Atari is buying the developer behind its excellent 50th anniversary retro compilation
By Jon Porter, a reporter with five years of experience covering consumer tech releases, EU tech policy, online platforms, and mechanical keyboards.
Atari is acquiring Digital Eclipse, a studio that specializes in preserving and rereleasing retro games on modern hardware. The releases are often rich in additional materials and historical content. Think the Criterion Collection but for video games. In a press release, Atari says it’s paying up to $20 million for the studio, including an initial $6.5 million paid in a combination of cash and shares and a further $13.5 million, which is due to be paid in cash over the next decade subject to Digital Eclipse’s performance. It expects to complete the deal in the coming days.
The two companies previously worked together on last year’s excellent Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, which included ports of over 90 classic games as well as unreleased prototypes and neat extras like short documentaries and old photos and magazine articles. But Digital Eclipse has also produced a number of other well-received rereleases of classic games including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection and the interactive documentary The Making of Karateka.
In total, Atari says Digital Eclipse has produced over 250 games since its inception.
Despite now being owned by Atari, Digital Eclipse says it still has the freedom to work on non-Atari projects in a FAQ page on its website. “In addition to recent releases like Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord and The Making of Karateka, Digital Eclipse has a lot of unannounced projects in the works that do not involve Atari’s IP, and those will carry on as planned.”
This is the latest notable acquisition Atari has made in the
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