Sega Sammy announced on July 4 that its subsidiary Atlus returned to profitability in the fiscal year ended March 2025 (as reported by GameBiz). Atlus posted a net profit of 854 million yen (roughly $5.9 million), which is a big turnaround from the previous year’s deficit of 757 million yen (about $5.2 million).
In fact, Atlus had been reporting losses for years prior, but this had nothing to do with the company performing poorly or its games not selling. When Sega acquired Atlus and its bankrupt parent company Index Corporation back in 2013, it paid more than the fair market value (this usually has to do with the purchased company having high “intangible” value, such as brand reputation, in-house knowledge, a loyal fanbase etc.). As a result, the deal generated goodwill that Atlus has had to gradually write off over the years. This is what has been artificially lowering its reported profits in the past few years (despite the company performing well).
This process appears to have been completed, so we’re finally seeing Atlus’ actual performance now. Atlus attributes its strong performance in the past fiscal year to the release of core full-price games and licensing of its IPs. With the multiplatform release of Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, the SMT series exceeded 2.11 million worldwide sales. Metaphor: ReFantazio also topped 2 million units sold despite being a brand-new IP.
In its groupwide financial reports, Sega Sammy has called Atlus “one of its most successful acquisition deals to date.”
