Atari S.A. buys Intellivision!

[Greg2600]

Well the forums came back up just in time, for the earth shattering news of the day, Atari has bought Intellivision!

https://atari.com/blogs/newsroom/atari-acquires-intellivision-brand

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/23/24163176/atari-acquires-intellivision-amico-console

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/atari-vanquishes-its-most-ancient-foe-by-acquiring-intellivision-declares-end-to-the-longest-running-console-war-in-history/

https://www.ign.com/articles/atari-acquires-intellivision-brand-but-leaves-disastrous-amico-console-behind

https://variety.com/2024/gaming/news/atari-acquires-intellivision-brand-console-war-1236014502/


Atari® — one of the world's most iconic consumer brands and interactive entertainment producers — announced today it has purchased the Intellivision brand and certain games from Intellivision Entertainment LLC. Intellivision Entertainment LLC will rebrand and continue its business of developing and distributing the Amico brand game console with a license from Atari to continue to distribute new versions of the Intellivision games on the Amico console.

Atari will seek to expand digital and physical distribution of legacy Intellivision games, potentially create new games, and explore brand and licensing opportunities as part of a long-term plan to create value from the Intellivision properties.

“Uniting Atari and Intellivision after 45 years ends the longest running console war in history,” said Mike Mika, Studio Head at Digital Eclipse, an Atari-owned game studio.

The first Intellivision home video game console was released by Mattel Electronics in 1979 and the console platform sold an estimated 5 million units through 1990. Atari and Intellivision arguably fought the first console war of consequence in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Mattel went as far as enlisting the actor George Plimpton to appear in a series of ads comparing the two systems, as well as an eight-minute long video shown at the Gamescom trade show.

“This was a very rare opportunity to unite former competitors and bring together fans of Atari, Intellivision and the golden age of gaming,” said Wade Rosen, Chairman and CEO of Atari.

The purchase includes the rights to more than 200 titles from the Intellivision portfolio and the Intellivision trademarks.

“Atari has been a valuable partner and we have every confidence they will be a responsible steward of the storied Intellivision brand,” said Phil Adam, CEO of Intellivision Entertainment. “We look forward to our expanded collaboration and the prospect of bringing a broad array of new titles to the Amico family gaming platform.”


*The Amico group will rebrand, and should they actually produce games, would be licensed back from Atari.

[Slate]

Well, that's surprising. I never thought I'd see the day this happened.

Are they aiming for Colecovision, too? Does this mean we can get controllers that aren't as stiff, or did a homebrew team already achieve that?

- Austin

[Steve W]

Does anybody believe the Amico will still come out?

[Greg2600]

Does anybody believe the Amico will still come out?

No, and really few if anyone cares at this point. There is definitely intrigue from the Intellivision fanbase about what Wade has planned. Most responses I've seen have been positive and hopeful, as the Tallarico successors were unlikely to produce much of anything with the IP's at this stage.

[Aussie2B]

It is surprising news, though I suppose Atari has been buying up a bunch of stuff lately. Funny timing for me too, as I just recently started playing a real Intellivision (as opposed to the Flashback) for the first time, so I've been learning a lot about the library and history and such. I wonder where they're getting the "more than 200 titles". From my understanding, there's just barely over 125 games, plus some later compilations and a few games on the Flashback that were unreleased back in the day. Even if you count all of that, how are they getting over 200?

I was wondering if the Colecovision would be next too. I'd love new hardware that works with the old carts, though I wouldn't want it to be emulation, and I'd want something I could hook up to a CRT.

It does sound like yet another nail in the Amico's coffin. Nostalgia for the Intellivision brand was one of its selling points (not that that counted for much; the Intellivision is barely remembered, if known at all, by most current gamers). Granted, even if this deal never happened, I'd still expect the Amico to never see the light of day, and I've suspected that would be the case from the very beginning.

[7th lutz]

Well, that's surprising. I never thought I'd see the day this happened.

Are they aiming for Colecovision, too? Does this mean we can get controllers that aren't as stiff, or did a homebrew team already achieve that?

- Austin

I doubt it. The reason is the Colecovision game library has very little in Original games. Colecovision's game library is something like 90 percent on a combination of arcade ports, 3rd party games, and games based on IPS. Atari would have very little access to the Colecovision library as a result. The only Colecovision arcade ports Atari can access to is Frenzy, and Centipede.

All Atari could do is the Colecovision modules, the Colecovision system, the Collecovision controllers, and stuff like Colecovision t-shirts if they purchase Colecovision.

[Greg2600]

Well, if you were to obtain the Colecovision "rights" you then own the original code, and would need to re-license certain arcade titles if necessary. It was done for the CV Flashback, after all. The problem is that Coleco is part of Mark Thomann's Dormitus Brands, and he's actively been producing retro product under the Coleco banner. Albeit not much actual Colecovision material, but their business is basically the same as Atari S.A.'s so I'm not sure they're interested in selling.

[Tron 2.0]

Atari finally wins the 2nd gen war take that george plimpton,rolls eyes. !!! Still i don't blame atari avoiding anything to do with the amico that things has been nothing but a dumpster fire.