TopDrawer Posted June 14 Share Posted June 14 (edited) In this thread, we discuss and debate potential acquisitions that Atari might do in the future. Game studios, intellectual properties, the works. I've recently been thinking about this a lot after the Intellivision buyout, and when I later found out they also acquired Nightdive. Here's a wild shopping list I came up with: -Humongous Entertainment game library: Atari has recently bough back some of their past games from the Billionsoft game library, which included Bubsy, as well as other past Accolade & Infogrames titles AND both the Accolade & the GT Interactive brand. Though it hasn't been confirmed if the Humongous games were also part of this buyout, considering that Billionsoft also owned those. I hope they were part of the deal, considering they were once owned by Atari. There's a huge nostalgia factor to those edutainment games, considering so many people grew up with them. I can see a lot of potential for those IPs to suceed, specially with merch and even cross-media projects (preschool animated TV shows, for example). -Ziggurat Interactive: It was Wade Rosen's first game company. It's pretty obvious both companies have similar goals when it comes to republishing retro/classic games and general video game preservation. They already own a lot of games from the original Atari SA/Infogrames library in which they actually seem they're utilizing (Slave Zero X), alongside other slightly popular franchises like Bloodrayne and Boy & His Blob. Plus, they just recently announced a collaboration with Atari & Nightdive on the future re-release of Killing Time. -Piko/Bleem!: Retro game publisher, very similar to Ziggurat. They also, much like Ziggurat, bought a ton of Atari games from different eras of the company - Jaguar & Lynx games, Hasbro buyout era games (i.e.: Glover), Infogrames/Atari SA games - back when Atari filed for bankruptcy. They also physically republished their old games much like Limited Run, and also dabbled on creating Kickstarter campaigns of DVD releases of old, obscure cartoon shows. Unlike Ziggurat though, seems like the company is innactive. The website seem abandoned, but most of their releases are still available on Steam. Personally I just wanted to see Atari get their hands on the Glover IP and give the cancelled Glover 2 an official, finished release (same goes with most of the Hasbro buyout era titles). -Coleco Holdings LLC: Would be a no-brainer after the Intellivision buyout, but I wouldn't rush out to buy it if I was Atari. I don't think it should be much of a priority, considering that Coleco doesn't really have that much of a strong game library. It could probably be worth it for the novelty of owning the brand? Maybe they can capitalize it with merchandise? -Q*Bert & the Gottlieb game library: Sony & Columbia Pictures never seemed to care at all about the Gottlieb library of games. They never even bothered to transfer those IPs to Sony Interactive Entertainment. They only use Q*Bert for game-related cameos in movies. I think Atari would be a better fit for the character and the arcade game. And Q*Bert itself is very much a product of that classic period in videogame history. It could be the closest for Atari to own an actual classic gaming character the likes of Pac-Man, in my opinion. -(new) Microprose: The new Australian Microprose seems focused on doing new simulation and strategy games, much like the old company, as well as remakes of their old titles. It's also supposedly run by hardcore Microprose fans. It'd be interesting for Atari to have them on board so they could retain the brand and the games, while the publisher could manage the entirety of the Microprose games library in a proper manner, specially game series like Rollercoaster Tycoon. -Certain assets from Embracer Group: It seems that Embracer is in deep waters, specially right after they failed to secure the necessary investment from the Saudi government. They just announced they're going to split the company into three major groups, right after Saber & Gearbox left the company. I think Atari should aim towards trying to purchase some of their assets, specifically THQ Nordic, their games library and some of their studios. Aside from owning most of the original THQ library (Red Faction, Saints' Row, DeBlob, Darksiders, Destroy All Humans, Titan Quest), THQ Nordic specifically owns a lot of games once either owned or published by Atari SA/Infogrames (Alone in the Dark, Desperados, Act of War, Silver, Outcast, the Piranha Bytes titles). I think THQ Nordic's assets could fit perfectly on the newly revived Infogrames. Also, Nightdive securing the rights of TimeSplitters and do a proper re-release of those games would be ace. -Midway games library, NetherRealm Studios & Mortal Kombat: In my opinion, this would be the ultimate victory for Atari, in a symbolic way. It means they could finally retain