Infogrames buys Surgeon Simulator franchise from TinyBuild

[PowerDubs]

 

 

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/infogrames-buys-surgeon-simulator-franchise-from-tinybuild

 

 

[ukiha]

Quite the confusing pickup, certainly was popular back in the early 2010s, I'm curious their reasoning

Edited June 26 by ukiha
misspelled word

[Lord Mushroom]

1 hour ago, ukiha said:

Quite the confusing pickup, certainly was popular back in the early 2010s, I'm curious their reasoning

They probably got it cheap because Tinybuild needs money.

[PowerDubs]

Kind of funny that by helping tinyBuild's financials they are helping their own- given the part ownership.

 

It's like Atari's own cash back on purchases program.

[PowerDubs]

1 hour ago, ukiha said:

Quite the confusing pickup, certainly was popular back in the early 2010s, I'm curious their reasoning

The Surgeon Simulator series was created by Bossa Studios back in 2013. That company sold all of its franchises to TinyBuild for a mere $3 million 11 years later in 2022, despite all of them making $6 million in revenue from these properties in 2021.

[TopDrawer]

Meh. Pretty odd purchase ngl.

Maybe they got it for dirt cheap.

I really hope the new Infogrames doesn't just become a rebranded TinyBuild.

[TopDrawer]

9 hours ago, Lord Mushroom said:

They probably got it cheap because Tinybuild needs money.

What happened to them? I know Atari bought almost 8% of the company, but that's it.

[Lord Mushroom]

54 minutes ago, TopDrawer said:

What happened to them? I know Atari bought almost 8% of the company, but that's it.

From what I understand, it was three things:

1) They bought an indie publisher called Versus Evil, which underperformed badly.

2) They made a shift from small games to bigger games.

3) The gaming marked took a downturn.

 

The result was a horrible loss in 2023.

[Lord Mushroom]

I am guessing this means Infogrames will be dealing with recent IP, and Atari with the old ones.

[TopDrawer]

On 6/27/2024 at 2:33 AM, Lord Mushroom said:

I am guessing this means Infogrames will be dealing with recent IP, and Atari with the old ones.

Makes sense.

So what's Rosen's endgame? Buy TinyBuild's assets bit by bit and transfer them out to the new Infrogrames?

[Lord Mushroom]

16 minutes ago, TopDrawer said:

So what's Rosen's endgame? Buy TinyBuild's assets bit by bit and transfer them out to the new Infrogrames?

If he wanted to buy more from TinyBuild, I think they would have made one big deal instead of several small ones. That is more practical, and would probably give them the best deal. So I think that was it in terms of buying stuff from TinyBuild.

 

Although, if TinyBuild find themselves in need of money again in a year or two, then Wade might buy more.

 

Of course, I don´t know what I am talking about.

[TopDrawer]

7 minutes ago, Lord Mushroom said:

If he wanted to buy more from TinyBuild, I think they would have made one big deal instead of several small ones. That is more practical, and would probably give them the best deal. So I think that was it in terms of buying stuff from TinyBuild.

 

Although, if TinyBuild find themselves in need of money again in a year or two, then Wade might buy more.

 

Of course, I don´t know what I am talking about.

Maybe they're just only interested in purchase their major IPs - Surgeon Simulator was pretty big back in the 2010s with Let's Players. I can also see Rosen eyeing for Hello Neighbor, considering how huge that game is with Gen Alpha/iPad kids (do they even own the IP, or just the publishing rights?).

TinyBuild has too many shovelware-tier games in their library, I can see Atari only securing their crown jewels for Infogrames and dip. Or maybe they won't and will eventually secure all assets for the sake of gaming preservation (and they're actually for real about that). Idk.

Reminds me the early days of THQ Nordic when they bought a bunch of "literally who?"-tier AA Eurojank games from bankrupt companies for pennies.

[Lord Mushroom]

56 minutes ago, TopDrawer said:

I can also see Rosen eyeing for Hello Neighbor, considering how huge that game is with Gen Alpha/iPad kids (do they even own the IP, or just the publishing rights?).

I am pretty sure they own the IP, as they bought the developers, and have invested in and published many sequels.

[famicommander]

Still utterly baffled by the decision to revive the Infogrames name. The only people I've ever talked to that know that name have only contempt for it.

[TopDrawer]

51 minutes ago, famicommander said:

Still utterly baffled by the decision to revive the Infogrames name. The only people I've ever talked to that know that name have only contempt for it.

There were some diamonds in the rough. Their Looney Tunes licensed games back in the 2000s were surprisingly pretty good, specially Taz W.A.N.T.E.D & Sheep Raider. It would be cool if Atari & Digital Eclipse released a collection of those games.

They had Alone in the Dark obviously. I've also heard Hogs of War is pretty fun too.

[Shawn]

Good purchase for them. I can see it working out well for them now and in the future.

[famicommander]

5 hours ago, TopDrawer said:

There were some diamonds in the rough. Their Looney Tunes licensed games back in the 2000s were surprisingly pretty good, specially Taz W.A.N.T.E.D & Sheep Raider. It would be cool if Atari & Digital Eclipse released a collection of those games.

They had Alone in the Dark obviously. I've also heard Hogs of War is pretty fun too.

I just don't understand the value of splitting the brand. I'm not saying Infogrames never put out anything good, it's just that the name itself went away for a reason. Why put all the effort into rebranding to Atari and trying to rebuild the Atari name only to start publishing some games under the Infogrames label again?

