Great news for one reason only.
Mara in the next sonic kart game. He's already got a chariot!!!!!
I wish I had this level of faith in Sega.
so, they are now tied down to Sammy Sega, at least with Sony we would see their games worldwide
People not buying Valkyria Chronicles killed Valkyria Chronicles.
There's no "even" here. Nintendo would've been the ideal scenario.
Goodbye Persona series, goodbye Megaten series.
Yeah, Persona 5 is the last thing I'm worried about. At worst they screw up the localization because they got rid of Atlus USA and didn't get together a good team to do the job instead, and if they outsource to the likes of 8-4 it'll probably be more a matter of nitpicking. It's smaller titles and further into the future I'd be more worried about, but for now I'm primarily concerned about Atlus USA.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.
Is it not possible that Atlus doesn't get put into the Sega ecosystem and they just remain their own company? My impression is that Sega isn't very profitable while Atlus has been, but Sega's owners are rich from other investments while Atlus's investors are bankrupt from other investments.
Seems more risky to let the less profitable corporate structure absorb and take control of the more profitable one. The best course would probably be to just let Atlus remain Atlus, and be open to franchise crossover if need be, like if Atlus wants to translate Yakuza.
A very good chance. People need to look at this process with some logic instead of just flipping out.
Atlus itself -- not Index as a whole, but the consumer games development division that we're talking about here -- is a consistently profitable enterprise. The listed sale price is $141m in US dollars -- a price that would be quite excessive simply to pick up a couple IPs whose value is heavily invested in their current, dedicated-niche-fanbase manifestation. Sammy also bought Atlus over a variety of other bidders, after Index specifically talked about looking for a buyer who would maintain some continuity in the operation.
Paying that kind of money to just loot the corpse and turn currently profitable IPs into mobile waste dumps would be quite pointless when, as it stands, they can buy Atlus, let them remain profitable doing what they already do, and also exploit them via sleazy mobile titles and so on.
Atlus USA is definitely the bigger concern here.
Right, I mean their strategy after buying Relic, Sports Interactive, Three Ring Designs, and Creative Assembly has been to pump more money into their games and also have them open a few side businesses, but they didn't tear out their core businesses.
Were someone to choose a rock to stand and complain on, it should be about their games going more AAA than mobile only.
Atlus USA though, yes there are notably real worries here, and perhaps some worries about localization for things they don't see as flagships.
Consider Atlus and Sega's relationship in Japan, Sega was one of the more likely choices.
Honestly no matter who bought them people would inevitably freak out (except maybe if Sony bought them) so I'm just gonna wait and see what happens.
To clarify (finally), Sega Sammy wants to revitalize Index's handheld and home console games division. Sega has been loosing money the last two quarters largely due to a downturn in the Western gaming market [according to the article, dunno if it's true].
Atlus, Index's gaming brand, has quite strong gaming franchises, like Shin Megami Tensei, and has been making a yearly profit recently. Sega Sammy would like to use the assets of Atlus productively, including the idea of them developing games for smartphones.
This (and its other two console equivalents) is easy the least sensible of the nonsensical things people have to say about this. Given the platform strategy and type of development Atlus do, any platform-holder would dramatically reduce their options and cut into their ability to maintain their existing franchises.
Yes, Sega paid $140 million to do literally nothing and kill all of Atlus' franchises for no reason.
That's possible certainly. I'd like to think the reason Sega's been silent on major localizations (outside a quick and dirty Miku print run for Cypton's US release) is that they were hoping the Atlus purchase would go through, leaving Atlus USA to handle all the text-heavy niche stuff. Since they're actually good at it.On the other hand that may mean they REALLY don't see a point in Atlus USA and rip them apart anyway. Ideally, yeah, they just expand Atlus USA to be the new Sega USA and buff them up into a bigger localization arm, but I get the feeling more and more companies would rather move most of their international operations to Europe.
Shit Persona's every year.
No Megatens ever.
GAF Cries
Yes, Sega paid $140 million to do literally nothing and kill all of Atlus' franchises for no reason.
Ugh. The only worse outcome would have been Sony.
Best case scenario: Sega leaves Atlus alone and allows Atlus USA to publish Sega properties too, unhindered.
Worst Case scenario: Sega shuts down Atlus USA and moves Atlus JP to smartphone development.
Sega killed all their franchises? citation needed
IndeedNintendo and Microsoft would have been much worse
Ugh. The only worse outcome would have been Sony.
Most likely the persona series and the shin series will be safer, but most everything else will be up in the air when it comes to localization.
so, they are now tied down to Sammy Sega, at least with Sony we would see their games worldwide
I know there's a lot of negativity permeating this thread right now which is completely understandable.
However I think we should hold on to that faint glimmer of hope that everything will be alright in the end.
Great news for one reason only.
Mara in the next sonic kart game. He's already got a chariot!!!!!
Established series get localized, new f2p phone games with said established series as well.Needs a realistic scenario.
Ugh. The only worse outcome would have been Sony.
how is the Sammy/Sega thing, i assume Sega is its own company, so can we expect the same for Atlus, this stuff is depressing