the rights of the classic Atari Games titles, which was once the arcade division of the original Atari - games like Paperboy, Gauntlet, Primal Rage, as well as the other Midway titles like Tapper, Joust, Defender, Gorf, Rampage, etc. It would give them a MASSIVE list of classic arcade titles they could add to their library and use them in the future. I'd be down to see these titles get the Recharged treatment, or Digital Eclipse doing a definitive Atari 50-style collection. Better yet, maybe an official, finished Primal Rage 2 release. Actually release the past Mortal Kombat titles on today's platforms (including the ones after MK3), as well as Gauntlet Legends and Dark Legacy. Oh and NetherRealm could still make MK games as a good stream of income for Atari, as long as they fix the new MK1 game (tone it down on the micro-transactions, bring back cross-platform multiplay, etc). Let me know your thoughts. Enjoy! Edited June 14 by TopDrawer 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted June 14 Share Posted June 14 15 minutes ago, TopDrawer said: -Midway games library, NetherRealm Studios & Mortal Kombat: This could only hapoen if you added some 0’s to Atari total value… even then, I see no possibility Atari could get MK unless they get extreme economical growth the next decade, or the holders now goes into a complete breakdown, which would, I guess, only happen if new big video-game industry crash happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted June 14 Share Posted June 14 I think: Epyx or Battlezone …when they’ve gotten the necessary means… 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopDrawer Posted June 14 Author Share Posted June 14 (edited) 1 hour ago, Giles N said: This could only hapoen if you added some 0’s to Atari total value… even then, I see no possibility Atari could get MK unless they get extreme economical growth the next decade, or the holders now goes into a complete breakdown, which would, I guess, only happen if new big video-game industry crash happened. Very true, it would be pretty unlikely Atari right now could even have the means to purchase MK and NetherRealm. The rest of the Midway game library, on the other hand...I don't know. WB has basically been sitting on those IPs ever since they bought their assets back in like 2008-ish? Warner Bros. Discovery is in dire straits and has tried to spun off and sell off their game division for quite a while to pay up past debts, even before the Suicide Squad flop (there were rumors they were trying to sell their studios to Microsoft a year ago). Edited June 14 by TopDrawer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopDrawer Posted June 14 Author Share Posted June 14 1 hour ago, Giles N said: I think: Epyx or Battlezone …when they’ve gotten the necessary means… I own Impossible Mission for the PSP and I used to play all the time as a kid. Pretty fun game. Aren't most of Epyx's assets owned by System 3? Not sure if they''re interested to sell them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted June 14 Share Posted June 14 (edited) 9 minutes ago, TopDrawer said: Aren't most of Epyx's assets owned by System 3? I think they are owned or distributed by some publishing company called Pixel Games UK. https://pixelgames.uk/games/ Edited June 14 by Giles N 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 (edited) 17 hours ago, TopDrawer said: Very true, it would be pretty unlikely Atari right now could even have the means to purchase MK and NetherRealm. The rest of the Midway game library, on the other hand...I don't know. WB has basically been sitting on those IPs ever since they bought their assets back in like 2008-ish? Warner Bros. Discovery is in dire straits and has tried to spun off and sell off their game division for quite a while to pay up past debts, even before the Suicide Squad flop (there were rumors they were trying to sell their studios to Microsoft a year ago). It's got to be tough for a small company to extract IP from a huge company like that and aren't motivated to do anything with that that IP. The old Williams games would be nice for Atari SA. 18 hours ago, TopDrawer said: ... -Coleco Holdings LLC: Would be a no-brainer after the Intellivision buyout, but I wouldn't rush out to buy it if I was Atari. I don't think it should be much of a priority, considering that Coleco doesn't really have that much of a strong game library. It could probably be worth it for the novelty of owning the brand? Maybe they can capitalize it with merchandise? ... And I don’t think Coleco Holdings owned any Colecovision copyrights. Edited June 15 by mr_me 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopDrawer Posted June 15 Author Share Posted June 15 1 hour ago, mr_me said: And I don’t think Coleco Holdings owned any Colecovision copyrights. For real? How did they licensed those ATGames plug-n-play consoles then? If true, that makes them even more worthless. