Atari continues to unimplode, revives Infogrames label

Atari has announced that it has revived the Infogrames name as a publishing label. The press release says the intention of the label is “to acquire IP and publish games, across multiple genres, that fall outside the core portfolio of IP associated with the Atari brand.” To start, they have purchased Tinybuild’s Totally Reliable Delivery Service.

A history lesson for you: The current, modern Atari is actually Infogrames. With the company’s exit from the hardware business following the Jaguar, the Tramiel family sold the name to Hasbro Interactive. In 2000, as part of a large number of acquisitions the company was making, Infogrames purchased Hasbro Interactive and gained the Atari name. They then spent a few years transitioning into Atari SA. So, Infogrames never really went anywhere, it just adopted a new moniker.

The new Atari later ran into trouble, nearly going bankrupt in 2013, but it survived by selling many of its acquired assets. Since Wade Rosen stepped into the role of CEO in 2021, the company has been reacquiring many of its lost properties, as well as retro-focused companies like Nightdive Studios and Digital Eclipse.

The move of reviving the Infogrames name makes some sense. Atari has a very specific identity that they’re capitalizing on by focusing on reviving old properties. If they want to branch out into publishing more modern titles, publishing under the Atari name might not send the right message.

On the other hand, Infogrames doesn’t really strike me as a nostalgic name. They were mainly just a publisher around since the ‘80s, and they had a vast catalog that they helped bring to market. It’s not that they didn’t have their name attached to some good titles, but nothing that really strikes me as a memorable association. Alone in the Dark maybe?

Nonetheless, it’s an interesting but not entirely unexpected route for Atari to take as it shifts from being essentially a licensing brand to a legitimate game company.