Atari acquiring The Making of Karateka and Atari 50 studio Digital Eclipse
Atari has entered into an agreement to acquire Digital Eclipse, the retro-focused studio behind the likes of 2022's acclaimed Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration and this year's The Making of Karateka.
Digital Eclipse has had quite an eventful existence since its founding in 1992. In its original guise, it specialised in porting arcade games over to the likes of Game Boy Colour and PlayStation; that emulation work has continued over the years, first as it become Backbone Entertainment following a merger in 2003, and again after the Digital Eclipse brand was purchased and revived by former employees in 2015.
In recent years, the studio's emulation work has included the Blizzard Arcade Collection, Street Fighter: 30th Anniversary, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, but last year's interactive digital documentary Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration — which blended interviews, archival material, and playable games to form an exhaustive record of Atari's history — was particularly well-recieved. The studio then launched its Gold Master Series earlier this year, taking a similarly thorough approach to individual games, starting with The Making of Karateka.
In a statement announcing its acquisition of Digital Eclipse for an «initial consideration» of $6.5m USD — an agreement that is expected to complete «in the coming days» — Atari said it was buying the studio to «further support its retro-focused growth strategy». This follows the purchase of retro specialists Nightdive Studios — responsible for the recent System Shock and Quake remasters among many others — for $10m earlier this year.
In an FAQ accompanying today's news, Digital Eclipse said it will «still have the freedom to seek out
Read more on eurogamer.net
