Atlus Reaches Out to Fans Regarding Acquisition by Sega

No one is worried about Atlus in Japan, we are all worried about localization in the west due to Segas bad track record of bringing niche titles over here.

Another thing is that as there is no such thing as 'indie' studios in Japan due to their laws, Atlus publishes games for tons of 'indie' equivalent studios, will these indies still be able to go to Atlus for publishing?

As long as their games get localized and stay on Nintendo and Sony platforms , I'm completely fine. Now about Persona 5....

Look, as long as SEGA lets Atlus do their thing, keeps Atlus USA(The Team that translates their games and import them to America)and keeps Atlus afloat, then this is the best possible situation. Though I think I'd rather have Sony or Nintendo purchase Atlus.

As long as Sega keeps their fingers out of Atlus business im fine with it. But to be honest, i wished that Nintendo would have sealed the deal. Having such an RPG powerhouse under their wing would have greatly helped. But the aquisition by Sega also has its benefits. Sega isnt platform bound, which means possible multi platform releases that bring in more money to ensure that they have the necessary funds to localize their games.
So, lets all hope for the best

It's the American division I'm worried about...Sega is terrible when it comes to localizing games...

@Happy_Mask All Stars Racing Transformed (Wii U and PC) is good.

As is Border Break. (The Japanese part of Sega is fine).

I'd hoped that Atlus being sold would finally mean that those of us in Europe would get games earlier/at all. Instead, with Sega at the helm, it seems that the US is gonna end up in the same situation as us (or worse) which is no fun for anyone.

Outside of Nintendo this is my favorite company. I do wish them well!

How about making a Rockin' Kats 2 now?

I own quite a few altus games. Not sure what it means now that Sega is in the mix.I'm sure the two will work good together.

Just as long as Sega does absolutely nothing to affect Atlus' release schedule and what regions they release in.

How bout Nintendo buys Sega?

Overall, from a business perspective, I don't see any problems on the horizon with this relationship:

• Seems like they had an understanding and/or a prior business relationship before all of this happened;
• If Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft would have picked them up, you could kiss their multiplatforming efforts goodbye, as each of these companies would have locked them into their respective console base;
• Sega Sammy created a subsidiary wall (Sega Dream) just to make sure that they could not directly be in control of ATLUS' decisions; and
• Japan (and ultimately the rest of the world) will end up getting more games and entertainments with ATLUS branded characters, which is great marketing potential (and needed profit infusions) for both companies.

So, ATLUS apparently now remains the same third-party multiplatform game producer it was before. I see this right now as a win-win for a lot of companies.

Finally, in terms of Nintendo, since Sega and Nintendo are entering a cooperative relationship, we'll most likely see more of ATLUS on 3DS and Wii U than we would have before. This will only help Nintendo where it really needs it — getting some solid Wii U RPGs out in the market would boost sales. Can't argue with that, either.

Sega better not screw this up.

'The odysseys will continue on'
I just hope they continue in NA.

As long as this doesn't affect localisation and the quality of Atlus's games then I'm cool with it. Otherwise...well, I won't be very happy.

@SecondServing I agree but if Sony or Nintendo either would bought ATLUS it would be world war from both communties.

@Emblem my exact same concerns.

@GloryQuestor Your last statements calmed me down, though i wonder where Sega gets thier money from other than Game sales..:/ or how they couldn't even handle there own IPs, so they now have new ones....wat?

@Memeboy3 Sega Sammy is a producer of various pachinko, pachislo, and other types of arcade machines. It has been mentioned that, with ATLUS now a subsidiary, they might start using ATLUS' characters and game elements in this side of the business. A fully licensed and originally developed Persona pachislo would actually be kinda cool.

Sadly, it's something we won't see internationally, unless said machines are imported or digitized into an iOS or Android app for sale.

PR talk.
Actions speak louder than words so I'm just going to wait and see what happens.

Look...as long as Persona is good...I'm good!

Watch as Nintendo buys SEGA, so they in turn by Atlus.
Slowly but surely...

@Rafie You mean if they make Persona good, then you'll be good right?? , just giving you a hard time, one of the few RPG's Atlus has made that I so don't like. I will say it would be nice if they came to a Nintendo system for once so thers could try it, since so many are passionate about that franchise.

@SparkOfSpirit Hear hear!

