Atari is making a strong move in the gaming market.
The venerable video game business Atari is buying Nightdive Studios, the studio behind the upcoming System Shock remake as well as a host of other retro updates like Quake, Shadow Man, and PowerSlave. The acquisition is anticipated to close by the end of April and is valued at $10 million with half of that amount paid in Atari shares.
This is a big win for our team! As we look to continue producing high-quality, new, and remastered games that do justice to the original IP; we could think of no better long-term partner than @atari https://t.co/icK4zbQBe2
— Nightdive Studios (@NightdiveStudio) March 23, 2023
Why is Atari buying Nightdive?
It makes sense that Nightdive would seek to sell to a bigger, wealthier company. It’s remarkable that they haven’t sold to a company like Embracer Group, which is actively pursuing the acquisition of every double-A studio on the planet. After all, Atari buying Nightdive seems like a good move. Also, its Atari VCS platform was a complete failure. Nonetheless, credit is due to the recently released Llamasoft software from Atari looks fantastic.
Naturally, the leaders of Nightdive, Stephen Kick and Larry Kuperman, echoed the delight in their own prepared statement, but when the news was announced through the Nightdive Twitter account, reactions ranged from criticism to grief. But, perhaps they will have the funds now to fix Blood. Stephen Kick tweeted, “I sold Nightdive solely so we could fix Blood”.
Nightdive will also earn an additional $10 million over the following three years “depending on future success” in addition to the $10 million mentioned above. By comparison, Embracer Group purchased Tarsier Studios in 2019 for just $500,000 extra, so it appears to be rather affordable. The 30th of May will see the debut of System Shock, which is published by Prime Matter.
