of their franchises to modern systems without region locking.

 

[mrmickfran]

So stuff like Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force, Grand Kingdom, Disgaea, or even Danganronpa which are all NISA Published would now need to be handled by an entirely new distributer in the West.

Aw fuck.

 

[GhostTrick]

Well, any future Atlus game. Hopefully after P5, they move more of their franchises to modern systems without region locking.

Yeah... Ever heard of P4 Arena ? Atlus is that kind of company.

 

[OVDRobo]

Sounds like backdoor SEGA strong-arming.

Doesn't really affect me that much since I don't really buy Atlus games outside of Persona, which I can't see not being released in Europe no matter how crappy a company SEGA tends to be with localisations, but NISA is a solid publisher in Europe usually releasing physical versions of very niche games. Hopefully this doesn't effect them too much.

My general sentiment since SMTIV and Persona 4 Arena is and will likely remain 'fuck Atlus', though.

 

[dakkumauji]

You are aware while NISA is the publisher for Grand Kingdom, Atlus was then distributor for NISA Published games in the West, right?

Refer to this list - http://atlus.com/sales/lol.php

As the topic title states, not only is NIS no longer publishing for ATLUS in Europe, but also ATLUS is halting its distribution for US Published NISA games.

So stuff like Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force, Grand Kingdom, Disgaea, or even Danganronpa which are all NISA Published would now need to be handled by an entirely new distributer in the West.

Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force is being released by IFI so unrelated to this
And I doubt this affects things that are already released or going to be and are under contracts and agreements but more of in the future titles (we already see this as Psycho-Pass isn't being distributed by Atlus)
Of course if things get a reprint (if that ever happens), it probably wouldn't be a problem cause its not like NISA is suddenly out of a distribution partner and can never find another one

 

[Spieler Eins]

Yeah... Ever heard of P4 Arena ? Atlus is that kind of company.

Because of one game from 4 years ago out of their entire catalogue?

 

[saturnine]

This is a worrying information to say the least.

Has EOV even been announced for a NA release?

Anyway I Don't see why that would make it over here and SMTIVF wouldn't(after a full year and digitally only).
Atlus and Sega are majorly bad at console releases here. Can barely wrap my head around the Valkyria release on PS4. I can barely wrap my head around that Sega Europe knows anything outside PC releases though.

What's that about Valkyria?

 

[ShogunDarius]

You've had almost a decade to "work on it" after the Persona games exploded in popularity, and you've continued to do nothing about it.

Here's a thought for you Atlus, Idea Factory International were using NISA to publish their games outside of Japan up until 2 years ago - now they're a more consistent publisher in the West than you are. They've got their own online store in the US and Europe which sells collectors edition games, they release stuff in both regions less than 1 week apart, they port almost everything to Steam. And they're doing it all off the back of a few mildly profitable Neptunia games. Take a long hard look at what they're doing and let it sink in why we're sick of your shoddy treatment of European customers.

cant say i disagree

 

[Andrefpvs]

You've had almost a decade to "work on it" after the Persona games exploded in popularity, and you've continued to do nothing about it.

Here's a thought for you Atlus, Idea Factory International were using NISA to publish their games outside of Japan up until 2 years ago - now they're a more consistent publisher in the West than you are. They've got their own online store in the US and Europe which sells collectors edition games, they release stuff in both regions less than 1 week apart, they port almost everything to Steam. And they're doing it all off the back of a few mildly profitable Neptunia games. Take a long hard look at what they're doing and let it sink in why we're sick of your shoddy treatment of European customers.

Holy crap, I've never paid much attention to IF, but you're absolutely right:

■ About Idea Factory International

Idea Factory International, Inc. is a branch of Idea Factory Co., Ltd., a Japanese video game developer and publisher located in Tokyo. It was established on September 30, 2013 in California, USA.
Idea Factory Co., Ltd. continues to work with third-party publishers to release video game titles in North America and Europe, including the Record of Agarest War series, the Hakuoki series, and a variety of others. Following its establishment, Idea Factory International served as an information hub for Idea Factory games, and has since published the Idea Factory titles Monster Monpiece and Hyperdimension Neptunia™ Re;Birth1 for the Playstation®Vita handheld entertainment system in 2014.
Idea Factory International, Inc. intends to continue providing localized media to fans worldwide in conjunction with Idea Factory Co., Ltd., with a focus on strengthening the Idea Factory brand around the globe.

http://www.ideafintl.com/about.php

Their equivalent of Atlus USA was established two and a half years ago and they already have everything sorted out with regards to Europe. Freaking wow.


Atlus just can't explain this.

 

[myco666]

Ouch.

For what it's worth I boycotted that game even though I wanted it badly because that was such a screwed up thing for them to do. I *think* they learned thier lesson after the backlash on that though, but I suppose we'll see.

