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Index (Atlus) entering into a restructuring bankruptcy; looking to transfer/sell

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Soon a blood pact with some unholy force with have this mess cleaned up. Hopefully it can inspire some kind of SMT business simulator.
 
However, I wouldn't be worried about Atlus not being bought by anyone. Their IPs have a good following in Japan, especially SMTIV and Persona, but also Etrian Odyssey. It's not like THQ when it failed. They will find someone who will acquire them, all of them. The question is...who will pick up them? A gaming company? An hardware holder? Or someone external?

Agree.

I'm not worry about Atlus getting chopped. I'm worry about ATLUS not being bought by a competent company... Again.
 
Man, this is a total bummer. Hope whoever buys them is a much better parent company than Index was.
That would not be a hard task.

If this gets me a Vanquish styled game starring Aegis, I'd be ok with this.

Trial of the Dragon: a kung fu movie pastiche action game starring Chie, in which you eat steak skewers to power up.
 
Because they aren't popular in Japan and pretty much dead in the west.

They have Alundra and Arc the Lad along with Legend of Dragoon. Arc the Lad is dead these days due to the horrible games that it received later. Legend of Dragoon and Alundra have not seen a release beyond PS1.

they did make a sort of spiritual successor to Alundra on ps2
 
I can see atlus being picked up pretty fast by a lot of different companies. The problem I see though, will any of these companies find it viable to localize games outside jpn.

I love EO, but I can see this future series not being localized at all :(
 
Nor do I see Nintendo buying them. They are usually reserved buying companies and they bought Monolith just because they had too much investment in it already.

Microsoft, this is your time to make a splash in the Japanese market. Take it!

Well they did make us want something we didn't thought about at first SMT X FE, so they better take the responsibility and go all the way
 
If this gets me a Vanquish styled game starring Aegis, I'd be ok with this.

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I have never once considered this. Dream game.
 
A platform holder buying Atlus is such a bad idea, and nobody should be wishing for that at all. I get the feeling someone like Gung Ho will step up though.
 
That's all true, but it would make so much sense for Sony.
Sony has a really good and diverse 1st party lineup, but they don't really have a good RPG or Japan specific Studio or even IP's. The acquisition of Atlus would fill those holes in their lineup immediately.

Other people have mentioned it, but Sony has a TON of JRPG IPs they are doing absolutely nothing with:

Wild ARMs
Legend of Legaia
Legend of Dragoon
Arc the Lad
Alundra
and probably more

Sony seems to have just abandoned the JRPG genre after the PS2 era ended. They even let Namco Bandai more or less steal the Souls series away from them.
 
Nor do I see Nintendo buying them. They are usually reserved buying companies and they bought Monolith just because they had too much investment in it already.

Microsoft, this is your time to make a splash in the Japanese market. Take it!

The talent at Monolith Soft was also interested in the acquisition. Had it been a situation where key staff would have left due to Nintendo buying them they wouldn't have done it. No sense in buying a studio if all the talent is just going to bleed away.

I could only see the same thing happening with Atlus if the price was right and their key staff was interested. And I seriously doubt the price would be low enough for Nintendo to consider. Whoever does pick them up will probably be a larger sized company, could see a Sega-Sammy situation where it's not really even a game company.

A platform holder buying Atlus is such a bad idea, and nobody should be wishing for that at all. I get the feeling someone like Gung Ho will step up though.

This seems way more likely. Or maybe Marvelous.
 
A platform holder buying Atlus is such a bad idea, and nobody should be wishing for that at all. I get the feeling someone like Gung Ho will step up though.

Gung Ho? I have the exact same feeling.
 
I just don't see it. Nintendo either. Sony has been trying to shed studios, not buy more and Nintendo is Nintendo. Can't see them buying ATLUS, especially with Miyamoto at the helm of creative.

Miyamoto is on record this past month for saying they are going to increase their internal staff now.

"[We've] been working on what we can do to increase our internal staff in a way that will allow us to have more projects going at the same time," Miyamoto said, when I had asked him about why some franchises like Wave Race and F-Zero seem trapped in past generations. Miyamoto noted that an increase in size will allow Nintendo to not only create new games but watch over older IPs that fans clearly still want.

As I mentioned earlier they don't need to buy Atlus outright.

Miyamoto noted that Nintendo had already started to "gradually" increase that studio's team over time. "We're doing this not by going out of house to different companies and having them develop games for us, but instead by working with partner companies and subsidiaries in a way that allows the Tokyo studio to run more projects," Miyamoto said.
 
I can't see Sony spending all that money to just put them on their own IPs... What would be the point of purchase.

I agree that Namco seems a good fit potentially.

I'm saying Sony should consider making new games in IPs they already own (like, how come there's no Dark Cloud 3?), not make Atlus work on Sony's IPs.
 
A platform holder buying Atlus is such a bad idea, and nobody should be wishing for that at all. I get the feeling someone like Gung Ho will step up though.

But what would console wars be if we couldn't draw lines in the sand on the playground?!

But seriously, I would rather some outside company that isn't nearly as internally fucked up as Index to step in and allow Atlus to keep doing what they are doing. Going to a platform holder holds bad repercussions no matter where they go, and I can't think of any major publisher/developer that would do Atlus even a modicum of justice (Even Namco-Bandai, which has been hailed as the best option, still is not a very good option, especially since they seem to be content to have Tales, and only Tales as their RPG representation).
 
