Atari Acquires Digital Eclipse

Atari announced that it is acquiring retro gaming firm Digital Eclipse for $4 million in cash and $2.5 million in Atari stock. It will also pay out up to an additional $13.5 million in cash over the next 10 years based on the performance of Digital Eclipse going forward.

“Digital Eclipse is the best in the world at what they do,” Atari CEO Wade Rosen said. ” They have a deep love and respect for the history of the games industry, and are renowned for developing critically acclaimed projects based on historic franchises. [They] are in perfect alignment with Atari’s DNA and renewed purpose.”

Digital Eclipse is best known today for the interactive video game documentaries that it is releasing over time on Xbox. The first, for Karateka, arrived in late August and is a masterpiece, and the firm said at the time that a second title would be ready by the end of 2024.

But the first has deep roots in the video game industry and it was involved in retro gaming from the start. It was founded in 1992, and its earliest products were Mac ports of classic arcade games like Defender, Joust, and Robotron: 2084 which were based on in-house emulators. More recent efforts are based on its Eclipse Engine, which decompiles the code from classic games and then runs it on modern platforms like PCs, consoles, and mobile devices.

“Our experience collaborating on Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration was revelatory,” Digital Eclipse president Mike Mika said. “The trust that Atari showed our team, and our clear mutual love and respect for the content, positioned us to produce something truly remarkable. I know Atari will continue to champion our approach and that we will be bringing fans exciting new projects for years to come.”