Atlus Has Been Bought Out By SEGA Sammy For 14 Billion Yen

It appears that SEGA Sammy has come out on top of the Atlus public auction. Nikkei has confirmed that the Japanese game development and publishing company Atlus (responsible for games like Persona 4, The King of Fighters XIII and Dragon’s Crown) and its parent company Index Corp has been sold to SEGA’s parent holding company for about 14 billion yen. Nintendo Everything also notes from their translation that the full transition is to be completed this November.

There is no confirmation about the status of Atlus USA, which may be of prime concern to Western fans of JRPG’s. Many of Atlus’ popular Japanese titles (developed, published or otherwise) have been localized for North American audiences have come through Atlus USA, meaning that depending on how the sale to SEGA Sammy Holdings turns out, a lot of Atlus’ Japanese gaming content making its way overseas may be in jeopardy.

UPDATE: A release has been provided, stating that SEGA Corporation has indeed taken over Index Corporation. They have created a new subsidiary, “SEGA Dream Corporation,” used to take over the newly-acquired intellectual properties owned by Index and Atlus. This will include the financial exploit and use of the video games for use on home consoles, mobile devices and possibly as arcade cabinets.