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Atlus is a video game company known for making unique role-playing games and strategy games for various different Nintendo handhelds and consoles. Notable video games published by Atlus include, though are clearly not limited to Snowboard Kids, Trauma Center games, and the Shin Megami Tensei series. In 2013, Sega bought Atlus' parent company, Index, and spun off the company while incorporating Atlus as a subsidiary.
History[]
Atlus was established in the 1980s as a small game developer. It was mostly a for-hire developer until 1989, when it released its first game under its own name, Puzzle Boy, for Game Boy. It eventually entered the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1997, where it tried to establish itself in the amusement industry. It acquired Apies (formerly known as Irem) in 1999 from Yubis Corporation. However, in 2000, Atlus suffered a deficit forcing them to sell Apies to their employees and formed a joint venture with Kadokawa to distribute their games. In 2001, they purchased Careersoft, makers of Langrisser and Growlanser series.
The slow performance of Atlus resulted in Atlus being acquired by Takara in 2003. Takara sold the company to Index Holdings in 2006 with a controlling stake of 55%. The companies would eventually merge in 2010 with Index Corporation and the Atlus being maintained as a brand. In 2013, Index Corporation would go bankrupt with a number of companies placing bids for the company. In the end Sega won for ¥14 billion. Index's assets and operations were transferred to a new subsidiary under Sega. In 2014, Sega separated the rest of Index Corporation as another subsidiary while renaming the game business back to Atlus.
Atlus formed a number of collaborations with other small developers in the 2000s including Million for their Kunio and Double Dragon games and Sting Entertainment for all their titles including the Dept. Heaven series and the Dokapon series. The only maintained from this era is the Vanillaware which Atlus continues to publish their new titles.
The western branch, originally Atlus USA, was formed in 1991 with the focus of localizing their games for North America. They brought over a number of games over the years. When Atlus merged with Index, the branch was renamed to Index Digital Media. After the acquisition by Sega, the branch became Atlus West though the localization part was merged with Sega of America soon after.
Atlus Games[]
Atlus make many games as well as publish. Over the decades, Atlus has turned these into franchises as well.
- Shin Megami Tensei
- Devil Survivor
- Persona
- Etrian Odyssey
- Trauma Center
- 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - Published only
- Battle B-Daman - Published only
- Dept. Heaven - Published only
- Dokapon - Published only
- Luminous Arc - Published only
- Robopon - Published only
- Touch Detective - Published only