It's become sadly common nowadays to read stories of bankruptcies among game companies. Now we have an update on the situation from Atlus' parent Company, Index Holdings.
Index has announced that they are planning to sell off operations as early as next week. Expected amount to be raised runs in the 15 billion yen amount. At the time of filing for civil rehabilitation, they estimated liabilities at 24.5 billion yen.
Now, we of course know Index as the holding company of popular game developer Atlus, but Index is a bigger multimedia conglomerate than that. Founded in 1955, it also has money in Takara Tomy and Fuji Media Holdings, for example. Takara Tomy was the original owner of the Transformers franchise, and currently known for B-Daman, Zoids, and Thomas the Tank Engine. Tomy are themselves video game publishers in Japan, mostly based on Zoids and Naruto.
Fuji Media is the holding company of Fuji Television, also a major Japanese media entity. Fuji TV has been host to programs like Iron Chef, Game Center CX, Brain Wall (Hole in the Wall in the US), and a spattering of anime since the 60s. These are just some of the businesses affected by Index's bankruptcy.
GCA Scavvian has been chosen as financial advisor, and stocks will begin delisting on July 28. Lawyer Otsuka Kazunari declined to provide more details on how the bidding will be implemented.
Atlus' Japan and USA branches made statements weeks ago indicating that they are continuing operations as usual, and confirmed the release of immediately announced games. Unfortunately, it is now clear that they are facing an uncertain future in the months ahead. It's a shame, too, but it appears civil rehabilitation was a euphemism of a legal term and the company is essentially kaput. We hope not only Atlus, but all of Index's properties and business partners, can rebound from all this and find new owners and partners.
Source: Bloomberg Japan
