UPDATE 2: After a confusing few hours, Sega have offically announced that they are now in possession of Index Holdings, and by extension, our beloved Atlus. It appears as if Nikkei released their article before Sega themselves were ready.
Sega will not be inheriting Index’s debt, but only their “prominent” IPS; Megami Tensei, Persona and Etrian Odyssey were all named. The transfer of Index’s assets is currently tentatively penned in for the first of November.
Now that everything’s been cleared up, how do you think it will go? Hopefully Sega bought Atlus with the intent of utilising their outstanding localisation skills, which could be good for those of us in the West.
UPDATE: Since the publication if this article, Sega have rejected Nikkei’s claim that they have bought Index Holdings via their official website.
oprainfall translator Will Whitehurst has supplied us with a translation of the text found in the above link:
Although it’s been reported that this firm’s subsidiary Sega has bought Index Corporation, this has not been officially announced by the company.
That could just mean that Sega have yet to announce their purchase of Index, but we don’t know. What do you all make of it?
Original article below:
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For the past couple of months, Index Holdings, the parent company of video game developer/publisher Atlus, has been going through an auction in order to recover some of the ¥24.5 billion (roughly $248.7 million USD) they have claimed as debt. Auctions were expected to end late last month with an announcement coming soon after, one that we have been waiting patiently for.
Tonight, it has been reported by Nikkei that Index will be bought by Sega Sammy Holdings for a reported ¥14 billion (roughly $141 million USD). This will mean that all of Index’s properties, including the Atlus brand, will now belong to Sega.
Very little information is available as to what will happen after the transition is complete. To me, I think it’s safe to say that all projects that are in the pipeline will continue as scheduled. But for other games, smaller games looking for localization, Atlus USA… that’s a bit more cloudy. For all we know, it may now be harder for games not under the Shin Megami Tensei umbrella to make it over to the West. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
The transition is expected to take until November to complete. We’ll let you know when more details come about.
