The big corporate mergers keep coming! In an announcement that caught some by surprise, the reformed Atari has announced it is buying retro-minded indie game developer Nightdive Studios for $10 million. For those unaware, Nightdive is known for exploring the rights and copyright of abandonware or long-forgotten PC titles and making them compatible for modern systems and OSes. The studio was founded in 2013 by Stephen and Alix Kick and their first effort involved bringing System Shock to GOG. Historically, the studio has enjoyed a close relationship with GOG and its owner, CD Projekt. Nightdive currently lists that they have approximately 40 full-time staff.

Atari, on the other hand, finally found a way to drum up interest with its gaming portfolio following the release of Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration last year. For those that recall when the company appeared to be pivoting to blockchain, hotels, and NFTs, the leadership that spearheaded that effort has been ousted and those that currently lead the company are those responsible for that Atari 50 effort.

Even with that in mind, a lot of people in the PC circuit are concerned about Nightdive's creative freedom to explore and concentrate on PC abandonware and will be hamstrung to work on other projects. That said, if Atari's company pivot becomes "we are doubling down on making old games cool and fun for modern audiences" that seems like the first viable business model for them in decades.

As someone that has 0 interest in any new spins on atari properties, this is sad news. I just don't see Atari not even attempting to have Nightdive figure out how to make Missile Command make sense in 2026 or something.

This is speaker hat erasure.

10 million bucks is a pittance, though if you had asked me how much cash Atari had on hand I would have somehow said much, much less. I'm in no way the target market for any of this, but I'm at least curious to see if the end result of this is just wider distribution of the old Atari products or completely new things built off of Atari IP (hey remember that Asteroids survival base-builder?).

I wish Nightdive Studios good luck for their future with Atari.