Topic: Atlus Parent Company Filing for Bankruptcy

[bluelander]

UPDATE: Things are "business as usual" at Atlus.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/34786

Index, the parent company of Atlus, has announced that they are filing for bankruptcy.

While it's still too early to know exactly what's going to happen to Atlus, it does appear that Index is looking for a company to purchase it.

This is after recent news that Index has been under fire from authorities for "fabricated and inflated business practices," earlier this month.

Atlus has developed many franchises for Nintendo platforms including Trauma Center and Etrian Odyssey. Their most recent game, Shin Megami Tensei IV, is set to release next month on the 3DS. They have, among other things, been instrumental in bringing many Japanese RPGs to Western shores.

There has currently been no official word from Atlus, but we will update this story as new information is revealed.

UPDATE: Atlus has released a statement to Kotaku that their day-to-day operations are unaffected by the financial troubles of their parent company, Index.

They also told fans that Shin Megami Tensei IV will still release on time, and that things are still "business as usual."

[broodwars]

Nintendo purchasing Atlus would make perfect sense for Nintendo, given Atlus' pretty strong support of the 3DS and the decent working history the two companies have had. However, I just don't see Nintendo being a good fit for Atlus, given Atlus' history of creative risks and Nintendo's history of not taking risks. Plus, for the Atlus we know to be retained, whoever buys Atlus Japan would also have to purchase Atlus USA as well, and I don't see Nintendo buying what's essentially just a localization/distributor they don't need.  Also, Atlus on both sides of the ocean has a talent for appealing directly to their fanbase, whereas Nintendo has no ****ing idea how to market anything anymore. Nintendo would just be a poor fit for that company.

[azeke]

given Atlus' history of creative risks

That's why they are releasing Etrian Odyssey IV, SMT IV and have re-re-released Persona 4.

nothing against Atlus or their games

[broodwars]

It's also worth noting that Atlus makes their money off targeted marketing of niche games with smaller and/or extremely limited print runs. Nintendo makes their money off large print runs of mass-market games. If Nintendo (or Sony and Square-Enix, for that matter) were to acquire Atlus, would they push Atlus to make mass-market games that they could make money off of large print runs? That's what troubles me about any large company picking up a company like Atlus.

[NWR_insanolord]

If Nintendo were to buy Atlus, the best way to go about it would be to leave them largely autonomous. They could only develop for Nintendo hardware, but would be free of Nintendo micromanagement. Atlus USA's marketing team could be absorbed into the company and used for their games, or even for others as well.

I'm not sure Nintendo would be okay with that arrangement, but I think it would be in the best interests of both companies.

[broodwars]

If Nintendo were to buy Atlus, the best way to go about it would be to leave them largely autonomous. They could only develop for Nintendo hardware, but would be free of Nintendo micromanagement. Atlus USA's marketing team could be absorbed into the company and used for their games, or even for others as well.

I'm not sure Nintendo would be okay with that arrangement, but I think it would be in the best interests of both companies.

Agreed. Buying Atlus but leaving them free to do their own thing would be in everyone's best interests. However, given Nintendo's history of micromanagement and tea table-flipping, I just don't trust Nintendo to do that.

[NWR_Neal]

The company that releases a lot of sequels to niche RPGs and scales the releases of those games to fit for those niche markets takes risks? Maybe like 10 years ago, but Atlus has been a well-oiled machine in recent years.

They do their occasionally weird funded projects like Zeno Clash, but mostly, they just make their niche RPGs for their niche markets. And they do very well for themselves (this entire bankruptcy thing is, as far as I know, more Index failing than Atlus failing).

I keep hearing people say Atlus takes risks, but their recent games have been sequels to established niche franchises, and they're safely adding new features to make all those games more accessible (and it's working. EOIV sold way better than previous EO games). Games like Catherine seem to be the exception not the rule.

[Ceric]

I think Atlus has a skill set that Nintendo really needs.  They need to be appealing to the Niche Crowd.  They really need to be the Niche machine.  That is a market Nintendo could carve out for itself.  The Monster Hunter Niche is a good start but if they could expand to the Atlus Niche, cool.  Then I would focus on a European or American derived Niche.  I think RTS would could work for Wii U but, I'm sure there is some others, like Rogue likes (think FTL).  Since Nintendo makes money for every box sold be the platform that has the games Niche players want.  Nintendo has their own properties to be the Million sellers.

[Jasae Bushae]

Umm...While Atlus has worked with Nintendo in the past, the company honestly has more history with Sony. That said though, I cannot quite see either company necessarily buying them up.

Yes Nintendo talked about wanting to expand upon their third parties but I doubt they would wish to invest and buy up another second party for them to play with. Especially since while Atlus dos have a bit of a history, their not really known for success after success. Frankly, their games have a bit of a niche audience which Nintendo might find to be a bit of a risk given how careful Nintendo tends to be about quality.