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 (edited) 56 minutes ago, TopDrawer said: For real? How did they licensed those ATGames plug-n-play consoles then? If true, that makes them even more worthless. The flashback box only credits Coleco Holdings for the Coleco and Colecovision trademarks, no copyrights. Atgames does credit the copyrights for the respective homebrew owners. Atgames would have had to license the Imagic, Epyx, Interphase, Sierra, and various other titles from different copyright owners. Edited June 15 by mr_me 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bakasama Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 21 hours ago, Giles N said: I think: Epyx or Battlezone …when they’ve gotten the necessary means… I think Atari is better off buying something like Spectre VR which is inspired by Battlezone but has more features like multiplayer and power ups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 (edited) 26 minutes ago, Bakasama said: Spectre VR …what is that…? Never heard of it. (A little point there in itself). So, as a thought-experiment, you think Atari would be equally served by, say, releasing ‘Ataris NEW Spectre VR’ by Q3 2026 than ‘Ataris BattleZone NEO’ … by Q3 2026…? It’s just a thought-experiment, but I just would imagine a new BattleZone game would get more attention as a major Atari release than … Spectre VR. — If they have the Battlezone IP, they can evolve or expand it as much as they want. And… also get to resell old titles, old games already made, in compilations… Edited June 15 by Giles N Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopDrawer Posted June 15 Author Share Posted June 15 (edited) Are Rebellion's Battlezone games any good? They seem fun not gonna lie. Why did Atari start selling off their classic IPs in the first place? Selling Infogrames games, I can understand. But actual core franchises? Really? Did they have plans to sell off Pong as well? Were they really this desperate during the recent bankruptcy? Edited June 15 by TopDrawer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 (edited) 2 minutes ago, TopDrawer said: Why did Atari start selling off their classic IPs in the first place? They went bankrupt. ’On January 21, 2013, the four related companies Atari, Atari Interactive, Humongous, and California US Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.’ Edited June 15 by Giles N 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 4 minutes ago, TopDrawer said: Were they really this desperate during the recent bankruptcy? I believe if one goes bankrupt, you just really have nothing, and the people behind must sell everything to others, just trying to make financial losses as small as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopDrawer Posted June 15 Author Share Posted June 15 17 minutes ago, Giles N said: I believe if one goes bankrupt, you just really have nothing, and the people behind must sell everything to others, just trying to make financial losses as small as possible. You're right, what a dumb question lol, my bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 1 hour ago, TopDrawer said: You're right, what a dumb question lol, my bad. I’m myself asking others here to explain to me what the finacial realities behind all the legalities really amount to, and not everything is really that self-evident. However, I believe a more important question is: why or how did Atari end up there - bankrupt by 2013 -, in the first place? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nall3k Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 8 minutes ago, Giles N said: I’m myself asking others here to explain to me what the finacial realities behind all the legalities really amount to, and not everything is really that self-evident. However, I believe a more important question is: why or how did Atari end up there - bankrupt by 2013 -, in the first place? They had a mountain of debt from all the acquisitions they did in the 90s’ and 2000s’, and their main creditor, BlueBay went bankrupt in 2013–thus causing Atari to go bankrupt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 (edited) 31 minutes ago, Nall3k said: They had a mountain of debt from all the acquisitions they did in the 90s’ and 2000s’, and their main creditor, BlueBay went bankrupt in 2013–thus causing Atari to go bankrupt. Ok, but what about all things regarding which projects were profitable and which ones weren’t? Didn’t they do anything that brought in money, anything that created revenue…? Edited June 15 by Giles N Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nall3k Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 32 minutes ago, Giles N said: Ok, but what about all things regarding which projects were profitable and which ones weren’t? Didn’t they do anything that brought in money, anything that created revenue…? It was a variety of factors that are outlined on Wikipedia. Different leaderships tried taking the company in different directions, mobile games, MMOs (when they bought Cryptic), social media games. David Gardner and Phil Harrison tried to make Atari a major publisher again with Alone in the Dark, Riddick, The Witcher, Ghostbusters, Test Drive Unlimited, etc. i just think the debt was too much to overcome, and they were starting to lose major licenses like Unreal Tournament, DBZ, Neverwinter Nights, The Witcher. Going to mobile probably didn’t help. