Atlus has become an integral part of the SEGA machine since its acquisition all the way back in 2013. SEGA snapped the Persona developer up when its previous parent company faced bankruptcy, and in more recent years, the publisher has pumped serious resources into key projects — especially with regards to marketing.
The bottom line here is that SEGA seems to be incredibly pleased with how Atlus is doing these days. During the firm's latest shareholders meeting, it dubbed Atlus one of its "most successful merger and acquisition deals to date", having highlighted its current success in the video game sector.
In particular, SEGA's been bigging up Metaphor: ReFantazio — the Atlus RPG that released in October. The publisher is confident that the game's meeting its sales targets, and that's just another feather in Atlus' cap.
Indeed, Metaphor will have been something of a risk for both Atlus and SEGA. The project went through a lengthy development cycle, but both entities decided to stick with the vision despite it being positioned as a brand new property. SEGA could have shut the whole thing down in favour of yet more Persona — the recognised brand — but the plan has clearly worked out.
With all of this in mind, it'll be very interesting to see what the future of Atlus looks like. There's absolutely zero doubt that SEGA is pushing the developer towards a busier release schedule — we're already seeing that with the remasters of Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden, as well as the full-on remake that is Persona 3 Reload. But for now, everything seems to be sunshine and rainbows.