Atari acquires 100 classic franchises including Bubsy and Hardball

Atari has acquired more than 100 console and PC games from the '80s and '90s including titles from the Bubsy, Hardball, and Demolition Racer series.

The company has also purchased the 1942: Pacific Air War, F-117A, and F-14 air combat franchises and grabbed the trademarks for the Accolade and GTI brands.

Atari said it plans to create more games based on its newly-acquired franchises, explore branding and merchandising collaborations, and expand digital and physical distribution.

"This is a deep catalog that includes groundbreaking and award-winning titles from Accolade, Infogrames and Microprose," said Atari CEO Wade Rosen. "Many of these titles are a part of Atari history, and fans can look forward to seeing many of these games re-released in physical and digital formats, and in some cases, even ported to modern consoles."

The sweet taste of nostalgia

Rosen has previously suggested these sort of deals are part of Atari's plan to begin "commercializing classic retro IP," suggesting that's why the company also picked up the rights to 12 retro series, including Berzerk and Frenzy, back in March.

The CEO has backed himself to steer the company though choppy waters, with Rosen last year making a "friendly offer" to purchase Atari to support its development ambitions.

That came after Atari posted half-year losses of $5.7 million during the first six months of 2022, with the waning fortunes of the Atari VCS console–which looks to be dead in the water for the time being due to the suspension of manufacturing contracts–largely to blame for that downturn.