ATLUS Parent Company Index Corp TO Begin Selling Next Week..

News has come in from Bloomberg's Japanese outfit that things have gone from bad to worse for Atlus parent Index Corporation. The company will begin selling off its operations next week.

This follows an announcement at the end of June that Index had filed for "rehabilitation" (a form of bankruptcy) due to debt amounting to 24.5 billion yen ($249 million). The bankruptcy came on the heels of an investigation for "round tripping," a mechanism in which sales numbers are inflated to defraud investors.

Index will be delisted from JASDAQ on July 28, and the company hopes to move quickly before its assets are devalued. The entire matter could be wrapped up as early as September. We have reached out to Atlus for comment.

- Game Informer

Seems like ATLUS is in a bit of a pickle, if only there was a TV they could jump into and wait for this to blow over (NOPE). The article continues with The best case, in which Index recovers, is off the table.

I MEAN HOLY SHIT

I dont mind if Sony were to scoop them up at least i could play something on the only PS thing i have, the VITA. Who else would pick them up. Nintendo? I mean they take long ass dev cycles to churn out a game. Then they could have someone else besides Miyamoto locked in a Basement. LOTUS JOICE Locked in a basement, Ha, Ha, Ha. Square would desicrate their corpse, EA, ACtivision,Valve, Buy themselves out?, I'm just throwing out names, I DONT KNOW.

GameInformer Article

@bigjeffrey: So without having read the article or knowing much about this, does this mean Atlus is up for sale?

This was expected and I'm not too sure Index recovering and maintaining ownership of Atlus would have necessarily been the "best case."

Most likely, yes.

Atlus will be fine in any situation. They go up for sale, and pretty much any company with the money and half a brain is gonna grab them.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK.

Giant Bomb: you need to buy Atlus. You'd be losing money if you didn't, really.

@bigjeffrey said:

@evanbower said:

@bigjeffrey: So without having read the article or knowing much about this, does this mean Atlus is up for sale?

I really hope they stay third-party. It would be a nice get for Nintendo, but I like how Atlus has the freedom to publish wherever currently. That being said, if I have to live in a world with a Nintendo-owned Atlus, or no Atlus at all, the choice is easy.

Sony should make them first party.

Atlus should be fine. They're the most profitable part of that company. All of Index's debt is just dragging it down. The best case scenario is Atlus getting sold to a third party company that's better able to let Atlus just rake in money for them.

For the love of Vinny, please just somebody buy them so we can get Persona 5.

I imagine Giant Bomb is probably worth tens of billions yen less than Atlus.

Which is exactly why they need to do this.

only if they got da dolla dolla bill y'all :)

I'm hoping for Sega, because honestly they're one of the better publishers around (when they have a good studio they just let them at it, like the total war guys). I don't know how much it cost vs. how much they'd be profitable for them though?

I'd be okay with Sony buying Atlus. I'd be worried if Square bought them and terrified if Sega got involved.

Ideally, Nippon Ichi though. For reals.

@slag said:

I'm sure they could expense it. CBS is swimming in cash.

Does Nippon Ichi really have enough money for them? afaik Atlus does better than them, does better than most of the B-tier JRPG devs. (NIS, Gust, etc.)

What's wrong with sega though?

(ALSO I ACCIDENTALLY FLAGGED YOUR POST SORRY)

I doubt that Nippon Ichi could just buy them with cash they have laying around but it would be an amazing "get" for them and a good match. I don't know what Atlus are supposed to be worth but I can't see any Japanese publisher jumping in right away and paying over the odds for them.

"Accidentally." Uh huh.

Squenix will chip in!

Catherine and Persona 4 Arena both sold extremely well, especially for Atlus. and considering Atlus, as far as I've heard, is one of the only profitable things about Index...

well I suppose no one knows. Maybe deep silver will come back and buy them!

(I would laugh if they got bought by an American/European publisher)

Let's all be real. The second they get bought by anyone, especially a console manufacture like Nintendo or Sony, Persona 5 is going to be announced right?

it'd take them at least a week to do up a trailer!

