The REAL Reason Why Atari Bought Digital Eclipse

[@HE360]

I think that Atari made the game Pit-Fighter under their brand called "Tengen" . Well, I hope that they will bring that game back! Pit-Fighter; i.e., the arcade and Sega Genesis versions were awesome!!

[@ajackson1451]

My favorite Atari game of all time was temple of elemental evil. Gary Gygax, the creator of dungeons and dragons made a module Called “temple of elemental evil.” This was made into a game that resembled baldur’s gate. The game was the best representation of dungeons and dragons I had ever played on a computer.

[@Woobuggy848]

I used to have an Atari game collection for windows xp when I was younger. It ruled!

[@atarimuseum_nl]

The 2600+ runs Stella. That has already been stated by a Plaion employee (who manufactures the 2600+) on AtariAge many weeks ago.

[@cujoedaman]

Maybe someone realized how crap the current gaming market is and how toxic the AAA companies are to their customers and Atari said "hey, if you don't like money, we'll take some of it". I'm probably wrong, but hey, I can dream.

[@jayo1212]

Well, Atari's been pretty toxic to customers themselves, as the Roller Coaster Tycoon entries have shown...

[@JohnDoe-wb7fc]

the full ip game list they acquired is easy to know and has been pushed out there if you research it.

[@SnipeMD]

I love introspective videos like this. They really help with understanding how exactly the game Industry works and make sense of the things that they've been doing recently.

[@pojr]

I appreciate that!

[@Rocky1138]

Great channel. Happy subscriber. Two things specific to this video though: I'd have liked a little more into your thoughts and imagination on what Atari will do moving forward and, second, I think both companies were public before the acquisition so it might have been possible to see which of the two were larger. Anyway, not to take away from your work because I love it. Keep it up!

[@edrosa3485]

I remember Digital Eclipse from the old Macintosh days. They did old arcade games on 3.5" disk in a box that was reminiscent of the arcade cabinet they came from.

[@pb7379-j2k]

Same here, Williams games

[@whatspeedlimits]

NightDive Studio - Digital Eclipse- Atariage, which give Atari the IP of the Jaguar cases again- 10% of Antstream Arcade, and almost 6 million into Playmaji (Polymega) ownership... Atari U.S. stock ticker is $PONGF

[@RacerX-]

I thought the same thing as you in the video that Digital Eclipse was the bigger company. But I think I am underestimating the size and backing of Current Atari. Since they dropped the infogrames name some might not know the connection. Of course Atari is a more recognized name. Nice video, as always, keep up the good work.

[@baroncalamityplus]

Atari also bought Night Dive Studios. They have 40 people and Digital Eclipse has 25.

[@RacerX-]

@@baroncalamityplus That is cool. I know it isn't the Atari of old but the identity survived and it is really cool. I am glad they are bringing back and improving on their classic catalog.

[@pojr]

Yeah I never realized that Atari was bigger than I thought.

[@Zaphod-ef9yz]

It's worth noting that Atari today has been re-aquiring pretty much everything that old Atari and its successors sold off, in fact you could argue that Atari today is more Atari than it has been since Nolan Bushnell who is incidentally also a consultant for Atari.

[@brandon_leeroy135]

Never imagined Soldier Boy would take this company so far so fast.

[@byronarvanitis1189]

great content, it's nice of you that you focus on the Atari history and recent news (coming from a former Amiga owner).

[@Riz2336]

Digital eclipse made a masterpiece with atari 50

[@superbros64deluxe]

0:17 you forgot Night dive yknow the company producing high quality source code ports of several iconic FPS games to modern platforms.

[@SNARC15]

Both acquisitions do cause a little bit of concern for me as a regular on AtariAge, especially their Facebook page. When the deal was made to acquire AtariAge, they said that they would no longer do sales on classic arcade game ports. That would affect studios like Champ Games, who in the past year made amazing ports of Scramble, Super Cobra, Mappy, Galaga (Galagon,) Robotron 2084 (RobotWar 2684,) and Gorf to name a few. Granted John Champeau (aka Champ Games) can sell them on his store, but at the moment he only does so for the game ROMs as physical carts are only available through Atari Age. Hopefully he is able to work something out because as I said before his ports are quite amazing. Then there is the Digital Eclipse deal. You mentioned Atari 50 which is quite the impressive anthology both in the games it has but also telling about the history of Atari in great detail. They followed that up with The Making of Karateka, which used the same narrative to talk about Jordan Mechner's previous works leading up to the release of Karateka, and even hinted at his follow up, Prince of Persia. I really want to see a Making of Prince of Persia, but with the series being owned by Ubisoft, I don't know if that's going to happen anymore. Such a shame before TMoK was listed as the first of what Digital Eclipse is calling their "Game Master" documentary series. Hopefully Atari can allow Digital Eclipse to continue the series as it's got a lot of potential, but we'll have to see on what deals can be ironed out.

