You may know that the company you currently know as Atari was previously Infogrames. After picking up the Atari name in 2000, in 2009 Infogrames opted to rebrand, and since then the story has been a bit of a soap opera.
But in 2020 things settled down a bit, a state of affairs that brings us to Atari’s current resurgence. But of course, the Infogrames name still exists, and it appears there is a strategy for it — to republish classic games, as a “preservationist” publisher.
Speaking at Gamescom, CEO Wade Rosen explained the idea behind this new direction, which is to focus on “…IPs that have been out for a long time, that people have moved on from. The people who want to focus on their future projects and want to raise capital to make new games and focus on those–that’s really what Infogrames is looking for.”
Combine this with the original aim of publishing “games that fall outside the core portfolio of IP associated with the Atari brand,” you can see what they have in mind.
In the merry-go-round of brand names and properties and franchises and acquisitions and bankruptcy filings and cryptocurrencies and consoles associated with 20th century Atari, did you ever imagine the Infogrames name could be associated with a curated library of reissues?
Me neither, and yet it actually seems like an interesting strategy. Just like Atari’s fashion line.
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Christian Cawley is a writer and editor who covers consumer electronics, IT, and entertainment media. He has written for publications such as Computer Weekly, Linux Format, MakeUseOf.com, and Tech Radar.
He also produces podcasts, has a cigar box guitar, and of course, loves retro gaming.
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