I do think Nintendo wants SMT and Persona on their platform, but not enough to buy a whole publisher.
They'd have to spend money on buying all the PC teams and franchises, Rovio, the whole panchinko machine and all the other stuff they don't have much interest in. Plus the Like A Dragon team don't see themselves as Nintendo people, so they might very well quit.
Perhaps a better move would be for Nintendo to try and only buy the Atlus part.
As an aside, I think Nintendo is making the right moves to keep the Switch 2 first party lineup similar to Switch 1. But I guess we'll see.
The more I think about it, the more I think you are right. I guess this is mostly about marketing deals.
That's one solution!
I don’t think anyone would acquire the Sammy side of Sega. I think it would have to divest itself and just be a game maker again, and possibly movies, etc. With the IP.
Then those IP would be very lucrative for say $5B-$8B. I would think Sonic alone would be worth at least a 3rd to half of that price.
Then you get into the legacy content. Which is ripe for being updated and reimagined. De-Cap Attack, Phantasy Star, Virtua Fighter, Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, Kid Chameleon, aside from Persona, SMT, Sonic, etc. Then there are obscure titles like Shining Force, Virtual On, Jet Set, Daytona Racing, Sega Rally, Nights, Sega Bass Fishing, etc. that could be reimagined.