Index (Atlus' parent company) declared bankruptcy

[Monsoon]

...from Index Corp and not Atlus. I'm sure they'll find a buyer soon. Marvelous and Square-Enix both make sense, but I won't place any bets.

[Kevadu]

GungHo might be a surprisingly strong contender.  They have the money and the interest...

Edit:  You know, the more I think about it GungHo might actually be the ideal candidate.

Why is that?  Well, first of all there's the basic issues like the fact that they can probably afford it.  In case you don't know, GungHo has been doing really well lately, in no small part thanks to a mobile game called Puzzle and Dragons.  Maybe you've never heard of Puzzle and Dragons because its popularity is mainly in Asia, but it's actually the number one grossing mobile game in the world, on both iOS and Android.  Eat your heart out, Angry Birds.

Now you might think that a company with a mobile game that successful would be all about mobile games, but that really doesn't seem to be the case with GungHo.  They have their fingers in a lot of different pies, and in super-success in the mobile space doesn't seem to have changed that.  They recently acquired Grasshopper and have largely left them to do their own thing, so that's a good sign.  Heck, do you know those PS1 Imports, the random obscure untranslated PS1 Classics put on the US store?  GungHo was the main company behind that.  Now while it's quite probable that the PS1 Import thing has been profitable simply because the expenses involved are pretty low, we're probably talking about a miniscule amount of revenue.  Most big companies simply wouldn't bother with it, profitable or not.  But GungHo doesn't shy away from random, obscure things.

And they're clearly ambitious and want to expand.  I remember there being news a while back about the comments their CEO made with regards to wanting to surpass Nintendo.  So maybe they lack humility, but they clearly want to be a player everywhere.  One place their are lacking is in western localization (their success has largely been in Asia so far), which is why you've seen them team up with Xseed for a lot of their recent releases (Ragnorak Odyssey, the upcoming Killer is Dead).  But Atlus USA might make a pretty good fit there too.  They've localized lots of non-Atlus stuff in the past (though I feel they've been shying away from that lately...) so they ought to be able to handle some of GungHo's stuff too.  It seems like a good fit.

That's why GungHo might want Atlus.  As far as Atlus goes, GungHo offers financial stability without intruding on their creative process.  So yeah, GungHo-Atlus 2013!

[Aeolus]

GungHo might be a surprisingly strong contender.  They have the money and the interest...

Edit:  You know, the more I think about it GungHo might actually be the ideal candidate.

Why is that?  Well, first of all there's the basic issues like the fact that they can probably afford it.  In case you don't know, GungHo has been doing really well lately, in no small part thanks to a mobile game called Puzzle and Dragons.  Maybe you've never heard of Puzzle and Dragons because its popularity is mainly in Asia, but it's actually the number one grossing mobile game in the world, on both iOS and Android.  Eat your heart out, Angry Birds.

Now you might think that a company with a mobile game that successful would be all about mobile games, but that really doesn't seem to be the case with GungHo.  They have their fingers in a lot of different pies, and in super-success in the mobile space doesn't seem to have changed that.  They recently acquired Grasshopper and have largely left them to do their own thing, so that's a good sign.  Heck, do you know those PS1 Imports, the random obscure untranslated PS1 Classics put on the US store?  GungHo was the main company behind that.  Now while it's quite probable that the PS1 Import thing has been profitable simply because the expenses involved are pretty low, we're probably talking about a miniscule amount of revenue.  Most big companies simply wouldn't bother with it, profitable or not.  But GungHo doesn't shy away from random, obscure things.

And they're clearly ambitious and want to expand.  I remember there being news a while back about the comments their CEO made with regards to wanting to surpass Nintendo.  So maybe they lack humility, but they clearly want to be a player everywhere.  One place their are lacking is in western localization (their success has largely been in Asia so far), which is why you've seen them team up with Xseed for a lot of their recent releases (Ragnorak Odyssey, the upcoming Killer is Dead).  But Atlus USA might make a pretty good fit there too.  They've localized lots of non-Atlus stuff in the past (though I feel they've been shying away from that lately...) so they ought to be able to handle some of GungHo's stuff too.  It seems like a good fit.