Personally, I would like to see Nippon Ichi buy up atlus. Nippon originated from people leaving Atlus and they have a good sense of what sells and the two companies have been on pretty good terms in recent years. (Atlus actually outsourced their european distribution rights to Nippon Ichi so that the creators of Disgaea could get thee Atlus games into Europe)
However...Im really not sure Nippon Ichi has the finances to manage such a thing.

Supposing that Nintendo did buy up Atlus, im not sure exactly what would happen since the only really notable nintendo exclusives I can think of are Trauma Center and that fire emblemXshin megami game in the works...
Still, if by some lucky break Nintendo did buy up all of Atlus stock lock and barrel, and were sensible enough to just let Atlus do its own thing, I could see it benifitting both companies. Nintendo has talked about wanting to broaden the appeal of Nintendo and Atlus is one of the big wigs in the strategy and rpg genres.

The real hurdle which I don't know enough to give a proper opinion on however, is that alot of Atlus's games are actually things they publish which are developed by other companies. I worry for Vanillaware, Sting Entertainment and Careersoft and wonder if they would continue to have games published by Atlus or if Nintendo would pick them up or whether they would just die out.

Atlus holds a large chunk of my favorite games and franchises under its belt and I dearly hope that it doesn't suffer the fate of Hudsonsoft. Bought up by a greedy company like Konami who are simply trying to weed out the competition by liquidizing the company and retiring all of the franchises that they picked up.

So may a bright future greet Atlus!

[azeke]

Umm...While Atlus has worked with Nintendo in the past, the company honestly has more history with Sony. That said though, I cannot quite see either company necessarily buying them up.

The overwhelming majority of Atlus games are released on Nintendo portables. That's how it was for many, many, many years now.

[Jasae Bushae]

Umm...While Atlus has worked with Nintendo in the past, the company honestly has more history with Sony. That said though, I cannot quite see either company necessarily buying them up.

The overwhelming majority of Atlus games are released on Nintendo portables. That's how it was for many, many, many years now.

It depends on how you define recent.

3 nintendo 64
2 gamecube
9 wii
1 wii u (in the works)
36 gameboy advance
40 ds
6 3ds

66 playstation
54 ps2
8 ps3
24 psp
2 psvita

Totals-
97 nintendo
144 Playstation

Even if you were to ignore every other console but the very most recent, they have released nearly the same number of games on wii and ps3 and while there are twenty more titles on the DS/3ds over the PSP/psvita, that is still out of a 46 to 26 difference.

So while you can say its a majority, it only applies when factoring the most recent generations. Hardly 'many many years'

[Luigi Dude]

I like how some people say Nintendo would take away Atlus freedom but completely ignore that hasn't happened to Monolith Soft.  Hell, Monolith Soft is still allowed to work on some of their Namco series for fucks sake as long as they're on a Nintendo console.

Like Iwata said back in 2007, they bought Monolith Soft so they could make the kind of games Nintendo doesn't make.  If Nintendo was to buy Atlus it'd be for the same reasons as Monolith Soft, meaning they still be allowed to do their own thing because that's why Nintendo would buy them in the first place.

[ejamer]

... so they could make the kind of games Nintendo doesn't make.  ...

Agree that this would be the ideal scenario, if it were to happen. Letting Atlus just "do their thing" on Nintendo systems would be pretty cool - filling in some pretty notable gaps (RPG and strategy gaming). Not going to hold my breath though.


I wonder if being restricted to a single platform (Sony/Nintendo/MS) would hurt the profitability of their current publishing strategy? Going digital might help, but would mean losing out on the sweet Atlus special edition goodies.

[Oblivion]

I would much rather have Sony buy them out. Nintendo would destroy them.

[NWR_insanolord]

Luigi Dude's comparison to Nintendo purchasing Monolith Soft is a good example of Nintendo acquiring a very different company and largely leaving them alone. And I'd really love to see what Atlus could do with the Disaster: Day of Crisis franchise.

[broodwars]

Luigi Dude's comparison to Nintendo purchasing Monolith Soft is a good example of Nintendo acquiring a very different company and largely leaving them alone. And I'd really love to see what Atlus could do with the Disaster: Day of Crisis franchise.

Disaster: Day of Crisis x Persona! MAKE THIS HAPPEN!  :

[MegaByte]

I was thinking MarvelousAQL would be a more likely acquirer.

[Kytim89]

As long as Atlus remains friendly towards Nintendo then I am happy.

[NWR_insanolord]

I was thinking MarvelousAQL would be a more likely acquirer.

Would they be able to outbid the larger players, or are you suggesting that Nintendo/Sony/Square/whoever won't pursue it?

[MegaByte]

Square's a reasonable possibility since they could have interest in both games and their related anime (same as MarvelousAQL, but less niche). It didn't seem like Nintendo would have an interest -- Have they ever done an acquisition of a failing company? Usually, they just hire the employees away or just support a specific franchise. The Monolith Soft example isn't really relevant because the eventual acquisition was a collaborative and incremental process. Not sure about Sony; they have their own troubles.

