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Will “still have the freedom to seek out projects with other parties”.
Atari has entered into an agreement to acquire Digital Eclipse, the retro-focused studio behind the likes of Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration and this year’s The Making of Karateka.
Digital Eclipse has existed in a number of forms 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 in the years since despite organisational changes, first as it became Backbone Entertainment following a merger in 2003, and again after the Digital Eclipse brand was purchased and revived by former employees in 2015.
In more recent times, 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 new video 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 classic games, starting with the acclaimed 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, Rise of the Triad, 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 projects with other parties” following the acquisition, and that it has “a lot of unannounced projects in the works that do not involve Atari’s IP” which will be unaffected. This includes the continuation of its acclaimed Gold Master Series.
“Following the release of The Making of Karateka,” Digital Eclipse explained in its post, “Atari wants to see this important series continue to succeed, and is placing no restrictions on us as we plan for the future of the Gold Master Series.”