[@jeremiahthomas8140]

If it will make money, Atari would not stop it.

[@fnjesusfreak]

I left AtariAge the minute I heard Atari took them over (and I was a semiregular there).

[@SylveonTrapito]

I´m glad the Atari brand it still here, despite having nothing to do with the original people.

[@glennshoemake4200]

Nolan Bushnell said Steve Jobs was smelly so they put him on night shift at Atari.

[@RETRONuts]

Atariage is like English Amiga Board if you think about it, I won't like Commodore owning them, its not then independent then, they could of bought the Digital Eclipse for other mini consoles like the new Amiga coming from RGL, thats where the money is now, selling the games PI to another company so they can have it on there console, Cloanto is doing that now thats why they are now called Amiga Corp and so all Amiga copyright and games are under one roof.

[@ethacade]

Hey Pojr I enjoy your videos and I am actually an investor in Atari You missed Atari buying a studio called Night Dive Studios who are behind the Turok and System Shock remasters They were acquired in May

[@kranibal]

I really liked this video of yours. I love your perspective and tend to agree with you. Atari (Infogrames) is definitely trying to restore part of its former empire brick by brick. We might never see its 1970s equal but I like where they're heading. I just hope they treat the Digital Eclipse staff nicely.

[@LUCKO2022]

Infogrames is gone since 2013. This Atari is not that one either. He current Atari is just a conglomerate that holds a bunch of the licenses and assets. That is it. People don't do their homework very well these days.

[@SongbirdPro]

Cool video! While it is true the Lynx has an 8-bit color palette or 4096 colors, in practice most games stuck with the 16-color limit at one time. There are some notable exceptions, however, including Shadow of the Beast and Lemmings. Now you just need to cover some aftermarket games for this excellent handheld! ;)

[@Leahi84]

They own MobyGames too, which was really surprising to me when they bought it. In addition they own NightDive studios, which is another remaster dev. They got ahold of F117A, 1942 and the Tomcat sim series? Damn. Thats too bad, as I would have prefered the new MicroProse get those, because they are kicking ass right now with regard to making good simulations/war games.

[@MrClawt]

I am really curious to see what happens to Bubsy now.

[@pojr]

I'm honestly not expecting much, probably just another game that gets average reviews, but I do think Atari is capable of making a great Bubsy game.

[@LordVarkson]

Bubsy 4D.

[@juliusmega7373]

in gen z there are a lot of Video Game collectors and the atari 2600+ is great not just for nostalgic people, because its for everybody who likes and loves retro games and wanna use Original Game Cards

[@juliusmega7373]

there is another website like atari age but just with roms and guides so its ok, its not a problem for me

[@williamhoare6357]

I'm definitely enjoying the content, but pal you GOTS to do something about the sibilant S, and strangely tighten the fade in/out in your camera shot intro, and keep up the good work while you're at it

[@SoulforSale]

Can't wait for the Bubsy movie

[@BlueMSX.]

it is a legend no one will forget, was back! great video pojr!

[@pojr]

Thank you!

[@greenaum]

You could store every Atari 2600 ROM in a QR code! A few hundred games at 2K, 4K, and 8K each, and maybe half a dozen 16K or bigger, barely takes a couple of megabytes.

[@JohnPannozzi]

Atari used to own Bubsy until they sold it to Tommo about ten years ago. So, basically they're re-acquiring the bobcat.

[@KrunchyTheClown78]

I actually like these moves. Breathe more life into the greatness that is Atari ❤

[@pojr]

Absolutely!