That's why GungHo might want Atlus.  As far as Atlus goes, GungHo offers financial stability without intruding on their creative process.  So yeah, GungHo-Atlus 2013!

Yeah, I can see that totally happening, and I'm okay with this.

So how long before Mara shows up in RO2? :p

[Annubis]

Atlus doesn't seem scared at all for now.

http://kotaku.com/the-atlus-brand-will-carry-on-says-japanese-hq-656284642

[Aeolus]

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/08/02/report-sega-sammy-interested-in-bidding-for-atlus-parent-company/

Oh fuck!

I'd rather not see Mr. "Well the west didn't want our crappy phoned in sequel made for a system that already died over there, why should we bother giving them the good one then?" Sega take Atlus.

[Klutz64]

It's sad that I can think of 2 or 3 games that statement could be referring to.

[Yggdrasil]

It's sad that I can think of 2 or 3 games that statement could be referring to.

That's not sad, that's unfortunate.

[Arklight]

Actually, I just had a conversation with a few folks about this stuff and it might not necessarily be bad. If Sega becomes in charge of what gets localized by Atlus, then that will be bad. But you know, imagine if Sega were in the conference room as Sega's talking about whether or not to localize their newest Valkyria Chronicles. Perhaps Atlus would be able to take charge of that localization. We might be able to see some Sega stuff localized we wouldn't normally expect.

There's also another nifty thing that could come of this. PC releases of Atlus games. I mean, just imagine seeing P2 Innocent Sin/Eternal Punishment getting PC releases. Also, given Sega and Nintendo's friendly partnership thing, FExSMT could be even better if Sega could pool some good resources into that.

[Aeolus]

Actually, I just had a conversation with a few folks about this stuff and it might not necessarily be bad. If Sega becomes in charge of what gets localized by Atlus, then that will be bad. But you know, imagine if Sega were in the conference room as Sega's talking about whether or not to localize their newest Valkyria Chronicles. Perhaps Atlus would be able to take charge of that localization. We might be able to see some Sega stuff localized we wouldn't normally expect.

There's also another nifty thing that could come of this. PC releases of Atlus games. I mean, just imagine seeing P2 Innocent Sin/Eternal Punishment getting PC releases. Also, given Sega and Nintendo's friendly partnership thing, FExSMT could be even better if Sega could pool some good resources into that.

I so want to believe this right now, but Sega's history is a laundry list of bad decision making and of writing off everywhere that isn't Japan.

[Logick]

My View:
Gungho - Very likely, they got the money, the question is how much are they willing to go, and did the mobile SMT games do well?
Capcom - They got the money, the question is would they keep the Japan and US team
Sega - They'd likely keep the japan team, but would they keep the west(I kinda hope they'd dissolve SoA and let atlus USA publish their japanese and western games)
Marvelous - Another likely contender
Gree - They would be hands off on them, and since they're stumbling outside of japan, could be their door in.
Nintendo - A very conservative company, in an odd state ATM, but they're on really good terms with them....
Sony - I just don't see it happening
Namco - They're still recovering from some serious losses.
EA - not gonna happen don't worry.
Activision - See EA
Microsoft - See Activision
NIS - they're kinda in a rut ATM
Tecmo - might be too expensive for them.
Some other mobile game developer - Could be the case
Some non game company wanting that persona money - another likely case

[Annubis]

I'm always surprised when I realize Sega has money.
I can never understand where it's coming from.

[Yggdrasil]

Namco - They're still recovering from some serious losses.

Losses from what?

[Aeolus]

I'm always surprised when I realize Sega has money.
I can never understand where it's coming from.

Likely Pachinko and Sonic fans. Also maybe from the dozen or so Phantasy Star MMOs they've cranked out over the last 15 years or so.

[Logick]

Namco - They're still recovering from some serious losses.

Losses from what?

Five years ago they went buck wild spending on new projects and buying out companies they yielded no profit, including their incredibly lavish western studio I was a part of.  They pretty much shut down all external game development house they own aside from D3, had sizable layoffs in japan, and cut their overseas operations by 90%.  Glad I jumped off that sinking ship.

As for Sega's money... I heard a rumor....

[Aeolus]

http://gematsu.com/2013/08/report-j-trust-makes-bid-for-atlus-parent

The epic saga continues....