After NIS America and Atlus severed ties in April, many were left wondering what that meant for the publishing and distribution of popular titles, like the Persona franchise, in Europe. Today, Atlus announced that it would be teaming up with Deep Silver to bring Persona and other game franchises to its European audience.
Sega of America acquired Atlus at the beginning of April and said it was committed to publishing and distributing Atlus titles under the Sega banner, but the company wasn't going to foray into the European market. Instead, Atlus was left scrambling to find a European distributor, especially with its last title under NIS America, Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, released last month.
Today, Deep Silver — the publisher behind franchises like Saints Row and Dead Island — announced that it would be taking over publishing duties, bringing games like Persona 5, Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse and Sega's 7th Dragon III Code: VFD to the European marketplace. In a statement, Atlus CEO Naoto Hiraoka said Deep Silver would ensure that physical versions of the titles, like the Persona 5 collector's edition, would be accessible in stores across Europe.
Neither Deep Silver or Atlus said if they were planning to reinstate games that players couldn't get their hands on in between the separation with NIS America and the new partnership. Vanillaware's beat-em-up Dragon's Crown for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3 marks the first title that European players couldn't get following NIS America and Atlus' fallout.