NIS America Will No Longer Localize Atlus Games
It was announced earlier this year that Sega had established ownership of Atlus Games, publishers of delightfully niche JRPGs like Persona and the Disgaea series. It comes as no surprise then, that NIS America won’t be localizing any more of them. They have their own ability to do that now.
Henceforth, says NIS America managing director Takuro Yamashita, Sega will handle all publication duties for Atlus titles in the US. As for Europe, they’re still deciding. “Atlus became very picky about selecting the European publishing partner after it was bought by Sega,” Yamashita said. “It always cherry-picked its [European] publishing partner based on who offered the highest minimum guarantee on a title by title basis. I noticed that it was very difficult for NIS America to establish an equal partnership with Atlus.”
It’s worth noting that Atlus localized some of NIS’s games in America before they had their own localization ability. Most notably, the first Disgaea game on Playstation 2 was published in America by Atlus. The final NIS-published Atlus game will be Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, launching on Playstation 3 and 4 this June.