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Atlus

Demon negotiators, from the Famicom to Persona 5

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A Tokyo company founded in 1986 that began by developing games for other publishers and became known for Megami Tensei, role-playing games in modern Tokyo where the player talks to demons and recruits them. Its Persona spin-off, from 1996, grew into its best-known series. After passing through Takara and Index, Atlus was bought by Sega Sammy in 2013, and Persona 5 and its Royal edition had sold more than ten million copies by 2025.

In most role-playing games a monster is something to kill. In Atlus’s, it might be something to talk to. When Atlus brought Revelations: Persona to America in 1996, its advertisement explained the idea: the player could “converse with them before doing battle to determine your best course of action. Fight them or enlist their aid in your mission.” That idea came from the Megami Tensei games, which Atlus had been making since the Famicom, and which put demons, gods and figures from many religions into a modern Tokyo. For years the series was little known outside Japan; Persona 5 and its expanded edition went on to sell more than ten million copies.

Fast facts

  • Founded: 7 April 1986, Tokyo.
  • Series: Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei; Persona; Etrian Odyssey; Catherine.
  • Western arm: Atlus USA, founded in 1991.
  • Owners: Takara (2003), Index (2006), Sega Sammy (2013).
  • Best-selling: Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal, more than ten million copies together by August 2025.

From contract work to Megami Tensei

Atlus was founded on 7 April 1986. It started by developing games that other companies published, and its first Megami Tensei games came out on the Famicom under Namco’s name; Megami Tensei II (1990) shipped on one of Namco’s own cartridges, with Namco’s 163 sound chip. In 1992 Atlus published Shin Megami Tensei for the Super Famicom itself. A 2006 Japanese readers’ poll of the hundred best games, printed in Edge, still placed Megami Tensei II 58th and Shin Megami Tensei 59th.

The games were not easy to export. Retro Gamer noted that Japanese role-playing games such as Shin Megami Tensei were “rife with risqué humour, irreverent use of religious symbols, and blunt depictions of murder”, and that Japanese games were often cut or edited to fit Nintendo of America’s rules. When Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne was finally confirmed for America in 2004, Edge listed the series’ “traditional cast”, which it expected would do it no favours there: “devils, deaths and gods from every possible religion, a tyrannical creator and a slightly sympathetic portrayal of Lucifer Morningstar”. It praised the “unique design” of the series artist Kazuma Kaneko and the “freedom to throw your lot in with any of the game’s disparate dogmas or strike out on your own moral path”. Atlus took a relaxed view of fans who translated its older games themselves: “if fans choose to translate game text for their own personal use, then more power to them,” a spokesperson told Edge in 2006.

Persona

Revelations: Persona (1996) was the first Megami Tensei game released in America, and GamePro explained to its readers that it had “roots in the Megami Tensei games that hit the NES” years before. Its advertisement promised “over 300 different monsters” and a party who could “morph” into more powerful beings, the Personas of the title.

The series changed with Persona 3 (2006) on the PlayStation 2. Its director, Katsura Hashino, also wrote much of the scenario, and Kaneko’s assistant Shigenori Soejima took over the art direction with modern-looking young characters. The player lives through a year as a Japanese schoolchild: by day, classes, clubs, part-time jobs and friendships; by night, the monster-filled Tartarus, where the friendships made in the day make the player’s Personas stronger. Retro Gamer called it “against the tide of pretty much everything in its own genre” and concluded: “Only Atlus is making games like this.” Its “Evokers”, with which teenage characters summon their Personas by appearing to shoot themselves in the head, drew some controversy as well as attention.

Other series

Atlus kept other lines going alongside the demons. Etrian Odyssey (2007) on the Nintendo DS was a first-person dungeon game of the kind Edge called a “mono-dungeon experience”; its series ran to a fifth game in 2016 and HD versions of the first three in 2023, with music by Yuzo Koshiro. Catherine (2011), with music arranged by Persona‘s composer Shoji Meguro, combined a story about a 32-year-old man unsure whether to commit to his girlfriend with nightmare block-climbing puzzles; Edge thought it “confidently explores what, in gaming, is all but uncharted territory”. Atlus USA also published other Japanese studios’ games in the West, among them Nippon Ichi’s Disgaea: Hour of Darkness in 2003.

