It wasn’t long ago that we got the news that Persona series developer Atlus had become part of Sega. But if you’re worried that Sega’s involvement might dilute the potential greatness that will be Persona 5, fear not.
“[Game development] will be the same as it’s been before.” Sega head honcho — and now Atlus parent company Index’s head honcho — Naoya Tsurumi said in an interview with Weekly Famitsu. “The people at Index have got everything under control and Sega has no intention of stepping in and disturbing their pace.” Tsurumi did add that while Sega would not be actively micromanaging Atlus/Index’s game development, Sega’s resources would be at their disposal if needed.
While Sega may not be backseat driving on how games are developed, Tsurumi did state that he would like to see new IPs and even perhaps some collaboration between companies. “We are a group company after all.” Tsurumi noted. “There could be the possibility of IPs crossing over.”
Another potential benefit from the acquisition would be a revitalisation of presently dormant Sega properties through the hands of Index/Atlus developers. “I have no intention of forcing them, but if they were able to do something with any dormant Sega IP, I’d love to let them give it a shot.” Tsurumi said. “We’ve just started the new company so there’s nothing on the table yet, but I’d love to consider it.” Ahem… Jet Set Radio.
As for the future of the new Index, Sega will be taking the tactic they’ve been using with most of the other companies they’ve added to their group arsenal. “As people have seen from what we’ve done with the overseas companies we’ve acquired in the past, we let the studios manage and expand the brands and IPs on their own. It’s Sega’s job to sell the games.” Tsurumi explained.
Free range video game development management? So long as we get an awesome Persona 5, I’m cool with it.
ファミ通.com [ファミ通.com]
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6 responses to “Sega Promises Not To Screw Up Atlus”
Sounds good. Does this mean the next Persona game won’t be Sony exclusive? I know Arena wasn’t, but if they could get Persona 5 and possibly 4 & 3 released on other consoles, I would be a happy bunny.
Persona 3/4 on other consoles? Probably not, barring that mash up with Persona Q on the 3DS
Persona 5 on other consoles? Sorry mate, nope.jpg http://www.siliconera.com/2013/11/24/persona-5-coming-ps3-winter-2014/
They’re not apart of sega though, their owned by sega sammy.
I’m disappointed that they’re releasing P5 on PS3, which is now previous gen..
I imagine that Persona 5 has been in development for at least a couple of years now, so it’s a bit late to switch consoles. We had a similar situation with Persona 4, it was released for PS2 well after the PS3 launched.
All mergers start out with the line “We will not interfere with them and let them maintain full autonomy.” Then two years down the track, the company is shut down and staff either let go or integrated into existing projects. They aren’t EA though so maybe they mean it.
It’d be interesting to see if anything like Super Mario RPG comes out of this. Instead of Squeenix/Nintendo collaborating though, it’s be Atlus/Sega.