While I definitely understand why you would have boycotted it I think that did more harm than good. I don't really think not buying a game sends any message other than "I don't want this product". The "why I don't want this" part is hard to convey to publisher.

Because of one game from 4 years ago out of their entire catalogue?

Yes. Atlus made sure that PAL region console owners were the only ones not being able to play the game on a system that is region free. When you do something that shitty and never actually seemed to care about PAL releases anyway you lose all trust you still had. Until there is a confirmation that P5 or any Atlus game is region free I don't expect to be able to play it because why would I.

 

[R_thanatos]

You've had almost a decade to "work on it" after the Persona games exploded in popularity, and you've continued to do nothing about it.

Here's a thought for you Atlus, Idea Factory International were using NISA to publish their games outside of Japan up until 2 years ago - now they're a more consistent publisher in the West than you are. They've got their own online store in the US and Europe which sells collectors edition games, they release stuff in both regions less than 1 week apart, they port almost everything to Steam. And they're doing it all off the back of a few mildly profitable Neptunia games. Take a long hard look at what they're doing and let it sink in why we're sick of your shoddy treatment of European customers.

You have a chiaki avatar and then you speak the truth .Well done.

 

[Nachtfalke]

You've had almost a decade to "work on it" after the Persona games exploded in popularity, and you've continued to do nothing about it.

Here's a thought for you Atlus, Idea Factory International were using NISA to publish their games outside of Japan up until 2 years ago - now they're a more consistent publisher in the West than you are. They've got their own online store in the US and Europe which sells collectors edition games, they release stuff in both regions less than 1 week apart, they port almost everything to Steam. And they're doing it all off the back of a few mildly profitable Neptunia games. Take a long hard look at what they're doing and let it sink in why we're sick of your shoddy treatment of European customers.

This so much. IFI is doing such a great job in the west it's absolutely worth pointing that out.

 

[Zareka]

You've had almost a decade to "work on it" after the Persona games exploded in popularity, and you've continued to do nothing about it.

Here's a thought for you Atlus, Idea Factory International were using NISA to publish their games outside of Japan up until 2 years ago - now they're a more consistent publisher in the West than you are. They've got their own online store in the US and Europe which sells collectors edition games, they release stuff in both regions less than 1 week apart, they port almost everything to Steam. And they're doing it all off the back of a few mildly profitable Neptunia games. Take a long hard look at what they're doing and let it sink in why we're sick of your shoddy treatment of European customers.

Yup, this is exactly why I'm so ticked. I'd really, really love to see Atlus USA explain this. Or at least try to, because they can't.

 

[Ludger Kresnik]

You've had almost a decade to "work on it" after the Persona games exploded in popularity, and you've continued to do nothing about it.

Here's a thought for you Atlus, Idea Factory International were using NISA to publish their games outside of Japan up until 2 years ago - now they're a more consistent publisher in the West than you are. They've got their own online store in the US and Europe which sells collectors edition games, they release stuff in both regions less than 1 week apart, they port almost everything to Steam. And they're doing it all off the back of a few mildly profitable Neptunia games. Take a long hard look at what they're doing and let it sink in why we're sick of your shoddy treatment of European customers.

Yeah, I don't get how IFI, an undoubtedly smaller and waayyyy younger publisher, has no trouble delivering the exact same stuff in both America and Europe. What resources do they have that Atlus lacks? Atlus are a bigger name with bigger games but they can't even hold a publishing deal with one third party, so........... I don't get it.

At this point I can only guess that IFI secretly has a ton of employees or their low budget reskins of Neptunia Victory games are just so profitable that they can afford to be this adventurous.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Yeah, I don't get how IFI, an undoubtedly smaller and waayyyy younger publisher, has no trouble delivering the exact same stuff in both America and Europe. What resources do they have that Atlus lacks? Atlus are a bigger name with bigger games but they can't even hold a publishing deal with one third party, so........... I don't get it.

At this point I can only guess that IFI secretly has a ton of employees or their low budget reskins of Neptunia Victory games are just so profitable that they can afford to be this adventurous.

I'm going to assume it's because IFI has a very close relationship with IF Japan and they're smart enough to make their games as accessible as possible. I'm no fan of IF, but I will give them one thing: they're savvy businessmen.

 

[TimmiT]

Looks like SEGA Europe will continue to not bother with publishing Atlus games.

 

[Kneefoil]

Looks like SEGA Europe will continue to not bother with publishing Atlus games.

In other news: no news.

I'm not the least bit surprised. If they were interested, they would've taken over publishing Atlus games way before NISA decided they'd had enough.

 

[R_thanatos]

Looks like SEGA Europe will continue to not bother with publishing Atlus games.

i read this answer as " why should we care" when they said " we can't"

it seems that my bitterness as a european is affecting the way i see sega & atlus