[Spanner]

I think they should release all the PC CD Games they made, thats when they were big, all they make now is games that are 69p to 99p on Steam, they need to publish proper games again like in 90s/2000s, only thing they made is the Atari 50th thats £34 on the PS5 and no other games, they need to branch out and they are not so will have money problems.

 

They relie to much on the Atari PI to make money, they were better when they were Infogrames, they sold more games, I think the French part of the company should be called Infogrames now because thats who they are really, there history is not part of Atari history, the new company in the US is Atari Interactive inc because it connected to Hasbro Interactive Inc, who bought the Atari IP originally and Infogrames just renamed it.

Renaming yourself does not make you a different company, you still have your old ways.

Edited Sunday at 12:54 PM by Spanner

[TopDrawer]

7 hours ago, famicommander said:

I just don't understand the value of splitting the brand. I'm not saying Infogrames never put out anything good, it's just that the name itself went away for a reason. Why put all the effort into rebranding to Atari and trying to rebuild the Atari name only to start publishing some games under the Infogrames label again?

@Lord Mushroom has given his thoughts in this thread.

My guess is that the Atari brand will mostly be used to publish games related to their classic franchises, alongside major releases (Rollercoaster Tycoon, System Shock, Nightdive's remasters, etc), while Infogrames will be Atari's brand used for smaller-scale, indie game releases, mostly unrelated to the Atari brand.

This is what's written in their website, seems it check out.

Why they chose Infogrames instead of creating a new brand? My guess is that Infogrames is still a pretty familiar name, specially in Europe.

[TopDrawer]

3 hours ago, Spanner said:

I think they should release all the PC CD Games they made, thats when they were big, all they make now is games that are 69p to 99p on Steam, they need to publish proper games again like in 90s/2000s, only thing they made is the Atari 50th thats £34 on the PS5 and no other games, they need to branch out and they are not so will have money problems.

 

They relie to much on the Atari PI to make money, they were better when they were Infogrames, they sold more games, I think the French part of the company should be called Infogrames now because thats who they are really, there history is not part of Atari history, the new company in the US is Atari Interactive inc because it connected to Hasbro Interactive Inc, who bought the Atari IP originally and Infogrames just renamed it.

Renaming yourself does not make you a different company, you still have your old ways.

My hope is they don't rely too much on just purchased TinyBuild games.

It seems that Atari still has a hold on some old games from Infogrames' library. They should re-release those under the Infogrames brand. They did re-release a couple of those under the Atari name, but if you go to Steam's Infogrames page, you'll see them available in it as well.

Unfortunately they did sell off a ton of their games (including major titles) to other companies when they went bankrupt.

-THQ Nordic now owns Alone in the Dark, Desperados, Silver, Act of War, Outcast and the Piranha Bytes games that they used to publish.

-Ziggurat (Wade Rosen's 1st game company) bought a ton of past Infogrames & Accolades titles, including Slave Zero.

-Piko/Bleem! owns also a couple of Infogrames games, such as 40 Winks & Glover.

-Alternative Software now owns Hogs of War.

It could've been cool to see them restore their old classic games library.

Edited Sunday at 03:42 PM by TopDrawer

[Lord Mushroom]

On 6/28/2024 at 6:35 PM, Lord Mushroom said:

If he wanted to buy more from TinyBuild, I think they would have made one big deal instead of several small ones. That is more practical, and would probably give them the best deal. So I think that was it in terms of buying stuff from TinyBuild.

I just found out Totally Reliable Delivery Service was also bought from TinyBuild, so I was wrong. Perhaps more purchases from TinyBuild are to come.

 

On 6/28/2024 at 6:35 PM, Lord Mushroom said:

Of course, I don´t know what I am talking about.

QED

Edited Sunday at 05:40 PM by Lord Mushroom

[Lord Mushroom]

10 hours ago, famicommander said:

I just don't understand the value of splitting the brand.

I agree with you. I think this has to do with Wade´s idealism. He doesn´t want to see a big publisher name disappear.

[TopDrawer]

Considering what's written in the Infogrames section of Atari, their strategy seems to mainly focus on acquiring new properties unrelated to their past, and then acquire their legacy properties back.

That means they'll probably invest in buying out more and more from the TinyBuild library, which owns contemporary games that resonate more with today's gamers. And with the income of licensing out those properties, new games releases, merch, etc, they will eventually self-fund future acquisitions of their old IPs.

This is just a hunch btw, I also don't know what I'm talking about.

Edited Sunday at 05:57 PM by TopDrawer

[roots.genoa]

13 hours ago, famicommander said:

I just don't understand the value of splitting the brand. I'm not saying Infogrames never put out anything good, it's just that the name itself went away for a reason. Why put all the effort into rebranding to Atari and trying to rebuild the Atari name only to start publishing some games under the Infogrames label again?

It's even more surprising that they don't seem to use Infogrames to publish old games, but why not. Atari surely sounds more retro anyway.

8 hours ago, Spanner said:

I think they should release all the PC CD Games they made, thats when they were big, all they make now is games that are 69p to 99p on Steam, they need to publish proper games again like in 90s/2000s, only thing they made is the Atari 50th thats £34 on the PS5 and no other games, they need to branch out and they are not so will have money problems.

What games are you talking about? Infogrames published a lot of licensed games in the early 2000s (Matrix, Dragon Ball, Godzilla, etc.) and Atari doesn't own these IPs at all. And they sold most of the original IPs as said above.