[@Laki2]

Great to see how this channel has grown :)

[@The_Real_DCT]

Not to mention Atari bought Night dive studios, the M network catalog(the games Mattel Electronics produced for the 2600) and the entire Stern library

[@ShanetheFreestyler]

I believe I said this before, but I'd like to see Atari succeed here. Even if they're just Atari in name only, they still carry the legacy with them; and with the decisions they've been making lately, they could potentially regain some of that former glory. Probably nowhere near the big three: Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, or third-party titans like EA or Square-Enix. Maybe they could be comparable to Sega and have people say "Well, it's Atari so it must be worth checking out at least!" Not just focusing on their legacy titles, but also giving smaller IPs a second chance could very well be the right move.

[@Lynxan]

Would be nice to have one of these older console brand returns to come back as something... well, real and not be leveraged for con jobs.

[@Zaphod-ef9yz]

Every Atari video opens with "Atari is Infogrames" It's like every Sonic video opens with "Sonics had a rough transition into 3D" 😂

[@Siranoxz]

These acquisitions will take effect for at least 2 years, and lets see where Atari will be in the next 10 years if these acquisitions have really paid off. I think Atari in the long may have to adopt more AAA games so people will see the brand as competitive again against the EA and Ubisoft and Tencent Amazon..

[@zabustifu]

What if Atari just wants to re-release old Bubsy games? 😅

[@sloppynyuszi]

They not as bad as internet reviewers make it out to be. The only unplayable one is the Jaguar version. Bubsy 3D just looks crap, but it plays fine. It’s a 4-6/10 game, not the zero the internet makes it out to be. Same with the first two games. I remember renting the original one a few times, and liked it as a kid. It was something to play when I got tired of Sonic.

[@zabustifu]

@@sloppynyuszi They are below average, and I can't reallt see the point of re-releasing below average games. But my point here was that I have not seen anything conclusive to support the claims that Atari has plans to make new Bubsy games.

[@sloppynyuszi]

@@zabustifu I don’t think they’ll make an exclusive, but if they put together and interactive documentary like they did for Atari 50, then it’s easier to stomach. As a game it may not be remarkable, but the fact that the internet makes it a topic for so long, seems interesting, and having a compilation of all versions of the game, with some old ads, interviews from the creators and have a clean version of the animated pilot, would be an interesting package. The modern release from what I hear is a fun game, just not amazing.

[@robintst]

Sounds like now more than ever they really want to take the definitive stance that they are THE Atari now because they champion the legacy and history of the name and own all the original IPs lock, stock, and barrel. Whether or not it's good is up to individual interpretation but I can't say it's not a sound strategy to lean so hard into the nostalgia of the brand when you know there's a sizable amount of Gen-Xers in their 50s out there with disposable income that grew up on everything Atari.

[@R3troZone]

I personally think all these moves Atari is making is building up to something. New releases like the Atari 2600+ is going to generate seed money so that they can make something new. I'm betting on a next gen console that can compete with Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. Why else would they be acquiring new IPs of games that are too advanced to play on an older Atari system? Because they're going to make a new console that can play modern games.

[@btr3k]

Would love for Atari to buy back the rights to the "Atari Games" library from Williams (Paperboy, Marble Madness, APB, etc etc). Probably not going to happen, though it would be nice to know that something would actually happen with the titles.

[@jeremiahthomas8140]

Atari Games and Williams, along with Bally and Midway, are all owned by Warner Brothers now.

[@larrylaffer3246]

Well with Zazlov in charge of the WB and his perchance to sell-off/write-off literally anything he can to make a quick buck; I wouldn't it past him to sell the Midway IP to Atari. Mortal Kombat included.

[@duzkiss]

It's going to happen. Discovery has little care for gaming. Discovery is not wanting to do a fire sale.

[@LordVarkson]

Gotta wonder where Atari got all this energy from. They're kicking goals atm.

[@duzkiss]

And today they bought a huge stake in TinyBuild

[@VOAN]

Not only did Atari bought Digital Eclipse they also bought NightDive Studios as well. NightDive Studios are responsible for porting/remastering certain classic games to modern systems such as Doom 1, 2, 3, 64, PowerSlaves Exhumed, Forsaken Remastered, Shadow Man Remastered, Quake 1 & 2, and the Turok games.

[@Vallee152]

I think Atari Age could make it so you can pay a few bucks to pick and download a few ROMs

[@SyddlesFuzz]

New type of content? Heck yea~

[@ninjazhu]

K Mart is one of the biggest shop franchises here in Australia

[@Meatloaf1973]

Will homebrew, hacks or newer 2600 games work on the retron 77?

