The Shin Megami Tensei and Trauma Center developer will no longer operate as an independent developer/publisher.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/23940
Japanese developer and publisher Atlus Co., Ltd. has been dissolved by parent company Index Holdings, which originally acquired the company on October 30, 2007. The parent company will continue to release games under the Atlus brand, merged with their mobile subsidiary Index, and Atlus will no longer operate as an independent entity. Atlus will no longer be listed on the Japanese stock exchange following the merger on October 1, and Index has the possibility of using Atlus IP for cell phone titles.
It is not yet known how publishing divisions and foreign branches are affected. Atlus USA is a subsidiary of Atlus, acting as a publisher for Atlus-developed games, while also localizing and publishing games from other Japanese developers such as Sting Entertainment's Baroque, and Shiren the Warrior from Chunsoft. Upcoming releases include Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City for Nintendo DS.
Update: Inzaghi, an administrator on Atlus USA's message boards, described this as "corporate organizational maneuvering" and notes it "will not effect anything we do."
I think my main concern with this is that the parent company will find it not worth their while bringing titles to the US that we would have otherwise gotten. True, Atlus titles are usually difficult to find due to their small production runs and high sales:production ratio, but I can see Index deciding not to bother with some of these ventures.
