[Bartman3010]

You guys realize Atlus USA is very likely to operate as they've been doing for the past several years. SEGA has already been helping the company put out games in Japan. They bought Creative Assembly in 2005 and recently released Company of Heroes 2, with Relic Entertainment lifted from the THQ buyout that recently released Total War: Rome II as normal.

Japan development and distribution will be fine.
American distribution will continue as normal.
Europe is up in the air.

Capcom isn't really in a position to buy out other companies at this point.
Namco sucks.
Nintendo didn't care.
Microsoft could have bought them and probably left for them to die on Xbox One because nobody in Japan cares about Xbox.
Konami would be more likely to consolidate everyone involved at Index.

I highly doubt anyone else would give them a better situation.

[Aesculapius Piranha]

Hah, Capcom isn't just in a bad position, they've essentially plotted out their own suicide.

[Bartman3010]

How dare they milk out their franchises, we just wanted another Devil May Cry Capcom! Jeez!

[Andlabs]

I don't know about Nintendo didn't care (they were apparently the #2 bidder) but I doubt Index would have gone with a company that would essentially require them to be exclusive to a single platform. Atlus is probably the only major third-party player left not playing the multiplatform game. Also didn't Namco already own a majority stake in Atlus immediately before the Index buyout?

Also be careful not to overestimate Sega's relationship with Atlus. The Atlus USA publishing Sega games thing was limited to some versions of Puyo Pop Fever and the GBA Shining games. Atlus in Japan haven't done anything on Sega's hardware (not even arcade hardware) since 2001. As it stood, Index existed a s a partner of Sega of Japan, like a number of other major players. And the situation with Relic Entertainment/Company of Heroes and The Creative Assebmbly/Total War are different in that both series are apparently major sellers...?

[Kiddo Cabbusses]

Bartman3010, on 18 September 2013 - 01:42 PM, said:

Capcom isn't really in a position to buy out other companies at this point.
Namco sucks.
Nintendo didn't care.
Microsoft could have bought them and probably left for them to die on Xbox One because nobody in Japan cares about Xbox.
Konami would be more likely to consolidate everyone involved at Index.

Agreed on Capcom (although they're one of the few big companies that aren't associated with buyouts from what I've seen), not sure on Namco, but I know Nintendo has Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem in development so they have a clear stake in Atlus' survival. They probably would've put out a stronger bid if a rival first-party exoressed interest interest (many fans were hoping for Sony, even though Atlus has performed best on Nintendo portables over the past few years.) in order to make sure that game wouldn't be forced to be cancelled, but they have a good relationship with Sega anyway.

If Sega screws this up, I will claim that Nintendo probably would've been the best option for Atlus, since another Monolith Soft would surely be a good thing.

Microsoft would've cared the least out of any of the choices. "What's Atlus? Oh, they're Japanese? Who cares! We need to finish Halo of Duty: Game Of NFL2013's DLC Edtion with free Doritos and Mountain Dew!"

Konami... fuck, you just had to remind me what they did to Hudson Soft. :/

Either way, from the current situation.

HYPERBOLIC UNREALISTIIC BEST CASE SCENARIO: Sega decides to use Atlus USA as their primary localizer for their niche-label games. PSO2, Yakuza, Sakura Wars, etc. get localizations again. Fighters Megamix 2 with Atlus characters. Sonic gets operated on by Derek Stiles. Jack Frost Limited Edition Dreamcast consoles appear out of nowhere. Hardcore Japanese game fans everywhere rejoice. Sega's true 2nd coming.
MOST PROBABLE GOOD SCENARIO: Sega leaves Atlus USA alone. All appears as status quo.
MICROSOFT SCENARIO: Atlus is used as grunt work to make shovelware, losing their original soul. It's IPs get farmed out to third parties for future projects of mixed quality.
KONAMI SCENARIO: Atlus is completely dissolved. IPs left to rot.

Who wants to make a bet on one of these?

EDIT:

http://www.animenews...tinue-as-before

Atlus is assuring it's fans that everything's A-OK. An expected announcement, but being from Atlus's side I'm inclined to trust it.

This post has been edited by Kiddo Cabbusses: 18 September 2013 - 07:27 PM

[Falk]

http://www.gamasutra...us_postSega.php

This has to be the most factually grounded, objective and nonpartial shakedown of the situation so far.

[Elratauru]

Kiddo Cabbusses, on 18 September 2013 - 05:59 PM, said:

Jack Frost Limited Edition Dreamcast consoles appear out of nowhere.

Oh boy, I'd love this. Jack Frosts are just awesome.

I really hope for Sega to let Atlus continue their operations as they did, even though trying to get more profits.

[Andlabs]

http://sega.jp/corp/release/2013/1101/ it appears Index Corporation is now called "Sega Dream" (at least that's what einstein95 from tcrf is claiming this says)

[Andlabs]

Details via Siliconera via Famitsu. Siliconera's headline (Atlus free to use dormant Sega IP) is probably the most welp of this. Spoiler: Atlus won't be going away any time soon.