Sega



Sega Corporation is a Japanese multinational video game software developer and arcade company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. They are best recognized for the Sonic the Hedgehog, Virtua Fighter, Yakuza and Puyo Puyo franchises.

They were best known for their contribution in the arcade and hardware market through their gaming consoles: SG-1000 Master System, Genesis/Mega Drive, Sega Game Gear, Sega Saturn and Dreamcast. However, due to underwhelming sales of the Dreamcast and the overwhelming market share of Sony’s PlayStation, Sega abandoned the console hardware industry on January 31st, 2001, by ceasing production of all Sega consoles and exited the console hardware market.

In October 2004, the pachinko company Sammy Corporation acquired a controlling share in Sega at a cost of $1.1 billion, creating the consolidated holdings company called Sega Sammy Holdings. Sega and Sammy became subsidiaries of Sega Sammy Holdings, with Sega and Sammy operating independently while the executives of both companies govern the Sega Sammy Group.

Sega is currently a third party software developer and publisher for contemporary third party gaming consoles for international markets, and a video game developer and publisher for arcades in Japan. Once Sega acquired Atlus in 2013 by purchasing Index Corporation and taking over the company's business operations, it became the parent company for Atlus.

Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2 is the first Atlus intellectual property to be developed by Sega ever since it acquired Atlus as a subsidiary brand.

Purchasing Index Corporation
In June 2013, Atlus' then-parent company, Index Corporations faced bankruptcy of ¥24.5 billion. As a result, they had to file for civil rehabilitation bankruptcy and sell of the company in order to pay off their debt. On September 2013, Sega won the bid to acquire Index Corporation. Through this acquisition, Atlus became a subsidiary for Sega through Index Corporation.

Once the acquisition was approved, Sega absorbed Index Corporation assets into a shell corporation called Sega Dream Corporation. On November 2013, Sega Dream was renamed Index Corporation. On February 2014, Sega implemented a corporate spin-off in which Index Corporation to become two independent companies. Index Corporation's video game development and publishing assets were re-branded as Atlus whilst the non-video gaming assets of Sega Dream Corporation was branded as the new Index Corporation. The reformed Atlus included Index Digital Media which was renamed back to Atlus U.S.A.

On March 2016, Sega announced that all Atlus game’s that are released in the United States will be published by Sega in order to streamline the associations between Atlus and Sega; however, Sega stated that the changes occurring with Atlus in regards to its integration into Sega were corporal, and that Atlus would not be affected by the changes from a creative or developmental perspective.

On December 1, 2015, as part of a structural reformation within the Sega Sammy Holdings company, Sega decided to sell their Index Corporation subsidiary to Sawado Holdings: a finance and insurance conglomerate. Because Atlus was an unaffiliated legal entity from Index Corporation after the corporate spin-off, none of the Atlus assets were transferred over to Sawado Holdings.

In April 2017, Sega Sammy Holdings announced that they would be relocating Atlus into Sega Sammy’s headquarters. The purpose of this is to gather all of the key Sega Sammy subsidiaries into a singular building in order to strengthen collaboration between the various subsidiaries, and to have more direct communication with the key figures of each subsidiary.

Atlus as a Sega subsidiary
Since the subsidization of Atlus into Sega, Chief Operating Officer of Sega Sammy Holdings, Haruki Satomi stated that Sega learned valuable lessons from Atlus regarding the Western market and creating titles of quality, and that they will be implementing Atlus’ work culture into the Sega Games division. . The Chief Creative Officer of Sega Sammy Holdings, Naoya Tsurumi discussed in Famitsu that Atlus have complete privileges to use any dormant intellectual properties from Sega for their own liking, and once Atlus is more familiar as a Sega subsidiary, they will consider suggestions for Atlus regarding dormant Sega intellectual properties.

On April 26, 2016, MCV revealed that publisher NIS America would cut ties with Atlus and would no longer provide European or PAL distribution of Atlus titles. Chief Executive Officer and President of NIS America, Takura Yamashita stated that, once Sega finalized Atlus as a subsidiary, Atlus was much more selective about the most ideal European publisher as they wanted the highest quality for the lowest price. This mindset prevented an equal partnership henceforth the termination of the partnership. .

On July 6, 2016, Sega and Atlus simultaneously announced that all future Atlus titles and select Sega titles will be published by Deep Silver. CEO of Atlus USA and Senior Vice President of Sega of America, Naoto Hiraoka stated that the partnership was formed with Deep Silver because of their European and PAL market share in retail stores alongside their ability to provide physical copies of video game software to European and PAL consumer which Sega and Atlus value. In August 2017, Atlus announced that they had opened a European distribution team located within Sega Europe's offices in London in order to publish all Atlus and Sega of Japan titles going forward thus dissolving the partnership with Deep Silver.