Atlus developed 11 PS2 games and 2 PS3/360 games - Why?

Atlus has developed at least 11 games for the PS2, but only 2 games for the current gen. Why is this? Are production costs too high? Do they prefer to develop games for handhelds now? Both? Will they have a next-gen presence if all they can manage is 2 games for the current one?

My guess is that the PS2 is HUGE in Japan and it's also cheaper and easier to develop for.

This really. Also Atlus didn't even make Person 4 Arena, it was Ark System Works. Seems like they stuck with mostly handheld this generation.

Because PS2 games were always relatively cheap to make, and everything becoming HD meant the standard and costs for asset creation went way up. And Atlus is a fairly small company. Also they made a lot of portable games this gen.

If that's the case, then how can they possibly develop anything for the PS4 / NextBox?

Since a lot of games later this gen will be also be available on next gen (Destiny, Watch_Dogs, The Evil Within), I'm guessing P5 might be the same way. Especially when you compare how close the PS3 and PS4 seem to be in terms of power.

I bet they will at some point, but I have a feeling that Persona 5 will be out on this gen's consoles. Plus the jump from making games for this gen to the next won't be as significant as last time.

Atlus' games are not really about tech, so i really dont see Persona 5 coming out on Next Gen. Probably on PS3 and if they're generous Xbox 360. Also 3DS market is HUGE in the East, thats really where they've been at this generation.

Because development is much more expensive in terms of time and money from PS2 to PS3.

Small company that has expertise in this really niche franchises.

They co-developed P4A with ASW, so I'd say it counts.

But yeah, they stuck to handheld development this generation (and the next, going from the 3DS) because they're the popular platforms and they're not big enough to be developing titles with big budgets for 360/PS3, I'm guessing.

Persona 4 Arena was an Arc System Works game, so Atlus only actually developed a single console game this generation.

PS2 games are nowhere near as expensive to make as PS3 and 360 games, so a niche company like Atlus is better off developing for the 3DS (or PC, but Japanese devs don't often go for the PC). Also, their target audience is Japan and, from what I know, the 3DS is quite popular there.

Again, I'll express the doubt that Persona 5 is going to appear on any consoles. I would not be surprised if it appeared on the 3DS and/or Vita.

if that was going to happen, it would've been out already.

They published a bunch of games this gen though. Most of the SMT games that have been released lately seem to be on portables and that's really the only series they seem to develop in-house.

So to recap, 360 pretty much doesn't exist in Japan at this stage, and PS3 is too expensive to develop for. So why not Wii, like pretty much every other Japanese dev did?

Pssst Check out the psp

So are you saying Persona 5 is going to be a PS2 exclusive?

Both the 360 and PS3 were outsold by the DS by a large margin, and like many Japanese developers, they chose to shift their assets to portables, which in addition to their prolific audience are also less expensive to develop for. Why spend more for a smaller audience when you can spend less for a larger one?

What makes you say that?

Because Japan.

They are waiting for me to finish all those PS2 SMT games I had hoarded. Some of them are still in their shrink wrap!

SMT IV

Well like 4 or 5 of their ps2 games were developed while the 360 and PS3 were already out. So there's still time for them to catch up.

Follow the money. The DS has a way larger market share than the home consoles in Japan. The DS and Wii games they developed were really good (though I guess all they developed on the Wii is Trauma Center, which I love).

edit: besides they're really good at making games with 2D art, which makes more sense to be on portable consoles that generation.

The profit margins probably wouldn't be very good on home consoles this generation for Atlus so why take the risk? Stick to handhelds where they are better able to make a solid profit.