[broodwars]

Square's a reasonable possibility since they could have interest in both games and their related anime (same as MarvelousAQL, but less niche). It didn't seem like Nintendo would have an interest -- Have they ever done an acquisition of a failing company? Usually, they just hire the employees away or just support a specific franchise. The Monolith Soft example isn't really relevant because the eventual acquisition was a collaborative and incremental process. Not sure about Sony; they have their own troubles.

Sony's already lost Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest, and Shin Megami Tensei has been good to the PlayStation brand. Sony will probably try to get Atlus just to keep Nintendo from getting them.

The worst case scenarios are if Square-Enix or Microsoft acquires them. Square-Enix would do to Atlus what they've done to every other company they've acquired: release a handful of games from their IPs, and then lock the franchises in a drawer, never to be seen again. And with Square-Enix's transition into the mobile space, at best that handful of games would be on iOS rather than handheld or console devices. As for Microsoft, they've been making stabs at getting into Japan for several console generations. It's unlikely, but they could purchase Atlus to establish a strong Japanese foothold for the Xbone.

[Adrock]

Microsoft already tried to get their foot in the door in Japan with Mistwalker. Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon were pretty good attempts. They get some established IPs, but are they enough to convince Japanese gamers to care about Xbox. Ehh...

[NWR_insanolord]

Square's a reasonable possibility since they could have interest in both games and their related anime (same as MarvelousAQL, but less niche). It didn't seem like Nintendo would have an interest -- Have they ever done an acquisition of a failing company? Usually, they just hire the employees away or just support a specific franchise. The Monolith Soft example isn't really relevant because the eventual acquisition was a collaborative and incremental process. Not sure about Sony; they have their own troubles.

From the sounds of it, the parent company's failure didn't have anything to do with Atlus, so I wouldn't consider Atlus a failing company. This is kind of a unique opportunity, where a relatively well known, Japanese developer, who very much fills a niche Nintendo has historically been weak in, is explicitly up for sale, apparently through no fault of their own. I agree that this normally isn't Nintendo's kind of thing, but it seems like it might be enough of an exception and too appealing to them to pass up.

[Kytim89]

Square's a reasonable possibility since they could have interest in both games and their related anime (same as MarvelousAQL, but less niche). It didn't seem like Nintendo would have an interest -- Have they ever done an acquisition of a failing company? Usually, they just hire the employees away or just support a specific franchise. The Monolith Soft example isn't really relevant because the eventual acquisition was a collaborative and incremental process. Not sure about Sony; they have their own troubles.

Sony's already lost Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest, and Shin Megami Tensei has been good to the PlayStation brand. Sony will probably try to get Atlus just to keep Nintendo from getting them.

The worst case scenarios are if Square-Enix or Microsoft acquires them. Square-Enix would do to Atlus what they've done to every other company they've acquired: release a handful of games from their IPs, and then lock the franchises in a drawer, never to be seen again. And with Square-Enix's transition into the mobile space, at best that handful of games would be on iOS rather than handheld or console devices. As for Microsoft, they've been making stabs at getting into Japan for several console generations. It's unlikely, but they could purchase Atlus to establish a strong Japanese foothold for the Xbone.

What's to stop the gamers of Japan from turning their back on Atlus if Microsoft were to buy them?

[broodwars]

Square's a reasonable possibility since they could have interest in both games and their related anime (same as MarvelousAQL, but less niche). It didn't seem like Nintendo would have an interest -- Have they ever done an acquisition of a failing company? Usually, they just hire the employees away or just support a specific franchise. The Monolith Soft example isn't really relevant because the eventual acquisition was a collaborative and incremental process. Not sure about Sony; they have their own troubles.

Sony's already lost Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest, and Shin Megami Tensei has been good to the PlayStation brand. Sony will probably try to get Atlus just to keep Nintendo from getting them.

The worst case scenarios are if Square-Enix or Microsoft acquires them. Square-Enix would do to Atlus what they've done to every other company they've acquired: release a handful of games from their IPs, and then lock the franchises in a drawer, never to be seen again. And with Square-Enix's transition into the mobile space, at best that handful of games would be on iOS rather than handheld or console devices. As for Microsoft, they've been making stabs at getting into Japan for several console generations. It's unlikely, but they could purchase Atlus to establish a strong Japanese foothold for the Xbone.

What's to stop the gamers of Japan from turning their back on Atlus if Microsoft were to buy them?

Absolutely nothing, but Atlus is one of the big 3 producers of RPGs in Japan, one of the most (if not THE most) popular gaming genre in that country. It would be highly unlikely that Japan would just boycott Atlus games from that point forward. Just see what happened when Microsoft paid for Blue Dragon, Tales of Vesperia, and Lost Odyssey on the 360. While Vesperia at least did not remain exclusive, those games were 360 system sellers for a very short time. Microsoft only paid for a handful of games, so when that was up the companies went back to making PS3 games, but I'd imagine Microsoft theoretically could have had  fairly stable presence there if they had kept paying for the exclusives. It just wasn't worth the money Microsoft was showering on Square-Enix and Mistwalker.