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PayPalAtari seems to be on a bit of a spree recently to make something of a big gaming comeback and they recently announced even more acquisitions. Not only do they now own Nightdive Studios, they also recently swallowed up the AtariAge community too!
More recently though they put out word that they've taken over multiple titles from Ronimo Games including Awesomenauts and Swords & Soldiers. Both slightly odd purchases, since neither seem to actually have an active player-base any more (at least going by Steam numbers) but they must have a plan for their future.
Pictured - Awesomenauts
Also just announced is that Atari has purchased Digital Eclipse, a developer who works on various re-releases using their proprietary Eclipse Engine. So think of them like another Nightdive Studios, as Atari clearly see a lot of promise in updating and re-releasing older games (and in many cases those do sell very well).
Atari also continue publishing remakes of their classic games with more coming like Berzerk: Recharged and Lunar Lander Beyond.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
StoneColdSpider Oct 31, 2023
Damn......... I havnt even thought of Awesomenauts in YEARS......... I totally forgot about it........
It did have a "awesome" theme song.........
Last edited by StoneColdSpider on 31 October 2023 at 12:01 pm UTC
It did have a "awesome" theme song.........
Last edited by StoneColdSpider on 31 October 2023 at 12:01 pm UTC
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Atari confuses everyone with their continued existence, operating at a net loss and making strange business moves.
You all remember their catastrophic attempt at a console in the Atari VCS which bombed completely and died with a sordid whimper before it was even born, but did you know about the Atari branded hotels and their investments in blockchain and Atari Tokens, or their weird push for social casinos and real-money gambling...
It's mind-boggling how they manage to keep the lights on at all.
In case you were curious about their finances, unimpressive as they are: ATARI: FY2023 ANNUAL RESULTS
Last edited by dpanter on 31 October 2023 at 12:27 pm UTC
You all remember their catastrophic attempt at a console in the Atari VCS which bombed completely and died with a sordid whimper before it was even born, but did you know about the Atari branded hotels and their investments in blockchain and Atari Tokens, or their weird push for social casinos and real-money gambling...
It's mind-boggling how they manage to keep the lights on at all.
In case you were curious about their finances, unimpressive as they are: ATARI: FY2023 ANNUAL RESULTS
Last edited by dpanter on 31 October 2023 at 12:27 pm UTC
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hardpenguin Oct 31, 2023
QuoteMore recently though they put out word that they've taken over multiple titles from Ronimo Games including Awesomenauts and Swords & Soldiers. Both slightly odd purchases, since neither seem to actually have an active player-base any more (at least going by Steam numbers) but they must have a plan for their future.These brands do have a strong potential but unleashing it requires funding 🥲
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Oh no, not more industry-consolidation - a consolidation around a famously shaky company-in-name-only this time, at that. 
It's also very worrying to see an entire very-long-lived online gaming community swallowed up by this, too!
It's also very worrying to see an entire very-long-lived online gaming community swallowed up by this, too!
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slaapliedje Oct 31, 2023
Quoting: dpanterAtari confuses everyone with their continued existence, operating at a net loss and making strange business moves.The VCS hasn't died. I literally just bought 4 new games for it last night.
You all remember their catastrophic attempt at a console in the Atari VCS which bombed completely and died with a sordid whimper before it was even born, but did you know about the Atari branded hotels and their investments in blockchain and Atari Tokens, or their weird push for social casinos and real-money gambling...
It's mind-boggling how they manage to keep the lights on at all.
In case you were curious about their finances, unimpressive as they are: ATARI: FY2023 ANNUAL RESULTS
Your information is quite old, they got a new CEO who actually gives a crap bout Atari succeeding. This is why they've been making purchases. They're still bringing new games to the VCS, it allows indie developers to get a better percentage than Steam. Pretty sure they've also given up on the whole block chain stuff (though I think they still have the hotel?)
Their money for these purchases must be coming from somewhere. They're also releasing the Atari 2600+ (which seems to be an emulator system but has a proper cartridge port so you can play all your old 2600/7800 games on it). Seems to me they're doing all the right moves to try and resuscitate the Atari name, especially after all the delays of the VCS (which just happened to have issues because it seemed the initial 'hey, we're going to do a game console again!' seems to have been something they pulled out of the ether before they had anything more than a render. If they had been a bit smarter, they would have had some sort of hardware put together before announcing it, so the time between announcement and being in your hands was much shorter than the 4 years it took...)
They've learned from the VCS launch by now actually only announcing things about a month or two before it ships. If you look at what they've been up to since the VCS landed, you can definitely see an improvement in what they've been doing.
Owning the studios that have been doing remasters of old games is definitely something that speaks to them doing the right things; not to mention buying AtariAge.
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hardpenguin Nov 1, 2023
Quoting: slaapliedje(..)Wow, VCS is still alive? That is pretty cool I guess. I am also interested to see where Atari goes from here!
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slaapliedje Nov 1, 2023
Quoting: hardpenguinYeah, I'm surprised there isn't a bit more news here about it, as it's just as much a Linux gaming device as Steam Deck is... Granted, it's probably harder for Liam to actually get one since for some dumb reason they haven't been able to sell them very well (or at all) outside of the USA.Quoting: slaapliedje(..)Wow, VCS is still alive? That is pretty cool I guess. I am also interested to see where Atari goes from here!
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Awesomenauts was my favourite MOBA and it still has a small but active community. Hopefully this injects some cash into the game, I'm sure the players are happy it.
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Quoting: slaapliedjeYeah, I'm surprised there isn't a bit more news here about it, as it's just as much a Linux gaming device as Steam Deck is...You should submit some articles!
You've shown a lot of knowledge about it and about what current-Atari is up to, and in spite of the concerns I expressed earlier, I'm genuinely happy to see new management that actually cares about Atari's legacy and wants to do good things with it, so I'd love to read more about it (UK also here, so not able to get a VCS either 
).
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slaapliedje Nov 1, 2023
Quoting: anewsonAwesomenauts was my favourite MOBA and it still has a small but active community. Hopefully this injects some cash into the game, I'm sure the players are happy it.Wonder if they're planning on making a whole new game.
Atari's history is pretty interesting, since they've basically gone from hardware / software developers through the 1970s up until 1996, then a software publisher basically bought the name / IP, and they've been kind of shuffled around a few times until they finally decided to make hardware again... and now that they're buying up development houses, they're becoming more of what they used to be, with having a hardware platform + software developer.
But I'm hoping they're able to get some third party support for their hardware (maybe for a VCS 2, if that ever happens). I think that was always one of the reasons of their downfall, was the only time they truly had a massive amount of third party software was in the 2600 / A8 computer days. If you look at the 5200, 7800 and Jaguar, almost all of their games were 1st party. The Atari ST had quite decent success for it's first 5 or so years of it's existence, but after the Amiga caught on, there was a huge dip in new software.
Third party support basically makes / breaks a system. Like the Switch's hardware was old when it was released, but since it's Nintendo, it's remained successful. Ha, Atari is currently in the 'cheat' mode, as they buy companies and make the third party as 1st. Though this makes sense, since they can make money selling on Steam, Switch, etc.
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