Atlus Buys Majority Share of Gonzo Rosso

We all know that the Gonzo anime studio is a troubled one these days, with bankruptcy filings and a huge $30+ million dollar deficit and no definite new projects on the way (though on paper they're supposed to be working on the second Strike Witches anime, Susperia, and Mardock Scramble, nothing concrete has been revealed about any of them recently).

The latest news is that Gonzo's sister-subsidiary Gonzo Rosso, which focuses on MMORPGs, has been bought by the company Atlus, perhaps best known as the publishers of games like Persona, Kenka Bancho, and Demon's Souls.

Hopefully the sale will bring some much-needed capital to Gonzo to help pay off its debts, but I doubt it's enough to give them a boost towards producing anime again, at least for the immediate future. Atlus' official press release (Japanese PDF) didn't specify a dollar amount but they expressed interest in growing the subsidiary into Atlus' own plans for family-oriented games.

There's also some mention of Atlus USA, specifically in relation to C&C Media, another online game publisher in which Atlus has a minority stake. Business Japanese isn't my forte, but I believe they're expressing hope that by both of these investments, they're hoping to tackle the domestic online-game market, while Atlus USA handles the North American market.

Interesting stuff-- we'll see what it develops into in the long run.