While it’s become easy for gamers to decide if they want to purchase an original soundtrack digitally on STEAM, during the late ’90s through the 2010s, one of the more popular ways to obtain video game soundtracks were through limited editions.
For a lot of Japanese-based video games released not by a large video game company in the US at the time, may they be JRPG or strategy-based games, companies such as Atlus, NIS, AKSYS Games and XSEED were the champions of doing such releases. And also showed that many people were willing to spend a lot of money on limited edition video game sets that came with an original soundtrack on CD, art book, DVD or Blu-ray and more.
One of the reason of Atlus is success is their wonderful way of promoting their products. Knowing that there are not many of them being made at the time, only those who were familiar with “Shin Megami Tensei” games, knew of their potential but what was offered with the games made these highly collectible. To the point that even back then, for a Sony PlayStation and Sony Playstation 2 release, people were willing to spend a lot of money on eBay to get a hold of a copy.
A lot has changed since then. ATLUS still is popular with its “Shin Megami Tensei” releases with anything “Persona” related.
But Atlus was a company that maybe familiar to some back when it was first established back in 1986 as a game developer for other companies until they started publishing their own games in 1989.
The company merged into Index Corporation in October 2010 and in 2013, would be bought by SEGA.
And there appears to be a much more different approach, as the company was known for releasing other games that were not “Shin Megami Tensei” related, that has now changed.
Not just with ATLUS, but a lot of those companies many grew up loving, have now a more narrow focus on titles than before. Now, mostly they are “Shin Megami Tensei”, “Persona” related and “Etrian Odyssey” related.
But when it comes to soundtracks, ATLUS still releases games with soundtracks, especially on STEAM but now things are released on a standalone music player with the original soundtrack built-in.
It’s a shame considering many soundtracks can be purchased and downloaded through STEAM as part of a special package or as a separate purchase. It’s one thing that makes video game soundtracks so accessible today. And also via iTunes and other digital music shops.
But behind a music player application, I wish that was not the only way to access music from Atlus aside from purchasing an import of a physical media copy.
But nevertheless, ATLUS was no doubt on the forefront of video game limited series or video games that came with original soundtracks. It’s part of the special connection that the company had with its growing fanbase.
But if anything, with the success of “Persona 3 Reload” becoming the fastest-selling game in ATLUS history (more than one million copies sold in its first week) and the growing interest of the “Persona” games with current, past and a new generation of gamers, for those of us who supported the company since the beginning, will always be grateful of what ATLUS did for their early, growing fanbase. The early releases were awesome!