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 (edited) 11 minutes ago, Nall3k said: Alone in the Dark, Riddick, The Witcher, Ghostbusters, Test Drive Unlimited, etc. 11 minutes ago, Nall3k said: Unreal Tournament, DBZ, Neverwinter Nights, The Witcher. I remember many of those. And Godzilla and Matrix. I just wondered if info about which of these made revenue/income, - well money for short -, and the level of it, is available or just given to endless guessing/speculations? Companies can learn from past mistakes and also keep an eye of big failures right now, and try not to immitate the worst failures. So, any approximate info concerning the actual debt-sum? Any info out there, which of the stuff they had, made money? Edited June 15 by Giles N Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 I like the acquisitions and all, but honestly right now I'd give Atari this advise. "Slow the fuck down" they've acquired a lot of stuff already, but it would be nice to put it to use bringing in money before acquiring more their not even using. Nice to have a bit of an airbag to cushion against selling their own ip if they go bankrupt again, but remember they got the new ip because its value is low enough, nobody else wanted them. Anyhow, don't want another "battlezone" incident, and to avoid that, they need to bring in money. I know you gotta spend money go make money, but they need to spend money on releasing already acquired products, not just collecting more. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 36 minutes ago, Video said: another "battlezone" incident, What was that…? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopDrawer Posted June 15 Author Share Posted June 15 59 minutes ago, Video said: I like the acquisitions and all, but honestly right now I'd give Atari this advise. "Slow the fuck down" they've acquired a lot of stuff already, but it would be nice to put it to use bringing in money before acquiring more their not even using. Nice to have a bit of an airbag to cushion against selling their own ip if they go bankrupt again, but remember they got the new ip because its value is low enough, nobody else wanted them. True that. I am of the belief that right now, they should focus on what they have. -Keep capitalizing on the classic Atari (and recently purchased Intellevision) brand & games via Recharged releases, new experimental titles (Yars Rising), etc. -More merch licensing deals (LEGO, etc). -Have Digital Eclipse do more classic license game collections for other companies (Konami's TMNT games, Capcom's Disney games, etc). -Have Nightdive port more boomer FPS games for other companies to fund the System Shock 2 remake in the process. -Port whatever old, oddball Infogrames era games on GOG & Steam. I feel that Atari has something interesting going on right now, but they to let it flourish. They shouldn't pull an Embracer and go on crazy, pointless buying sprees, while losing their focus in the process. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bakasama Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 8 hours ago, Giles N said: …what is that…? Never heard of it. (A little point there in itself). So, as a thought-experiment, you think Atari would be equally served by, say, releasing ‘Ataris NEW Spectre VR’ by Q3 2026 than ‘Ataris BattleZone NEO’ … by Q3 2026…? It’s just a thought-experiment, but I just would imagine a new BattleZone game would get more attention as a major Atari release than … Spectre VR. — If they have the Battlezone IP, they can evolve or expand it as much as they want. And… also get to resell old titles, old games already made, in compilations… Here's an overview: https://www.mobygames.com/game/6901/spectre-vr/ Here's some screenshots: https://www.mobygames.com/game/6901/spectre-vr/screenshots/ I also recall that Atari might have rights to Karateka and original Prince of Persia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Bakasama said: Here's an overview: Thanks for the info. I think unless it’s super-cheap, better to set aside the money for Epyx or Battlezone. Meanwhile get a good Intellivision-collection out… would be really nerdy, but cool… Then get some to make some cool Intellivision-ports to other systems. Edited June 16 by Giles N Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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