Atari PONGF, the world's largest interactive entertainment producer and consumer brand, has announced the acquisition of a dozen retro arcade games, including the classic 80 s titles Berzerk and Frenzy. The company announced in a press release that the move aims to expand the digital and physical distribution of titles, create new games based on intellectual property IP and explore merchandising collaborations.
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According to Wade Rosen, CEO of Atari, Berzerk is one of those foundational games that so many people first encountered playing on an Atari console. Berzerk, and the other titles included in this acquisition, are a perfect fit for our strategy of commercializing classic retro IP. In 1980, Berzerk, a classic arcade game designed by Alan McNeil, was released as a top-down, multi-directional shooter. The game has been consistently ranked in various top 100 video game lists and is well-known for being one of the first arcade video games to feature speech synthesis. Evil Otto, the game's iconic villain, has become a well-known figure in the history of the video game.
In Berzerk, players navigate through a maze of rooms, facing off against armed robots and avoiding electrified walls. The ultimate goal is to escape the maze before Evil Otto catches up to them. Berzerk was later ported to the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200, cementing its place in the video game history. Atari also acquired the critically-acclaimed sequel Frenzy as part of the recent acquisition.
A few months ago, Atari's board of directors unanimously gave the green light to Rosen's friendly offer to acquire the company and bolster its development ambitions.
Atari said its half-year financial report showed losses of $5.7 million. The decline in financial fortunes was due to the Atari VCS console, and the company is reorganizing its hardware business.
Atari, which was the leader of the video game market from 1975 to 1980, revealed that revenue from VCS and cartridge sales decreased significantly from €2.3 million $2.4 million to €0.2 million $215,510 As a result, Atari has suspended its existing VCS manufacturing contracts while it revises its overall hardware strategy.
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