Owners

Atlus changed hands several times. The toy company Takara took control in 2003, and the mobile-content company Index bought it in 2006 and absorbed it in 2010. When Index went bankrupt in 2013, Sega Sammy bought it for ¥14 billion at an auction, and by 2014 Sega had taken over publishing Atlus’s games in Japan. Edge noted at the start of 2014 that Persona 5’s release in the West would now depend on “Sega, Atlus’s new parent company”.

Persona 5 came out in 2016. By December 2023 the Persona 5 series, counting its spin-offs, had sold more than ten million copies, and in September 2025 Atlus said that Persona 5 and its expanded edition Persona 5 Royal had together sold 10.46 million by the end of August.

Sources

  • GamePro issue 97, October 1996, p. 49: Atlus advertisement for Revelations: Persona (“converse with them before doing battle”; “first time to hit US shores”; “over 300 different monsters”).
  • GamePro issue 99, December 1996, p. 131: Revelations: Persona, with “roots in the Megami Tensei games that hit the NES”.
  • NesDev Wiki, Namco 163 audio, list of games (web, secondary): Megami Tensei II among the cartridges with Namco’s 163 sound chip. https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/Namco_163_audio
  • Edge issue 162, May 2006, pp. 24–25: a Japanese readers’ poll of the top 100 games (Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei II 58th, Shin Megami Tensei 59th).
  • Retro Gamer issue 12 (2005), p. 43: Nintendo’s content rules and games “like Shin Megami Tensei”.
  • Edge issue 138, July 2004, p. 59: Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne preview (Atlus USA; Kaneko; the “Maniacs” version with Dante).
  • Edge issue 159, February 2006, p. 81, “Forbidden words”: Atlus on fan translations.
  • Retro Gamer issue 107, October 2012, pp. 72–73, “Future Classic: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3” (Hashino, Soejima and Kaneko; the day and night structure; the Evokers; “Only Atlus is making games like this”).
  • Edge issue 130, December 2003, p. 101: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness review (Atlus, Nippon Ichi).
  • Edge issue 231, September 2011, pp. 106–108: Catherine review (publisher Atlus; Vincent’s story; Shoji Meguro’s arrangements; “all but uncharted territory”).
  • Edge issue 262, January 2014, p. 37: “Sega, Atlus’s new parent company”.
  • Edge issue 211, February 2010, p. 90: Torchlight review, with Etrian Odyssey as a recent “mono-dungeon experience”.
  • Ancient Corp., “Yuzo Koshiro profile” (web, secondary): Etrian Odyssey games for Atlus on the Nintendo DS among his works. https://www.ancient.co.jp/yuzo.html
  • Sega Retro, “Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth” and “Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection” (web, secondary): Atlus’s 2016 and 2023 releases. https://segaretro.org/Etrian_Odyssey_V:_Beyond_the_Myth https://segaretro.org/Etrian_Odyssey_Origins_Collection
  • Nintendo Life, September 2013 (web, secondary): Sega Sammy’s purchase of the bankrupt Index, owner of Atlus, for ¥14 billion. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/09/sega_sammy_acquires_atlus_parent_company_index_for_14_billion_yen
  • Sega Retro, “Atlus” and “Atlus West” (web, secondary): founding date; merged into Index in 2010; Sega taking over publishing in Japan by 2014; the American company established in 1991. https://segaretro.org/Atlus https://segaretro.org/Atlus_West
  • Wikipedia, “Atlus” (accessed October 2026) (web, secondary): founding date; early contract work; Namco publishing the first Megami Tensei games; Atlus USA in 1991; Takara in 2003 and Index in 2006. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlus
  • “Persona 5 series sales top 10 million”, Gematsu, 14 December 2023 (web, secondary). https://www.gematsu.com/2023/12/persona-5-series-sales-top-10-million
  • “Persona 5 / Royal have officially sold over 10 million copies”, KitGuru, 25 September 2025 (web, secondary), reporting Atlus’s announcement of 10.46 million by the end of August 2025. https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/mustafa-mahmoud/persona-5-royal-have-officially-sold-over-10-million-copies/

See also

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