Yes! No exclusivity to a certain brand. This is the best case scenario for Atlus.

I really wish NIntendo had bought them. I had wet dreams about the angry sony fans...

I really hope so. But on the other hand, it's not like they could have said otherwise.

I really hate to say this, but everyone who wants to attack Sega for their poor localization record should note that Nintendo is not that much better in that regard. Mother 3 has never made it over here, the second Fire Emblem game on the DS failed to make it over here despite the series already being established in the west, and Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower barely made it over here. It took a major online campaign for those games to even make it to the west.

And even then, Xenoblade was the only one Nintendo published directly. The Last Story and Pandora's Tower were given to other companies to release over here.

My point is that the localization issues that everyone is slamming Sega about are the same issues that Nintendo has as well. Nintendo has a very poor history of brining their niche and RPG titles to the west. It took years and Smash Brothers to get Fire Emblem over here, Mother 1 & 3 still have not been translated despite the popularity of that series, and they almost allowed Xenoblade and The Last Story to avoid a trip to the US.

I'm not saying Sega, Sony or any other company would have been any better. But Nintendo does have their own issues with localization of games that is almost as bad as Sega's issues.

Dear Sega: If you're not going to give the rights to Shining Force back to Camelot, then please at least give them to Atlus. Thank you.

@kurtasbestos that is actually an excellent idea that hadn't even crossed my mind, id love them to do something along the lines of SF3 my favourite game ever, which could cross over with devil survivor quite well also.

I was a sega kid until they went game only route and then I switched to nintendo. If nintendo wasn't going to get atlus then sega was my next hope, hopefully we will still see atlus games on nintendo systems, and in the west.

Id still love a nintendo/sega merger somewhere down the line

@Caryslan

"Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower barely made it over here. It took a major online campaign for those games to even make it to the west."

Could you specify "here"? All of those games arrived well and sound in Europe. And yeah, that's also part of the "west". It just took petitions for the games to arrive in NA, not in the "west".
And as we all know, Nintendo of Japan, America and Europe are all somewhat separate entities. Heck, even specific countries have their separate Nintendo branches, like here in Germany Nintendo of Europe and Nintendo of Germany might share a building, but the staff and decisions are entirely different.

@AugustusOxy You have wet dreams because of fanboys.?... In my time we dreamed about girls

I dont care as long as i get persona! Heartbeat heartbeat* Swagtastic teenager saving the world!

@GloryQuestor
Nice post, glad someone decided to point some of that stuff out for once. All I've see from this so far is the story of Henny Penny.

I'm surprise nobody has brought this up yet, but isn't it possible Sega's localization track-record is one of the reasons Sega-Sammy bought Atlus in the first place? They're known for doing what Sega has had trouble with, localizing smaller, niche games and making them succeed outside of Japan. All they have to do is hand stuff like Valkyria Chronicles, Phantasy Star, and Shining Force over to Atlus and let them do their thing.

Besides, Sega-Sammy is a holdings company, like INDEX, so they probably won't even touch ATLUS, just fund their projects and make profit of their sales.

“...great relationship” in the past, especially in Japan..."

And there are the warning bells.

"It’s currently unknown whether Sega’s ties with Nintendo will carry over and affect any future projects from Atlus, but who cares right now?"

What!? I think, as Nintendo fans (western ones), that's our #1 concern!

Well, for one thing, it can't get MUCH worse for European Nintendo support. Most my Atlus DS gamesare imports, and anything beyond that is region locked.

Nintendo is with SEGA and SEGA has Atlus, i don't see nothing wrong here.

i was hoping SEGA would pick them up, seem's to be the best home for ATLUS to me.

Business as usual makes me more happy than anything.

atlus, what about dragon crown for wii u?

I'm not worried about how Atlus' games end up, in Japan. I'm worried about localizations. As a publisher SEGA has consistently decided to not have many many of their games that don't star Sonic leave Japan.

WHERE IS PSO2 SEGA? AT LEAST TELL PEOPLE WHAT'S HAPPENING!

As was stated before, I'm not as concerned of Atlus' games as I am of localization. Yay for business as usual for now, just keep it that way and not play horde all IPs in Japan and we all will be at ease. Truth be told, everyone won't fully be satisfied until we see Atlus' future games head westward as usual.

@PugKing Yeah that would seem like a great move for Nintendo.