[@Agent-jc6ww]

Good Job as always POJR 😀😀😀

[@pojr]

Thank you!

[@MobiBit645]

Dudeeee Pojr your cool bro hey can you talk about some bad ports of good games, i just thought that would be interesting to see your opinion

[@BURRITO44]

Great video

[@Electrical.Perspective]

It’s pojr 😁

[@intel386DX]

I am so mad that the big companies are removing Tom's from the websites, and you have ti search harder for them.

[@Zaphod-ef9yz]

ROMs you mean? Big companies won't go after some guy with a website of ROMs but they WILL go after Atari

[@intel386DX]

@@Zaphod-ef9yz yes ROMs. Stupid autocorrect scrued me.

[@Zaphod-ef9yz]

@@intel386DX lol for a second I thought of anyone called Thomas / Tom being banned immediately and kicked off the forums 😂

[@intel386DX]

@@Zaphod-ef9yz LOL. Hahaha no, this lould be pure cruel 😂😅

[@Zaphod-ef9yz]

@@intel386DX or maybe it's just no male cats allowed 🤭

[@donaldsmith5667]

awesome video

[@alcampbell469]

The problem i have is the new Atari 2600 plus, has compatibility issues with lots of games. It will also not work with most home brews. Given that Atari Age (tm Atari) mostly put out games that do not work on this new system, that bodes ill for that resource. You also fail to mention Atari's failed projects, such as Asteroids Outpost online. Abandoned. The people who bought it were left high and dry.

[@HaLoFreQ2000]

I don't see why they would put so much into bubsy. Nobody really cared about bubsy back in the day i can't imagine there's a huge bubsy fan base nowadays.

[@kanefields]

Well done..you may want to fact check whether Atari actually bought Digital or whether it's a Joint Venture. Which makes more initial sense.

[@greenaum]

Ulillillia's gonna like this!

[@backwoodsbillycreeks2174]

Thank u for new idea, retro gaming ggonna need updated soon always haha. Or the old videos need remade. Oh just in lots of pain! thanks for diversion. Dont give up. 25k

[@backwoodsbillycreeks2174]

Atari sucks haha but grew up with it and pitfall 2 was hint what was possible. Glad Japanese have full work day go for dinner back until bed time work culture vs atari stoned haha

[@backwoodsbillycreeks2174]

It's like America drugs are for adults and games aren't or something in Japan it's okay to be a gamer when you're an adult it's weird in America it's like okay if you drink a lot that's cool you're destroying yourself that's cool haha

[@pojr]

I appreciate that!

[@mattrogers6646]

Why would Pojr give up when he just keeps getting better, production & writing quality increasing; the best is yet to come. He will break through to 100K then 1M subs no problem, just takes effort, determination, and time. The 10K of us are just early adopters ;)

[@nsgames24]

Seems like Atari is taking lessons from Microsoft and THQNordic when it comes to buying companies and IPs, these days

[@stevemelo]

Great video Pojr. Keep up the great content

[@pojr]

Thank you so much!

[@RETRONuts]

Because there were Infogrames originally, so renamed Infogrames SA into Atari SA they renamed Infogrames Interactive too thats now Atari Interactive now, I think GT Interactive is Atari Inc now, they are only a publisher of computer games, they published the Matrix(Enter the Matrix and The Matrix: Path of Neo) games too, when you think about Atari you need to realise they are not the same company, Jack Tramiel's Atari died in 1998 Atari got split up in 1985 so no connection to the 1985 Atari, they got the Atari IP from Hasbro after buying them cause thats who bought it after Atari Corp went bankrupted like Commodore, another company has the Commodore copyright now but they are not Commodore and are not the same and no one thinks they are, it depends on who buys the copyright and what they do with it, they make Laptops and Mobile Phone with Commodore on them and thats silly and a waste of the copyright, well thats what happens when you sell it to Italians... :( I think one of there mistakes is allowing ATGames to make the Atari Flashback Consoles over and over for the past 20 years, I know we now have a new Atari 2600+(its the best one so far, I have one) but its never has gone away, it gets remade every year, because there's money in it, we need a XEGS now or a different computer maybe a Atari 800XL or something... :) At leased Infogrames is using the Atari copyright for Atari stuff, better then what's happened to Commodore... :)

[@fnregistration]

Kmart was the s*** when I was a kid. Even up to the '00s they had good video game deals.

