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An old-school video game rivalry has a new chapter with Atari acquiring the Intellivision brand, one of its long-time competitors.Atari purchased the brand and rights to over 200 Intellivision games to revitalize the video game properties. “Atari will seek to expand digital and physical distribution of legacy Intellivision games, potentially create new games, and explore brand and licensing opportunities,” says Atari Interactive, which has been trying to boost its own brand through new product releases.
(Photo by Mike Slaughter/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
The deal comes decades after Atari and Intellivision faced off in what some consider the first console war. Starting in 1979, the classic Atari 2600 console began competing with the Intellivision, a product seen to be more advanced with better graphic capabilities. Intellivision’s parent at the time, Matte Electronics, even took the fight to Atari by launching an ad campaign that featured journalist George Plimpton directly comparing the graphics of the two consoles. But the Atari 2600 still outsold the Intellivision, briefly becoming the dominant video game console in the US. Atari and Intellivision would later discontinue their consoles and businesses with the arrival of upstarts Nintendo and Sega, which would embark on their own famous console war.
More than 30 years later, the two gaming brands are joining forces to capitalize on people’s nostalgia. “This was a very rare opportunity to unite former competitors and bring together fans of Atari, Intellivision, and the golden age of gaming,” says Wade Rosen, CEO of Atari.Atari made the deal with Intellivision Entertainment, which tried to sell a revamped version of the Intellivision console, only to face delays and funding troubles that threaten the product’s release.According to Atari, Intellivision Entertainment “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.”
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Phil Adam, CEO of Intellivision Entertainment, added: “Atari has been a valuable partner and we have every confidence they will be a responsible steward of the storied Intellivision brand.” To mark the occasion, Atari is selling Intellivision-branded T-shirts on its website.For more on Atari, check out the books written by Jamie Lendino, editor-in-chief of PCMag sister site ExtremeTech.com.
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