Commodore 64 games owned by Atari SA

[Lord Mushroom]

You guys may find this interesting. Atari SA owns the rights to Wizball, which from what I understand, is one of the best games for the c64. In addition to c64 games released by Atari companies, they also have the rights to Hunchback and Match Day.

[leech]

Weird, Wizball was published by Ocean way back when, where did their stuff go?

https://www.mobygames.com/game/wizball

[carlsson]

Ocean Software merged with Infogrames in 1996, and was dissolved as a label in 1998. Apparently Bandai Namco Entertainment UK Limited acquired Infogrames Multimedia SA in 2009, so I'm not sure that the rights are held by Atari SA. The same goes about a number of other rights/titles that at first was traced to Atari SA but as it has shown, have been sold off to others in the past 5-10 years. Probably Fred & c:o need quick money more than intellectual properties.

[Lord Mushroom]

12 hours ago, carlsson said:

Ocean Software merged with Infogrames in 1996, and was dissolved as a label in 1998. Apparently Bandai Namco Entertainment UK Limited acquired Infogrames Multimedia SA in 2009, so I'm not sure that the rights are held by Atari SA. The same goes about a number of other rights/titles that at first was traced to Atari SA but as it has shown, have been sold off to others in the past 5-10 years. Probably Fred & c:o need quick money more than intellectual properties.

According to Atari SA´s Wikipedia page they have the rights to it (see Game franchises owned by Atari, SA):

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_SA#Game_franchises_owned_by_Atari,_SA

 

Of course Wikipedia pages can be wrong. But I think Alone in the Dark and Test Drive used to be on that list, and now that they have been sold, they are no longer there. So the list seems to be well updated.

[carlsson]

No idea really. Mobygames lists Wizball and other Ocean titles as belonging to Bandai Namco Entertainment UK Ltd, so one of these two sources must not be fully updated.

https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/bandai-namco-entertainment-uk-ltd/offset,400/so,1d/list-games/

[Lord Mushroom]

There is a list of Atari´s IP here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GtOwuQVdm-YWVtzM8Q7n2CsgTjThIi7M/view

 

But I think that list only includes games released by Atari companies.

[Lord Mushroom]

On 4/19/2021 at 9:36 PM, Lord Mushroom said:

There is a list of Atari´s IP here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GtOwuQVdm-YWVtzM8Q7n2CsgTjThIi7M/view

 

But I think that list only includes games released by Atari companies.

I see that RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 and 2 are on the list, and they were not released by an Atari company. However, the other Infogrames games on the Atari SA Wikipedia list of game franchises are not listed there. Maybe they included the two RollerCoaster Tycoon games on the list to make it less confusing for investors, or the IP list are all the games they have. I am leaning towards the former.

Edited June 7, 2021 by Lord Mushroom

[carlsson]

We have to remember that the criteria for Wikipedia articles is not that the information is correct, but that it has a verifiable source. Thus if changes to ownership have happened, that are hard to claim using public available sources, those changes will get reverted when it comes to Wikipedia because it borders to own research, regardless how correct it is and whoever inputs it. Also if I recall correctly, RollerCoaster Tycoon no longer is (or perhaps never was fully) an asset of Atari SA, weren't they involved in some legal action over that?

 

But yes, if that catalog on Google Drive is an official publication from February 2021, it is interesting if it deliberately contains errors to make the company look more impressive than it is, or perhaps they still have franchise rights to some titles they don't own the full copyrights to any longer, as part of non-disclosed agreements.