We already knew that ATLUS's mother company Index Corporation filed for Civil Rehabilitation (the Japanese equivalent of a soft Bankruptcy) a few days ago, and today the Japanese blog Japanimate found the list of the creditors belonging to the animation, video games and publishing industry.
Looks like Index owes money to quite a few partners involved in ATLUS' business. The numbers are indicated in thousands of yen.
- Production IG (44,100)
- ASCII Media Works (31,521)
- Aquaplus (24,120)
- STUDIO MAUSU (17,314)
- Nintendo (13,599)
- Pony Canyon (12,373)
- Shueisha (11,395)
- Enterbrain (6,166)
- Fuji Television Network (5,525)
- M-ON! Entertainment (5,040)
- JASRAC (3,528)
- GREE (2,506)
- SEGA (2,454)
- Movic (2,412)
- YOMIKO (1,890)
- Aniplex (1,862)
- WiZ (1,737)
- Tomy (1,370)
- T.O Entertainment (1,260)
- TV Asahi (1,218)
- Taito (1,113)
- Gakken Publishing (1,071)
- Tatsumi Publishing (1,050)
Apparently those spiffy animated cutscenes made for the games we all know and love costed a fair bit, but what's probably more interesting is seeing ASCII and Nintendo near the top of the list, as the two companies might leverage their position as creditors to make a bid on ATLUS.
The video game division of ASCII Media Works and Enterbrain have been merged into what's now Kadokawa Games, and summing up what Index owes them, we reach the respectable (even if not enormous) sum of 37 million yen (about $370,000). Kadokawa might just decide that it's time to acquire another popular developer to strengthen its portfolio.
UPDATE: the article was edited to include the caveat that the list includes only companies in the animation, video games and publishing industries, that was missed in the first translation of the list. The total debt is much larger. ATLUS is actually one of the healthiest parts of Index's business, and reportedly profitable. Thanks to Duckroll from NeoGAF for pointing it out.