SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS INC. Confirms

(the “Company”), has concluded a business transfer agreement with Index Corporation (“Index”) for the purpose of revitalization of the business. Under the agreement, SEGA will take over the operations conducted by Index, the bankrupt company that applied to the Tokyo District Court for the commencement of civil rehabilitation proceedings effective from June 27, 2013. (SEGA is a subsidiary of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS)

Purposes of the business transfer

Index has achieved an excellent track record in the design and development of content for mobile phones. On the development of home video game software, the company owns a number of prominent IPs, namely the “ATLUS” brand titles of “Megami Tensei” series, “Persona” series and “Etrian Odyssey” series among others.

The Company believes that transfer of Index’s operations to SEGA will create synergies, on the grounds that the deal will enable the Company to:

(1) gain access to prominent IPs in the home video game software , through which the Company can expect to achieve steady flows of revenue;

(2) expect further facilitation of revenue growth for the PC Online Game Business and Content Business for Smart Devices operated by SEGA and SEGA Networks Co., Ltd.by exploiting acquired prominent IPs

(3) maximize the value of acquired IPs by effectively deploying them in the Pachislot and Pachinko Machines segment, Amusement Machine Sales and Amusement Center Operations segments.

http://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/pdf/release/20130918_index_e_final.pdf

What To Feel?

A name like Atlus has too much value for anyone to not pick them up. This isn't like THQ where they were in a slump and had to shut down and sell everything off. Atlus is at an all time high and in the past few years have finally become a name that western gamers are familiar with and recognize. Someone will want to own that name and all of their properties.

PERSONA

5

I WANT

noo atlus don't die

also if MS buys them, expect P5 to be as "different" as Dead Rising 3 is to prior games in the series.

I now know what a video game doomsday nightmare scenario is.

I wouldn't be worried about this.

Their parent company may be in financial dire straits, but I would be surprised if ATLUS themselves weren't doing fairly well. They have reasonable successes and a lot of cult followings for what must be a lot of comparatively low budgets. They seem to me to be do pretty strongly as a smaller scale publisher/developer.

If the parent company enters in to liquidation and ATLUS ends up being auctioned off, they'd probably be a reasonably valuable acquisition and I have to imagine that whoever picks them up would do so because they see the worth in ATLUS as it currently is and would hopefully just let them keep truckin'. Run on sentence.

You mean how Persona 1, 2, 3 and 4 were different from each other as well?
I'm fucking glad they decided to put more dungeons into P4 instead of having the same one over and over and over again

Oh god, let's see if I can try and put out some fires with my Japanese knowledge before this turns into another forum thread on this topic where people are running around with their heads chopped off.

Long story short, based on what I've read from Japanese sources and my own knowledge of Japanese business laws:

• The game division of Index (read: Atlus and the mobile game branches of Index) have been more or less the only profitable part of Index, which has been openly acknowledged by the company, even as the rest of the company has been deteriorating due to the money laundering issues that have been happening behind the scenes.
• Japanese bankruptcy in cases like this works like a lot of American ones; the main order of business will be to try and keep the company afloat by re-prioritizing Index's debts and do some corporate restructuring such that the owners of the debt have greater influence in how the company is run in the short term.
• This means that bankruptcy does not inherently equal a complete collapse of Index and with it, Atlus. Americans in this thread can think of Index's current arrangements as being not unlike what corporations like GM underwent several years back; these bankruptcy laws are designed to prevent outright closures as much as possible. Index's situation is not like THQ's. That being said...
• Index's alleged money laundering issues also very likely mean that its finances are strained from another avenue, the extent of which can't be entirely gathered until the Japanese government has concluded its investigation.
• Worst case scenario, if Index does pull a THQ and outright dies, to paraphrase GAF, Atlus' fate would very likely be like Volition's and not, say, Vigil. This is to say, somebody is very likely to buy out Atlus before Atlus would be remotely close to dying, giving that the franchises that they have are not without staying power within Japan.
• To that end, not that expect most of you to be able to read this since there are only a handful of other duders that are fluent in Japanese, but Index has already stated that because of the game division's (again, which includes Atlus specifically) comparatively favorable situation, they're interested in either taking on a business partner to help with the upkeep of that end or having someone indeed buy it outright. If it comes to them trying their hand at the latter, they will almost certainly succeed; I can think of several companies that would very much so have legitimate interests in owning something like Atlus (read:likely not one of the platform holders).

tldr, bankruptcy is serious shit, but not serious that it will probably kill Atlus outright. If anything, if they get bought up by a proper game company again, some of their ongoing quality issues with how their franchise licensing has been handled in recent years might actually be put back under control.

