Nightdive CEO discusses sale to Atari, says publisher 'is on the rise'
Nightdive Studios, developers of the imminent System Shock(opens in new tab) remake, was recently acquired(opens in new tab) by Atari for $10 million in a move that came as quite a surprise. Although Atari has a rightful place in video game history, the company's heyday was long ago, and in recent years it has been a shell of its former self.
Yet in an interview with Gamesindustry.biz(opens in new tab), Nightdive's CEO Stephen Kick discussed the decision to sell to Atari, explaining it was made because he believes the old publisher is on the up. «There is this misconception when this acquisition [happened] that we had basically chained ourselves to a sinking ship, but it couldn't be further from the truth,» Kick explains. «They're on the rise here again, and we wanted to be a part of that.»
The decision has a lot to do with Atari's current CEO, Wade Rosen, who recently bid to acquire the company(opens in new tab) after it reported another financial loss. «Wade is the X factor here» Kick states, before going on to explain why. «After he had become the Atari CEO, and started changing the underlying foundation of Atari toward something more game-centric...that's when we became interested in joining forces.»
Kick also promises the sale to Atari won't affect Nightdive's modus operandi. «We are going to work on the things that interest us… Shooters, mostly, from the 1990s and 2000s.» Neither will the deal affect Nightdive's ability to collaborate with external partners, with Kick saying «It's not going to limit who we work with.»
Although he doesn't go into specifics about what Nightdive will be working on, Kick says that there are announcements «coming up» related to «a bunch of really obscure 1990s FPS games that we are
Read more on pcgamer.com
