Tecmo Koei Acquires Atelier Developer Gust

Japanese publisher Tecmo Koei Holdings revealed today that it has acquired Gust, the developer behind the Atelier RPG franchise. As reported by Andriasang, Koei Tecmo has acquired all shares of stock in Gust from its current 100 percent shareholder Keiken Holdings, and plans to make Gust a wholly owned subsidiary. The stock purchase deal happened earlier today, and the transferring of the stock will occur later this month. Tecmo Koei bought the stock for ¥2.2 billion ($28.3 million). Koei Tecmo Net, a subsidiary of Koei Tecmo, currently distributes games from Gust at Japanese retail -- a factor which no doubt played a role in the acquisition. Koei Tecmo said that, as part of the acquisition, it will be looking to make Gust's IP even more popular by branching it out into a variety of new genres. The company revealed recently that it plans to continue its well-known fighting game franchise next year with Dead or Alive 5, coming some six years after the previous entry in the series. Correction: Due to a mistranslation from the original source, this story originally quoted the purchase price as ¥22 million, when it was in fact ¥2.2 billion. Gamasutra apologizes for any confusion this may have caused.