Oh dear. Well, if the parent company does go into liquidation, Atlus will likely be acquired by another company. My only concern is if the wrong company acquires them.

@pepsiman: Thank you for your post.

I dunno if M$ would do the same mistake as they did in the early life of the 360 where they had Mistwalker more or less make JRPGs for them, but they where never as profitable as a Halo or any other shooter.
So I could almost only see Square or Level 5 buy Atlus and their IPs or any other Japanese company like Marvelous Entertainment which is really successful, if I think correctly then the American Atlus division is already bought by Marvelous. So its no surprise that they would finish the job.

Isn't Index the one that has for a wile been pulling super shady stuff? Like possible connections to the triads and what not?

Persona 5 is a pipe dream, folks. Wake up and smell the ashes.

Wasn't I reading this exact same news about the parent company filing for bankruptcy like 6 months ago? Could have swore this already happened.

Persona 5 is the next "The Last Guardian"

Marvelous bought Atlus Online. Which was more Index than Atlus.

From the official Persona marketing Twitter feed. My translation as follows:

"Evening, guys. My apologies for making you all worry again. Teddie [these tweets tend to be written out as though Teddie is manning the feed, for the record] and the rest of us here at Atlus are working hard to make sure we can keep bringing you fun, interesting games moving forward. I hope you'll trust us and stick around. Atlus can bear this and will live on forever!"

I only got in one bear pun, but you get the gist of it. Suffice it to say, Atlus knows we're worried.

No, Atlus don't die!

The world needs you....I need you....

That's what you get for region locking your games and treating europe like total shit.

Fuck them. Code of Princess Sucked haha

ATLUS will just be bought just like volition and games workshop. Granted atlus crank out more games then the other two i mentioned the company who intends to buy them must pony up more money.

I hope they make it through this and continue to make fucking crazy amazing games.

I hope.

IF they get bought they really should be bought by Sony. Right now they are the best choice for developers.

@pepsiman: thank you for adding sanity to the situation, pepsibro

Yea, saw this coming a while back. Atlus will be sold off, at this point no one will want to become supporting partner of index. The most likely choice would be some third party, the likelihood of a corporation like Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft buying up Atlus seems a bit far fetch.
They are great game makers but they are not nearly profitable enough for those companies, but I guess with the recent climate in this industry, anything could happen.

In case anybody was curious what this Index business might mean for Atlus' non-Persona games, the official Japanese Twitter feed has essentially stated that their plans to release currently announced content set to come in the near future remains uninterrupted. To quote my translated post from GAF (going from bottom to top):

"The PlayStation 3/PlayStation Vita versions of Dragon's Crown, both the retail and digital download versions, are set to be released on July 25 as it was originally scheduled. We apologize for worrying our users."

"Multiplayer and save sharing functionality for Dragon's Crown is conducted via the PlayStation Network. Because of this, multiplayer services are guaranteed."

"Additionally, downloadable content that's currently in development for Shin Megami Tensei IV, as well as the retail and demo releases for Etrian Odyssey: The Millennium Girl [not sure what the official localized title is, but it's the remake] are set to proceed for the time being."

Someone will snap them up, hopefully not a platform holder, but that is definitely a possibility.

WHAT IS GONNA HAPPEN TO PERSO......

Sees @Pepsiman's post and calms down.

People are in denial about how popular Persona let alone the whole genre is. It does well enough but not enough to sustain a company with just those titles. To that end I don't know if buying up Altus saves anything. I suspect it would be easier and faster to allow the that team to "jump ship", start their own company, then get bought by someone than to try to shift through and salvage Atlus. I also suspect that the "Shin Megami Tenshi" and "Persona" are more valuable as IP to be sold off than IP to create another game with. It all depends on how impatient the creditors are going to act.

