Nintendo and Atlus have been close for years, particularly on DS and 3DS. If Nintendo bought Atlus and it became a first-party studio like Monolith Soft, it would be huge. All future Atlus releases as Nintendo exclusives? Nintendo would be impossible for Sony to dethrone in Japan if that were to happen.

The only reason Nintendo might not do it (which would be really short-sighted), is that purchasing Atlus for what is probably at least $100 million, would make it all the more difficult for them to reach their $1 billion profit at the end of this fiscal year next spring.  Short-sighted because, the long-term advantage to buying such a big studio and having all of those IP's exclusively on your platform is surely worth the investment, even if it were to mean $900 million profit next year instead of $1 billion (Assuming Nintendo is able to meet the $1 billion goal, and assuming Atlus is worth $100 million.  All hypothetical). 

Which is why I agree with Miyamoto more than Iwata about the profit goal.  Iwata is keen to meet the target and prove to shareholders that Nintendo is able to be successful in the new smartphone/ tablet world, and Miyamoto is saying "Saying we're going to meet some arbitrary number is pointless.  Just play our games."  I understand both points of view.  Bottom line:  Buying Atlus, if it's possible, is worth it.  From the perspective of Nintendo trying to dominate Japan even more than they already have.

If anybody in this thread aside from soriku and myself reads it, you'll see.

Indeed, it was Dtewi who bought them.

Could be worse. At least we'll have lots of Persona

A guy that used to go to VGC.