Atari has whipped out its wallet and snapped up the intellectual property rights to over 100 retro games from the 80s and 90s, including Bubsy, Demolition Racer, and more.
Specifically, Atari’s new acquisitions span the PC and console game catalogues of publishers Micropose, Infogrames, Accolade, with Atari also now owning the Accolade trademark.
Sadly, the company hasn’t shared a full list of the retro IP it now owns after its most recent splurge, so there’ll be no time for lengthy bouts of nostalgia here – but it’s announcement did at least call out the aforementioned Bubsy and Demolition Racer, alongside Hardball, 1942: Pacific Air War, F-117A, and F-14 air combat series.
And as for what it’ll be doing with its new found treasures, Atari says its goal is to expand digital and physical distribution of the titles – including bringing some of them to consoles for the first time – and it’s raising the possibility of creating new games based on its freshly acquired IP too.
More predictably, the publisher is also planning to explore “brand and merchandising collaborations”, so if you’ve ever wanted a t-shirt with Bubsy’s face plastered all over it, your dreams might finally be about to come true.
Atari says the acquisition is part of a “multi-year effort to transform the company”, a process which has, promisingly, recently seen it collaborate with the legendary Jeff Minter to reimagine ’80s arcade prototype Akka Arrh, and release last year’s excellent Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration interactive museum collection.
