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Atlus 'Dissolved' By Parent Company Index Holdings
by Colette Bennett [PC, Console/PC]
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August 30, 2010
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Japanese-headquartered publisher and developer Atlus' parent company Index Holdings has dissolved the company as an independent entity as of today, according to an official announcement on the Index Holdings website.
Index Holdings, which also owns game company Interchannel (Soul Bubbles' Japanese publisher) and animation studio Madhouse, has been the owner of the Atlus brand for some time. The company aims to streamline its business focus to "profitable core areas." The official press release indicates that the Atlus brand will continue, but in what capacity is unclear, at present. The developer has a number of projects in progress, and it is unlikely that those would be shelved in the short term.
Gamasutra contacted Atlus for comment and spoke with manager of PR and sales Aram Jabbari, who says we can look forward to an official release soon, but that Atlus cannot comment on how this may affect publishing or foreign divisions at this time.
Katsura Hashino, director on Atlus' recently announced 360/PS3 action/horror game Catherine, mentioned the change on the title's official dev blog, adding that his team "will endeavor to continue to work for a long time" and that "of course, it's not just the Persona team, it's also other teams working on titles" that will continue their work.
Atlus, best known for its Shin Megami Tensei series of RPGs, was founded in 1986. Its Atlus USA branch has acted as a publisher for not only internally-developed projects, but also high profile third party titles such as From Software's Demon's Souls and Sting's Riviera.
Index Holdings was founded in 1995, and in recent years had mostly focused on mobile content. It acquired Atlus in November 2006 in a stock buyout.
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Pardon my French, but what the gay. Seriously. I am not okay with this. I better see some first-class rioting if this ends up fucking everyone over in the long run.
They're not a self funded independent studio. Index Holdings wants revenue not monumental 90%+ losses.
I expect to see Atlus lose all that unique charm that their games (and those that they publish) have. Games are made by people though, and those guys will just move on to another company that will let them do their magic.
Maybe this has to do with the whole Atlus/Naruto thing... eww.
"Atlus games were not that great, and the profits prove it."
Profits determine if games are "that great"?
I think you meant to post here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards
At any rate, while I was originally disappointed by the news, it's not clear exactly how this will affect their upcoming games, or their publishing other studios' games in the US (such as From Software's Demon's Souls).