Sega has confirmed and provided more details on their purchase of Atlus’ parent company Index Holdings. They explain their prior business relationship with Atlus, so that they can point out how the deal is clearly to benefit both parties.
Sega has been the Japanese distributor of Index’s home video game software since 2012. Furthermore, a sibling subsidiary of Sega’s, Sammy Corporation, already does business with Index. Sammy makes pachinko and pachislot machines, and Index builds their control boards and LCD rendering boards.
Based on their existing connections, Sega argues that purchasing Index will not only give them a steady stream of home video game software, but also benefit their businesses in online PC games, mobile games and apps, pachinkos, and even amusement machines and video game arcades. The agreement also benefits Index because they are valued at a higher amount. The financial rehabilitiation supervisors have also conceded to the agreement, finding that the arrangement will not be affected by the ongoing investigation of Atlus’ former owners.
Bear with me as the following can get confusing. Under the terms of the deal, Sega Corporation, a subsidiary under Sega Sammy Holdings, is itself creating a new subsidiary, Sega Dream Corporation. It is Sega Dream Corporation that will now take over all assets owned by Index Holdings. This includes not only Atlus, but the range of all of Index’s businesses, which include console games, social games, commercial amusement machines, internet advertising, and other businesses.
Sega explains more details will be shared later, but as it stands now, it appears that they are planning to keep Index’s business running in a separate company. Let there be no doubt, this is great news for Atlus fans, because it literally means everything is going to stay as it is. Seeing the state of mergers between Japanese game companies through the years, this one seems to have turned out better than most.
Image is from Etrian Odyssey Untold.