[@pojr]

Absolutely. They used to be great.

[@TheShospitali]

The new Atari VCS sure hadn't done much. I thought it was gonna give Nintendo Switch, X-Box, & Sony Play Station restless nights. What a disappointment.

[@thenightstar8312]

Anyone who expected that to happen is a fool.

[@jayo1212]

Does Atari even have enough money to buy all these companies...? They have made quite a few missteps in the past, and I feel the money would be better used to address issues in their existing titles... We'll see how this all goes...

[@RETRONuts]

And Atari do not have all copyright to there games they made or published, they do no have copyright to the Atari Soft Games, it was not parts of Jack Tramiel's Atari Cooperation, it got sold off by Time Warner so parts of Atari got sold off in 1985 cause it was losing money, thats why Time Warner sold the Computer Division part of Atari to Jack Tramiel so maybe why there have made a Atari 2600 Flashback consoles for the past 20 years, only Jack Tramiel's Atari was sold to Infogrames, they only have copyright to some of the Atari games, PacMan is not there copyright, its Namco's thats why its not on any of the AF consoles, Warner Brothers owns all of the Atari Soft games and they were the best.

[@humphries1966]

Dank Atari will have high graphic games

[@humphries1966]

So will Arati get good hi

[@HeiligerGrimmnir]

If Atari wants to be taken seriously it needs to stop leaning on old licenses and start putting out quality IPs or hardware. Right now Atari is just seen as a gimmick nostalgia cash grab. Like Imagine if 40 years from now Fromsoft just kept putting out compilation "versions" of the DS and AC games... OVER AND OVER AND OVER for 20 years.

[@thenightstar8312]

Yes, that's why all the 100+ IP purchases. At least if you've been paying attention, anyway. At the same time though, old Atari games are a market that they'd be stupid to just abandon.

[@ninjazhu]

Are the Atari IPs black eyed peas?

[@mirabilis]

Bubsy??

[@neonwraith]

Please do a fact check. Infogrames does not own Atari. Inforgrames was renamed Atari after a 2013 bankruptcy and thus Infogrames no longer exists. Please stop showing that infernal Infogrames logo on the screen, it's sad and distressing.

[@michaelhband]

👍👍👍❤❤❤

[@ChristopherTrottier]

Another badly researched video about Atari. So let's get this over with. The original Atari has not existed since 1976. That was the year Nolan Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications. Then in 1984, Atari was split in two: Atari Corporation, acquired by former Commodore CEO Jack Tramiel; and Atari Games jointly owned by Warner Communications, Namco, and Atari employees. By the way, Atari Games also owned Tengen. The Atari you're thinking about, Atari Corporation merged with JTS Storage. JTS Storage then sold the Atari brand to Hasbro Interactive. Infogrames then acquired Hasbro Interactive and renamed themselves Atari. By the way, Infogrames no longer exists either since *that* entity went bankrupt in 2013 with a ton of assets sold to other companies. The current Atari started as a collection of whatever Ataris asset that nobody else wanted which I guess was likewise the brand itself. As for what happened to the other Atari, Atari Games? Warner Bros. Games now owns it, which is why they published that Gauntlet remake in 2014.

[@SinceSpacies]

A somewhat harsh and damming comment on a channel that is still finding its legs. He acknowledges multiple times that this Atari is not the same as the early 70's company of the same name. But ultimately this Atari owns many rights to a bunch of older IP's and primarily that was what this video was about.

[@HessTruckBOOKS]

Well dam where’s YOUR video? Lol

[@umageddon]

@@HessTruckBOOKSdosent make his points less relevant. Are you suggesting no-one should point out mistakes?

[@HessTruckBOOKS]

⁠@@umageddonlook up and you’ll clearly see a “lol”

[@autobotstarscream765]

*WIZARD IS ABOUT TO DIE, FATALITY.*

[@OM19_MO79]

Stating the obvious but also not doing it right.

[@thenightstar8312]

Wrong

[@sunnohh]

Digital Eclipse making competent ports/emulation packs is an incredibly recent phenomenon, for most of time digital eclipse meant amazingly bad versions

[@thenightstar8312]

That is absolutely not true in the slightest. You must be confusing Digital Elipse with someone else, like AtGames, because what you just is objectively wrong.