Examples of Damage Control in Gaming: Atlus in Europe

The relationship between Atlus and Europe has never been a rosy one, but it was at least an acceptable one throughout a little more than the last decade. The company has been reluctant to establish an official base of operations on the continent, which has left Atlus USA to depend on other publishers to handle distribution of their titles in its multiple territories. This worked for a good amount of time, as publishers like Ghostlight, Koei (pre-Tecmo merger), and Square Enix (who handled Persona 4) handled their PS2 titles. But this hit its first snag when Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon didn’t make it over, thanks to it being a late PS2 title in 2009.

As it turns out, that was only the start of things going awry.

Publishing of their titles became considerably rockier when Atlus mostly shifted their support to Nintendo platforms, incidentally enough. A slew of DS games, including Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2, Radiant Historia, and the second and third Etrian Odyssey titles, didn’t make it over in an official capacity. Fortunately, it was still possible for Europeans to get them through importing, thanks to the DS being region-free (the last region-free handheld from Nintendo at that). The same couldn’t be said of Trauma Team on Wii, though, which wasn’t playable until the system was hacked.

In this console and handled generation, it appeared Atlus USA had found the perfect anodyne to their publishing problems by establishing a partnership with NIS America. Thus far, they’ve published nearly every title shortly after they’ve released in America; “nearly” because that didn’t include Shin Megami Tensei IV, which Atlus USA published on the eShop for a discounted price around 15 months after its American release, thanks to a still-unknown snafu. That fiasco aside, everything was going swimmingly.

So you can imagine the reactions from European fans when they heard this relationship would be ending. It was confirmed to MCVUK that Atlus USA and NISA are ending their partnership, with the latter commenting that it had become increasingly difficult to handle their games after the former was purchased by Sega in 2013. Unless something changes, Odin Sphere Leifthrasir will be the last game they publish in Europe next month.

After seeing that news, you’d logically think this meant Sega Europe would be taking over publishing of their titles. After all, they own them, though the only title of theirs they’ve handled thus far is Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. But anyone who knows how Sega works these days is aware of how they sometimes operate illogically, and this is yet another demonstration. Though Atlus USA and Sega of America have established a cozy relationship, Sega Europe remained silent about potentially publishing their games.

This led to slight fear that Europe wouldn’t get Persona 5, though honestly, the Persona series is popular enough that someone will bring it over. But they’re justifiably concerned about whether they’ll receive titles like Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse and perhaps Etrian Odyssey V, especially since they’re on the region-locked 3DS. While Atlus USA could publish those games on the eShop, many still prefer physical copies, especially on a system where digital games are tied to the hardware and not an account.

What’s more peculiar about Sega Europe is how they also aren’t proactive with announcing localized Japanese titles from Sega of America. Yakuza 0 wasn’t confirmed for Europe until a little over three months after it was announced for America, but it will ostensibly release in both territories simultaneously in early 2017. But they waited until after the American release of the Sega 3D Classics Collection to confirm it for that territory, and they’ve yet to announce a release of 7th Dragon III: Code VFD. Unless western-developed titles like Dawn of War or Sonic are involved, there’s an astounding lack of communication between Sega’s American and European districts.

There’s a good reason why fans blew up the social media channels of Sega and Atlus USA, many of which requested answers about why they weren’t committed to publishing those aforementioned titles. This prompted Sega Europe to respond, who said it’s up to Atlus USA to choose their partners for European publishing duties; they also subsequently said they’re very interested in bringing their titles to the UK. It’s difficult to tell whether they simply said this to quell people’s anger, but for their fanbase’s sake, I hope they’re being genuine. Europe has had to deal with the short end of the stick for Atlus titles for too long, and their fans deserve a sense of certainty at this point.

They won’t be able to convince fans that this isn’t simply lip service until they actually confirm they’re bringing another one of their games over. And they should do that soon, with either SMTIV: Apocalypse or Persona 5. But in the meantime, it’s perfectly fine for fans to keep raising hell to let Sega Europe understand that people are upset about their reluctance to commit here, but only if they do so in a non-unhinged constructive fashion. It won’t do anyone any good if people leave feedback that causes them to roll their eyes, after all.