By: Nick Gambino
Atari is an undisputed legend in the history of video games. In its heyday, the gaming company, which almost single-handedly created the home console, sold 30 million units of their Atari 2600.
Atari’s top rival back in the 70s and 80s was not Nintendo or Sega but rather, the long-forgotten Intellivision (by me at least). Now, in a super slick move, Atari has acquired Intellivision, ending the age-old battle.
“Uniting Atari and Intellivision after 45 years ends the longest running console war in history,” Mike Mika, the Studio Head at Atari parent company Digital Eclipse, said in a statement.
A move like this shows that a world exists where bitter rival gaming companies can put aside their differences and unite to bring joy to age-old gamers who remember when they once ruled the world.
“This was a very rare opportunity to unite former competitors and bring together fans of Atari, Intellivision and the golden age of gaming,” Wade Rosen, Atari Chairman and CEO, said of the acquisition.
As part of the purchase, Atari is also getting over 200 games added to their library. It’s unclear whether they will bring any of these titles over to an Atari system, but we do know that they’re planning on continuing to release new installments of those games on the current Amico console.
Intellivision has been working on releasing a new retro version of its Amico console. This project will continue independent of Atari’s acquisition and will spawn off into its own company.
This has been a big couple of years for video game companies setting aside their feuds and just getting on with serving avid gamers. Sony finally inked a deal with Microsoft that would guarantee Call of Duty would continue to be made available on PlayStation for the next 10 years. This was after a protracted battle where the Japanese company sought to stop Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard.
Even the FTC gave up in that fight and they went ahead and purchased the biggest game publisher in the industry.
You love to see it. Let’s keep the fights in-game.
