"Atari Acquires Intellivision Brand But Leaves Disastrous Amico Console Behind"

[kane_magus]

Hmm.

Given that pretty much the only thing actively being done with the Intellivision brand these days was the disastrous Amico console, Atari dodged a bullet on that one. Not that this means much, since even Atari itself only exists as a "brand," same as Intellivision, as the original Atari company died long ago. The company that is calling itself Atari now is the company that used to be called Infogrames.

The Amico scam itself is still apparently ongoing, though. How is a mystery, but the scam is still a thing that exists.

(EDIT)

Watch on YouTube

"Atari has acquired the Intellivision game library and IP. What does this mean for the future of Intellivision and the Amico console project?"

Heh, I should've waited a bit.

(/EDIT)

Comments

[owsf2000]

I read about the acquisition on kotaku on the day Atari announced it - then also saw it announced on Atari Age, which is now owned by Atari as well. Mostly on the fence about how Atari is going to affect Atari Age going forward although the forums themselves so far hasn't really been affected. The Atari Age shop pulled all the unlicensed homebrews it had, which on one hand is disappointing, but on the other really how it should have been from the get go.

While an independent hobbyist forum could fly under the radar with unlicensed ports being sold, it would understandably be like painting a large target on Atari. (Personally I prefer original homebrews either way.) Of course, seeing how many games that got yanked from the store as a result of it really did show how common it had become.

Fun fact, "Atari" also recently brought back "Infogrames". IE: Restarted their old label. In practice, Infogrames I believe will be focusing on the more modern game offerings? Not a bad plan overall.

[owsf2000]

Also, for what it's worth, the current iteration of Atari does appear to be doing far more than previous incarnations about handling their older IP. The fact that they acquired Atari Age is one example of that.

Also I was unaware that they had bought out Digital Eclipse last year. Looking over their list of accomplishments they mostly do ports and collections, of which I have several. (TMNT, Street Fighter, Mega Man Legacy Collection, etc) I can't say I've been disappointed with any of the game collections they've put out thus far at any rate so that's hopefully a good choice for Atari. I've wish-listed the Atari 50th collection thingy although I haven't bought it just yet. Where it's not Verified for Steam Deck (just Playable) I've decided to at least wait for a sale on it.

As an Atari fanboy from back in the day, I do hope Atari "Gets it Right" this time around. It at least looks like they're starting on the right foot with the right perspective, but we'll see if they end up shooting themselves in the foot again or not. If they put some effort into how they expand their library (both by creating new and acquiring old) and don't get too caught up with greed, they'll probably have a good chance at it.

[kane_magus]

Yeah, the people currently stewarding the Atari name ostensibly seem like they know what they're doing, for the most part, at least as far as the games go. Though in that CUPodcast video, Pat kept mentioning some new console thing that I'd never heard of before that video, which apparently failed or some shit? Or, at least, he personally didn't like it, or something? I dunno.

[owsf2000]

Yeah their little VCS. Not everything's going to stick to the wall so to speak I guess. Not sure if Atari even knew what they wanted for that thing. It's entirely digital I believe, so that alone is enough to axe my support for it. I think they might have developed that since that Amico thing looked like it was going to be successful at the time. (ie: way too early for people to realize what a scam it was.)

Difference was, Atari actually put something together and released it. I do hope they continue to support it for a few more years at the very least though. One thing they really need is to show that they can support their hardware regardless of what happens. (Unlike say Google that will drop anything that isn't the defacto clear #1 in it's industry within months of launch. Or how Sega kept dumping their console to launch a new one every 1-2 years between the Genesis and Dreamcast, etc.

Otherwise I don't really know much about the VCS other than I wish they called it something else. (2600 was originally called the VCS for years)