Atari acquires Intellivision brand, uniting competitors from gaming’s early years

by | May 23, 2024 | Technology

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Atari has acquired the Intellivision brand, purchasing its trademarks and uniting competing brands from the 1970s and 1980s.

Atari is already one of the world’s most iconic consumer brands and interactive entertainment producers, and now it has purchased the Intellivision brand and certain games from Intellivision Entertainment LLC, which had been the midst of a revival attempt by Tommy Tallarico.

The Intellivision Entertainment LLC will rebrand and continue its business of developing and distributing the Amico brand game console with a license from Atari to continue to distribute new versions of the Intellivision games on the Amico console.

Atari will seek to expand digital and physical distribution of legacy Intellivision games, potentially create new games, and explore brand and licensing opportunities as part of a long-term plan to create value from the Intellivision properties.

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“Uniting Atari and Intellivision after 45 years ends the longest-running console war in history,” said Mike Mika, Studio Head at Digital Eclipse, an Atari-owned game studio, in a statement.

The Atari brand logo

The first Intellivision home video game console was released by Mattel Electronics in 1979 and the console platform sold an estimated 5 million units through 1990. Atari and Intellivision arguably fought the first console war of consequence in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Mattel went as far as enlisting the actor George Plimpton to appear in a series of ads comparing the two systems, as well as an eight-minute-long video shown at the Gamescom trade show.

“This was a very rare opportunity to unite former competitors and bring together fans of Atari, Intellivision and the golden age of gaming,” said Wade Rosen, chairman and CEO of Atari, in a statement.

The purchase includes the rights to more than 200 titles from the Intellivision portfolio and the Intellivision trademarks. Phil Adam took over from Tallarico as CEO of Intellivision Entertainment in 2022, while Tallarico became president.

Tallarico, a longtime gaming musician, became wealthy from the Video Games Live events that he started. He bought Intellivision back in 2018 and began work on the Amico, a new game console that would run both new and old Intellivision games.

The Amico was originally supposed to come out in October 2020, bu …

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GamesBeat is excited to partner with Lil Snack to have customized games just for our audience! We know as gamers ourselves, this is an exciting way to engage through play with the GamesBeat content you have already come to love. Start playing games here. 

Atari has acquired the Intellivision brand, purchasing its trademarks and uniting competing brands from the 1970s and 1980s.

Atari is already one of the world’s most iconic consumer brands and interactive entertainment producers, and now it has purchased the Intellivision brand and certain games from Intellivision Entertainment LLC, which had been the midst of a revival attempt by Tommy Tallarico.

The Intellivision Entertainment LLC will rebrand and continue its business of developing and distributing the Amico brand game console with a license from Atari to continue to distribute new versions of the Intellivision games on the Amico console.

Atari will seek to expand digital and physical distribution of legacy Intellivision games, potentially create new games, and explore brand and licensing opportunities as part of a long-term plan to create value from the Intellivision properties.

GB Event
Countdown to GamesBeat Summit
Secure your spot now and join us in LA for an unforgettable two days experience exploring the theme of resilience and adaptation. Register today to guarantee your seat!

Register Here

“Uniting Atari and Intellivision after 45 years ends the longest-running console war in history,” said Mike Mika, Studio Head at Digital Eclipse, an Atari-owned game studio, in a statement.

The Atari brand logo

The first Intellivision home video game console was released by Mattel Electronics in 1979 and the console platform sold an estimated 5 million units through 1990. Atari and Intellivision arguably fought the first console war of consequence in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Mattel went as far as enlisting the actor George Plimpton to appear in a series of ads comparing the two systems, as well as an eight-minute-long video shown at the Gamescom trade show.

“This was a very rare opportunity to unite former competitors and bring together fans of Atari, Intellivision and the golden age of gaming,” said Wade Rosen, chairman and CEO of Atari, in a statement.

The purchase includes the rights to more than 200 titles from the Intellivision portfolio and the Intellivision trademarks. Phil Adam took over from Tallarico as CEO of Intellivision Entertainment in 2022, while Tallarico became president.

Tallarico, a longtime gaming musician, became wealthy from the Video Games Live events that he started. He bought Intellivision back in 2018 and began work on the Amico, a new game console that would run both new and old Intellivision games.

The Amico was originally supposed to come out in October 2020, bu …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]

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