Activison licensing?

[Riko]

With Atari 50, acquiring berzerk, M-Network games and intellivision games, what is the likelyhood of acquiring the rights to publish games like Pitfall or any other of their classic titles? I don't know how this sort of thing goes though i gather it's complicated.

Edited Wednesday at 07:54 PM by Riko

[Stephen Moss]

Assuming that Atari has any interest in doing so at all, then with Activision still being an active and profitable company that would depend upon what mileage they think there is left in the Pitfall and their other classic games.

If they think it could still make a lot on money then they will likely keep hold of the rights and produce titles for various systems themselves, if they are not sure they could licence it to Atari so they still have the option to produce titles themselves/licence it for other non Atari system as well, or they could sell the entire rights to Atari. 

[LatchKeyKid]

Personally, I doubt there is enough juice left to squeeze to satisfy three separate large companies after the split at the price point that it would have for the retro community beyond a high mark up "special collectors edition" combo physical release.  

Edited 15 hours ago by LatchKeyKid

[BillDMatt]

Microsoft bought out Activision/Blizzard so I would assume the know own the IP to those classic titles.    If approached I don't see why MS would be overly difficult in getting some  of these older titles licensed out,   seeing how they can make a little of money off of IP that is collecting dust in their attic. 

 

 

Edited 11 hours ago by BillDMatt

[zzip]

It seems like whenever these classic IPs are held by a large company, they stay in limbo.   Those old titles don't generate enough money, and the employees negotiating deals are likely chasing much bigger deals than licensing out old 2600 games,  so there doesn't seem to be much incentive,

 

Activision hasn't released a compilation in over a decade, neither has Warner Bros (Atari Games)

 

Atari so far has only managed to acquire old IP from much smaller companies

  

2 minutes ago, BillDMatt said:

seeing how they can make a little of money off of IP that is collecting dust in their attic. 

It's like pennies to a company like Microsoft.    

[LatchKeyKid]

27 minutes ago, zzip said:

It seems like whenever these classic IPs are held by a large company, they stay in limbo.   Those old titles don't generate enough money, and the employees negotiating deals are likely chasing much bigger deals than licensing out old 2600 games,  so there doesn't seem to be much incentive,

 

Activision hasn't released a compilation in over a decade, neither has Warner Bros (Atari Games)

 

Atari so far has only managed to acquire old IP from much smaller companies

  

It's like pennies to a company like Microsoft.    

 

Agreed.   The bigger a company gets, the more it becomes NOT about making money but what makes the MOST money for them.   Plenty of gaming companies (both digital and physical/tabletop) have cancelled profitable lines that were by definition making money simply because they could be making MORE money with those people/salaries on something else.  

 

I'd love to be proven completely wrong though and will celebrate for and with the fans of classic 2600/Intellivision era Activision titles if released in a worthwhile compilation especially if it had both physical and digital components for both parts of the retrogames community.

[Riko]

1 hour ago, LatchKeyKid said:

 

Agreed.   The bigger a company gets, the more it becomes NOT about making money but what makes the MOST money for them.   Plenty of gaming companies (both digital and physical/tabletop) have cancelled profitable lines that were by definition making money simply because they could be making MORE money with those people/salaries on something else.  

 

I'd love to be proven completely wrong though and will celebrate for and with the fans of classic 2600/Intellivision era Activision titles if released in a worthwhile compilation especially if it had both physical and digital components for both parts of the retrogames community.

I am sure Atari has had it considered at the least though if its practical or profitable i have doubts. Though securing more rights to properties might be a good venture assuming they dont want a billion dollars.