My memory is bad but what did Atlus do at the last TGS? Anything in the pipeline is probably going to get out but anything not shown is probably at risk of being orphaned or killed.

Why calm down? They said nothing about that^^

@jimmyfenix: THQ never owned Games workshop.

People in here are worried that Microsoft is going to jump in for a by out, but they don't have any stake in Atlus's survival. The company has produced very few games for Microsoft platforms. I imagine that if anything, Nintendo is paying much closer attention to the situation given that they're working with Atlus on Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem. There's a direct financial stake involved.

What? You don't like that Naoto spinoff light novel or that "amazing" adaptation of DeSu 2? I'm shocked. I'm shocked. I'm SHOCKED. (I wish GB had equivalents of Twitch faces so I could just place my Kappa here for sarcasm's sake).

Yeah, they certainly need someone to look at their franchise licensing and actually STOP these bad adaptations of their series from coming out.

Atlus gets bought by Disney. Johnny V heads the new studio with code name: Shin Megami Tensei - Infinity.

No but seriously please Atlus don't close.

Guys are we supposed to go out and buy a bunch of Atlus games now?

Edit: guys I wanna flag Pepsiman's posts for "Excellence".

It'd be nuts if Atlus got bought by Square-Enix. I can only imagine the JRPG power of that triumvirate.

But yes, they're too big to fail. I'm not concerned.

Old news is old. This actually happened what two weeks ago? Atlus themselves have made no official comment, but I am sure Atlus will be okay. Like @pepsiman said, Atlus is profitable and has some very strong ISP's in japan, some of which are even gaining ground in the US. Someone will save them regardless of how it plays out.

I can't believe some of you are actually worried that Microsoft will buy them out.

They literally have no reason to

You mean besides the fact that Dead Rising 3 wouldn't have even happened without Microsoft?

@scroll: True. but sega can come out and announce a partnership to help publish atlus games that's what i am trying saying. i don't expect any company like Nintendo or Sony to buy out the assets like the thq situation.

Seriously?

Index is filing for Civil Rehabilitation Law not bankruptcy. This may help http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=66623206&postcount=50

So Atlus will be around for a lot longer.

I think you mistook Games Workshop (the one who owns the Warhammer and Warhammer 40K franchises) for Relic Entertainment, who makes the Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War and Company of Heroes games who got bought out by SEGA.

@pepsiman Thanks for posting, duder! I'm glad to hear Atlus is likely going to be fine.

Sony or Nintendo would be the best fit, but I'm rooting for Sony since I want a PS4.

Nintendo would just hold them down and probably make them release Persona 5 on 3DS..... So please god no!!!!!

Well here this, out of all of Index's section, Atlus is their strongest brand so they aren't going anywhere since they are doing well. It a matter of how much of the reconstruction Index will do that benefits Atlus games more.

You have played 1 and 2, resulting in your question being sarcastic, right?

It won't be Sony. I remember YoshP mentioning that they'd already talked to Sony, and that they didn't particularly care.

If they get bought by a first-party console-maker, I'd bet on Nintendo. With the bets they're placing on games like X and Wonderful 101, it seems like they're invested in the Japanese market.

Besides, it's not like Atlus games sell gangbusters in the grand scheme of things. I think Persona 4 was an outlier, and Catherine too; but overall, I'm not sure who will be interested in them with all of the risks they take.

Microsoft's warchest is much larger than Sony's. Sony took every chance they could to throw a punch or jab at Microsoft during E3.

Microsoft isn't afraid to dump money into something just to have it an exclusive.

Whether the niche Persona caters to is big enough for Microsoft to care is another question.

Dead Rising's one of those franchises that's too big for its own shoes. Designed and budgeted for a demographic who would most likely be turned off by how Dead Rising plays. The first Dead Rising probably helped move 360's; I know a few guys who bought a 360 just to play Dead Rising (Until they played it. It was polarizing for my friends). It showcased a type of game that would be impossible on the PS2/XBox.

As a semi-unrelated note, according to VG Chartz, Dead Rising 2 outperformed Tomb Raider on all platforms.

Deep Silver buys them up.

Persona 5: Saint Row Riptide Edition

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