The lights are on
Atlus has quickly become a powerhouse in the gaming world, bringing unique and clever titles to North American shores. The publisher is largely responsible for a renaissance of interest in traditional roleplaying games. Now, that legacy is in jeopardy.
Atlus' parent company, Index Holdings, has filed for "rehabilitation" (a form of bankruptcy) due to approximately 24.5 billion yen ($249 million) of outstanding debt. All corporate code is complex, but Japan's rehabilitation process is streamlined. Without going to far into the weeds, here are the details:
All of this would largely be good news for Atlus (and gamers) if it weren't for allegations of fraud levied against Index Holdings. According to Japan's NHK (via Crunchyroll), the company has been accused of inflating sales figures by way of illegitimate business transactions. This process, known as "window dressing" or round-tripping (selling to another company under an agreement to buy back the exact same number of units at the identical price) made it seem like far more copies were moved.
Additionally, company president and CEO Yoshimi Ochiai and board chairman Masami Ochiai have expressed interest in departing the company. Whether this will necessitate a trustee for the rehabilitation is unknown.
As for Atlus, a sale seems to be a logical assumption. How this will affect the publisher's localization efforts, it's trend of bonuses included in first-run copies, and the general fabric of roleplaying games in the West is a matter that only time will uncover. Atlus topped our list of Japanese RPG publishers to watch, and we hope they continue to have a place on it moving forward.
[Source: CNET Japan, Crunchyroll via NeoGAF]
Here's hoping the development team makes it through unscathed.
I hope Atlus as we know it will be ok at the end of the day. They put out awesome games.
If Atlus gets sold, I just hope they don't end up with some monstrosity like EA.
Ouch.
This stinks.
And here I thought I found a series to replace my Final Fantasy games that Squeenix ruined. I'm really hoping Sony or Nintendo picks Atlus up before Microsoft gets their grubby hands on it.