That's what I heard.

It was Monolith, not wanting to be absorbed into Namco that went to Nintendo and asked for help. Ninty asked Namco "hey dudes can we have that one dude who doesn't want to live in your house?" Namco be all like "Oh that dude who keeps whining? Sure man, just gimme all of my shared that you own".

Namco's Monolith shares for Nintendo's Namco shares. 

Atlus may be a niche market, but their gamers are fiercely loyal. If Nintendo bought atlus, those gamers would have to convert whether they want to or not. It's a great move on Nintendo's part, although I think it will piss off a lot of gamers, but it's business.

What's missing from this pipe dream is the "Why" 1. Nintendo approaches SEGA for joint ownership of Atllus - Why? If Nintendo see's value in Atlus to increase company profits and library why are they sharing and what basis does SEGA even have to be in this? 2. Nintendo pays more half the Atlus bill then says its 50/50 SEGA would promise a raft of exclusives - Why would SEGA not offer to pay equal halfs to have equal control of both Atlus and their own IP's. In your pipe dream, why SEGA so willing to bend over?

Nintendo buys Atlus just secure a release on their system but not only on their system? What is the trigger that lead to all this happening? It's interesting..I guess

If I had to argue against Nintendo acquiring Atlus, I would say "If Nintendo wants to grow their IP portfolio in an adult-friendly direction, they could spend its money better elsewhere." And there are, indeed, some other projects Nintendo can do I desperately want to see. A new Metroid, the Zelda Wii U, a Nintendo FPS or MMO, etc. All of these are at least as good an idea as acquiring Atlus.


...But the problem is still that if Nintendo is going to have to float it's own hardware with tepid third party support, they need more IP and they need to get that IP out faster. In so many words, they need more studios and programmers in seats. Any acquisition is a good acquisition.

Alus has both great IP and excellent programmers. "Acquire me" may as well be taped to Atlus's back.

Nintendo already had something like an 86% interest in Monolith before Namco sold it, so a tiny transaction to clear up loose ends sounds about right. Nintendo's general MO for acquires seems to be to get leverage more than use the checkbook. And in this case, with Index's debt, they do have leverage. The question is if it's enough.

The 80% they got was backn in 2007. That's when they actually bought them. The rest of the stocks came later.

That is false. Nintendo to this day still owns a 'majority' share in Namco Bandai - over 1.5% (http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2013/security_q1303.pdf). Nintendo puchased Monolith Soft from Namco Bandai for an undisclosed amount.

To answer the question in the header - Atlus would largely benefit Nintendo as it would expand their market share. Furthermore, this transaction would solidify Nintendo's mind share in Japan as it is arguably its most important market. Like I mentioned in a previous comment, if Nintendo absorbs Atlus, it would leave it intact and be considered a seperate entity much like Intelligent Systems and Monolith Soft are. It would be financially independent and continue to operate as it has currently until it could no longer generate a profit. It also seems that Atlus (Index) owes Nintendo quite a sum of money as well . If Nintendo were smart, they would proceed with the purchase as it may not see its investment back depending on the auction for Index - doing so, they would be able to recoup their investment and expand their revenue.

1. Because Nintendo has reason to strengthen their relationship with SEGA. As I said, instead of getting one publisher's loyalty, they effectively get two, for the same price.

2. Because Sega's not exactly flush with cash. Sega probably couldn't afford to buy half of Atlus. Nintendo could probably afford to buy Atlus 10 times over. Nintendo has the money. What it effectively amounts to is a publishing deal between Nintendo and Sega - but instead of Nintendo giving a large amount of money to Sega, they're giving a large number of shares in Atlus.

As for "secure a release on their system but not only on their system", you forget that Nintendo would half-own the publisher. So half of the games, probably more (since Nintendo has more disposable income than Sega), would be Nintendo-exclusives. And because Sega would be closer to Nintendo after the deal, a lot of Sega's ones would be for Nintendo platforms anyway. Like I said, the idea for Nintendo is that it would effectively get two for the price of one.

I don´t think GungHo would be good for the future of Atlus at all !

They really are the japanese equivalent of Zynga: They have one hit game (Puzzle and Dragon or whatever it is called) that makes them a lot of money, they are currently expanding like mad, but they success isn´t rooted in many long established 5Million+ selling franchises...who knows how popular P&D will be in a year ?

Sounds like Zynga to me (the company that is collapsing left and right as we speak) !

They're nothing like Zynga, they don't exclusively make "Social games". They are an upcoming publisher in the West for console gaming. It's just they're literally just started with it and so haven't got much of a foothold, but Ragnarok Oddysey etc are published by them in Europe and their lineup will only expand in the next couple of years.

Some more established franchises are actually exactly the sort of thing GungHo need to establish themselves in the market.

Also, how many companies now have 5+m selling franchises they can frequently rely on? EA, Rockstar, Activision seems about it.