In all seriousness though, Atlus is a making bank right now. P4A and Catherine sold pretty well and it's looking like SMTIV is selling pretty well too. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't get targeted by console manufacturers immediately when they go up for sale.

The drama continues.

They're still a niche developer. Atlus makes money by selling to a a relatively small audience by producing games typically on smaller budgets and with generally reused assets (i.e.: Demon/Persona designs, etc). That's not necessarily what the console manufacturers are looking for in their own developers.

I...I don't think my heart would be able to take it if Nintendo snatched them up and kept Atlus to themselves. They can have Bayonetta, but they can't have my SMT/Persona, dammit!

It would be an amazing trainwreck at least. If that happens, I demand that they make a reality show about it.

I'm pulling for Sony buying them.

XSEED?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Altus will be fine. I'm ok with them being bought by a console maker, but I hope they stay third party. Either way, I hope this means we'll be seeing Persona 5. I bought SMT IV today (last copy at Gamestop, and the manager said it was selling really well.) I'm excited for the game, but I mostly just want to show my support at launch to JRPGs these days.

@jeust said:

If they do then we can start calling them Squatlus!

@djratchet said:

@bigjeffrey said:

@evanbower said:

@bigjeffrey: So without having read the article or knowing much about this, does this mean Atlus is up for sale?

I really hope they stay third-party. It would be a nice get for Nintendo, but I like how Atlus has the freedom to publish wherever currently. That being said, if I have to live in a world with a Nintendo-owned Atlus, or no Atlus at all, the choice is easy.

Yeah it's just a possibility, i'd love to have more ATLUS games on 360 not just a fighting game featuring persona characters. Catherine was cool.

I love Atlus. I wish they could stay independent and find some outside financiers; but who knows. Japan...

I would love if Marvelous/Xseed/Falcom made a supergroup and fused with Atlus to release only amazing Japanese games. SMT+no Kiseki+portables. yes please.

Ordered the two PS2 Devil Summoner games in case Atlus gets snarfed up by Nintendo, putting a damper on those games' reprints.

So, when does the Kickstarter to make Atlus independent go up?

I'll let Atlus know duders have already created the assets they can reuse.

From Neogaf:

This is not correct. Next week, they will be having another round of bids for their sponsor. They're not going up for sale.

There's speculation that they'll have everything decided by early September. But this is not a significant update. Nothing to panic about.

Looks like destructoid and co were wrong and it is still up in the air^^

STOPPED TYING THE NOOSE

I love how everyone and their dead grandmothers are freaking out and crying for Atlus.
Atlus will be fine, even this time, just like last time.

I hope nothing super bad happens for them : /, I don't know anything about how dependent Persona Team is on them, but they are my favorite developer atm (even though it takes like 5 years for them to put out a game), would be pretty depressing if something happened to them.

Or Squenitlus.

I have a dollar. Maybe they can go independent? Or go with Sony, to be honest most other options seem not ideal:

Squenix: Anything sub 5 million is a "disaster". Well good luck with selling 5 million of any Atlus game.

Sega: Persona cart racer!

Nintendo: WiiU exclusive, Persona games now come out every 15 years!

/yes I have become a bit cynical of some of the game publishers these days

I do hope a good company will pick Atlus up.

However, it'll be pretty cool for them to go independent than they have 100% say in their projects.

That sounds like a male genital disorder.

Uh... anyway, Atlus is a division of Index that seems to have been growing quite a bit over the past few years. Someone, somewhere, knows this, and I can't imagine a world where Atlus doesn't get bought in the event that Index goes under.

Even though I bought a 3DS in anticipation of Atlus games, I think that Sony would be a really good home for them at the moment. They would get first party support from a company that spent the last generation making a bunch of very good (and varied) exclusives, both small and large, and they look like they're planning to do that again this generation. I'd buy a Vita in a heartbeat and make getting a PS4 a priority if that's where Atlus games were going to be.

I'll buy whatever I need to buy to play persona 5. Though i would prefer to play that on a sony console.