7:40 PM on 07.02.2009 |
|
|
Once upon a time, the Dragon Ball franchise was behind some of Atari’s highest grossing titles. Throw the words “dragon” “ball” and “budokai” on a box and Atari would be looking at money in the bank. Those days are behind us -- Namco Bandai has announced that its secured exclusive North American rights to publish all future Dragon Ball titles across all major consoles and handhelds for the next five years. The deal officially begins in January of 2010, but Namco Bandai are getting a head start later this year. The publisher has secured the rights to publish three Dragon Ball titles in 2009: Dragon Ball: Raging Blast for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3; Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo for the Wii; and Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans for Nintendo DS. This comes as huge blow to Atari, who has recently faced some very public hard times -- pulling out of E3, seeing Phil Harrison stepping down from his high-publicized position, and then selling off its European publishing arm. Our sources have been indicating trouble for Atari for quite some time now, too; we wouldn’t be surprised if Ghostbusters: The Videogame was the publisher’s last shelved retail title, if what we’re hearing has been accurate.
But despite its fiscal difficulty, we don’t think we’re seeing the last of Atari… just a few changes. The publisher has a huge back-catalog of strong, recognizable IPs that would be perfect for the digital download space. How does an updated version of Q*Bert or other classics sound? We wonder what the folks at Cryptic Studios are up to right now…
Three years ago as of yesterday, indie dev Exploding Rabbit's Super Mario Bros. Crossover was unleashed online, and the reception couldn't have been warmer. For the benefit of the unfortunate few who haven't heard of this da...
Modder Bacteria spent over three years and over $1,000 to merge 18 different consoles into one giant box. It contains circuitry from 15 different systems, works with one master controller, a single power supply, and a single... Now through Tuesday, GOG.com is running a sale on memorable games from the Atari library such as Master of Orion 1 and 2, RollerCoaster Tycoon, Master of Magic, Blood, Star Control 1 and 2, Pirates!, and The Chronicles of Rid... After Jace Hall got the cult-classic first-person shooter Blood on the road to a remake, Atari has stepped in and temporarily shut the project down. Hall notified the Blood fan community of The Postmortem about the standstill...
In this edition of Office Chat, I'm joined by Jordan Devore and Kyle MacGregor, as we express our enthusiasm for Namco's announcement that Project X Zone will see western release, our hope that Atari may actually rise from the ashes and our dismay at politicians making dramatic crack shots. Atari US has filed bankruptcy and will sell everything: games, film rights, and even their logo. This Everything Must Go sale and Chapter 11 filing are in an attempt to break away from its French parent company, Atari SA (for... Baldur's Gate will forever be regarded as one of the classic PC RPGs. A lot of people never experienced it back in 1998, and it's not exactly the best-looking game anymore. To complicate things, it can be a pain to get the ol... [Update: Contest over! Check Atari's Facebook page for the winner!]
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the original PONG! To commemorate the occasion, Atari is releasing Pong World, the $50,000 grand priz... Fancy a swing on the funky road of chiptunes this week? Ubiktune's got you covered with another excellent set of releases on their never-ending chiptune label.
Motorway is a jazz-funk chiptune album composed with changing tim... In the '80s, if you had three friends over who all wanted to play Atari with you, there was really only one game you would reach for.
Warlords was the go-to game for multiplayer combat, and it was also the source for many fru...
|
|