:(

I just don't want Sony/MS/Nintendo to buy them. I need Etrian Odyssey on 3DS, I prefer Persona on Vita. Haven't played an SMT game yet, but have SMTIV preordered.
 
Western publishers wouldn't be a factor as Atlus wouldn't really add much to their portfolio.
Nintendo could buy them if the price is right, If the cost is over 1B Yen, I think Nintendo is out. If Nintendo buys them it helps solidify them as the top publisher in Japan with no one even coming close.
Sony could be interested in buying them in order to strengthen their JP output. SCE only has one IP, maybe two, that sells more than SMT and Persona.I can see Sony being aggressive if they want to become a more relevant publisher in Japan and really aggressive if Nintendo shows interest.

We do have to keep in mind that both Sony and Nintendo have no use for Atlus publishing arms.

I think MS is out
Capcom, SE, Konami, Marvelous, etc could all be interested in buying it. I think SE would be the most aggressive one.



That pretty much tells me that Sony is out of the hunt and is not interested in buying Atlus.

Good RPGs coming out of Square Enix again sounds too good to be true.
 
Also, yeah. If a buyout were to happen (of just Atlus) Gung Ho would make the most sense.

The question is how Atlus is tied into Index.
 
I wonder if Nippon ichi software is doing well enough at this point to acquire atlus at all. I think they would be my preferred company.

They would still release nice LE for the atlus games.
they would release the games in a timely matter in EU.
They understand how to handle niche IPs and won't expect persona 5 to 5+ million copies.
They likely would have dual audio in any of the releases.
They likely wouldn't region lock any of the releases (when they have the choice)
They are third party so they could still split the IPs between sony and Nintendo.

I wouldn't want sega or SE to get them as they would likely just move all of atlus' ips to mobile phones.
I wouldn't really want an american company to get them because they would either try to westernize their IPs or expect bigger sales then they can give.
I wouldn't want namco to get them because I would prefer to get the games with in 6-12 months of the japanese release, not 2+ years.
I wouldn't want koei to get them because I like having a physical option and LE, and they have already done enough murdering of companies I like, aka gust with the Atelier series by screwing up their two releases of the series so badly (no dual audio in ayesha and lacking a LE (an issue given Nis offered both with their releases of the series on the PS3), and a digital only release of totori+ with aboslutely no announcement that it was coming)

Personally I kind of expect a company like Gung Ho to buy them up with puzzle and dragon's money (I think that is what their big game is called).

When all is said and done though i just hope Atlus will be able to create games like they have been able to in the past.
 
But what would console wars be if we couldn't draw lines in the sand on the playground?!

But seriously, I would rather some outside company that isn't nearly as internally fucked up as Index to step in and allow Atlus to keep doing what they are doing. Going to a platform holder holds bad repercussions no matter where they go, and I can't think of any major publisher/developer that would do Atlus even a modicum of justice (Even Namco-Bandai, which has been hailed as the best option, still is not a very good option, especially since they seem to be content to have Tales, and only Tales as their RPG representation).

didnt namco help ni no kuni happen? and Ar tonelico? I'd have been happier if SRW 2nd OGs came west but maybe them acquuiring atlus could help with that?

I get the feeling someone like Gung Ho will step up though.

nobody should be wishing for that at all either
 
I'd be happy if Sony or GungHo picked up Atlus, would think about Nintendo but their awful track record with bringing games to the US/EU makes me wary
 
Man it really annoys me reading people saying they want Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony buying up Atlus.

The worst part is that this is the second thread that ended up like this. People were making up any reason they could think of for their favorite first party to buy them last time as well. :\
 
I have to agree with people saying Gung Ho would be a good choice if only because of the mobile and online games side of Atlus.

But we'll have to wait and see what happens I guess.
 
Man it really annoys me reading people saying they want Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony buying up Atlus.

Personally, if an acquisition by any platform holder is absolutely required for Atlus's survival in any way, shape, or form, I would prefer Nintendo simply because of a higher mix of quantity and quality on their platforms.

With that said, I still absolutely hope that it doesn't come to that, nor do I think it will come to that; I think it would be a least bad option in a pool of "fucking terrible outcome" and nothing more than that.

It worries me that people are using MS, Nintendo, or Sony as first options.

didnt namco help ni no kuni happen? and Ar tonelico? I'd have been happier if SRW 2nd OGs came west but maybe them acquuiring atlus could help with that?

Ni No Kuni was a bit of an exception (and to Namco's credit, it definitely paid off). If that encourages Namco to branch out a little bit more in the future in the RPG department, that would be very reassuring. I don't remember how much they helped out with Ar Tonelico though.

Now a 2nd OGs localization? Hm... I didn't think of the ramifications of having Atlus in the same house as Banpresto.
 
Once again platform warriors make another Atlus thread unbearable to read. Hope it works out for them and they find a sponsor to work as an independent company.
 
What I meant by my previous comment is that I wouldn't mind if nintendo or sony bought them. It is unlikely, but I prefer that they get bought by a 3rd party.
 
Imagine Atlus USA being collapsed and being at the mercy of XSEED.

If they go with GungHo, I fear they maybe forced to go online, or at least convert their games to online. :|
 
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