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It's been a big year for Atari, with the acquisition of FPS experts Nightdive Studios, beloved collector resource AtariAge, and several portfolios of both historic home games and classic arcade games. As of this week, Digital Eclipse is joining the Atari family, too — and if you haven't seen it, here's the official press release.
It's an exciting time for us as we go from "That studio that made Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration" to "That studio helping create Atari's future for the next 50 years." However, we figure you've got some questions, specifically about how this will affect the games we are currently making and plan to make. So here are a few answers to the questions you might have (and we had them too!):
Why?
We're a small studio with big dreams. Atari is a legendary publisher with a new spirit. We loved working on Atari 50 together. We understand each other. This looked like a great way for both organizations to accomplish a lot of our future goals better and faster together.
Is Digital Eclipse only allowed to work on Atari properties now?
It is business as usual at Digital Eclipse! While we're certainly happy to have greater access to Atari's fantastic library, we still have the freedom to seek out projects with other parties. In addition to recent releases like Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord and The Making of Karateka, Digital Eclipse has a lot of unannounced projects in the works that do not involve Atari's IP, and those will carry on as planned. The future is wide open, and we believe partnering with Atari will bring about even more opportunities.
What does this mean for the Gold Master Series?
The Gold Master Series will remain focused on telling gaming history's most important stories through the interactive documentary format, regardless of the past or present holder of the intellectual property in question. Following the release of The Making of Karateka, Atari wants to see this important series continue to succeed, and is placing no restrictions on us as we plan for the future of the Gold Master Series.
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord launched as an early access PC title back in September, and just received a content update last week. How will that be affected?
In the short term, not dramatically. For anyone who believed in the project enough to buy the game already (thank you!), you'll still get all future content updates for free on PC. As for the future, we've cooked up some lofty goals for this project behind the scenes, and this acquisition might make it a little easier for us to reach them. By the time we reach the end of early access, we expect this will benefit the players, whether they realize it or not! For more info on this specific project, click here.
What about Digital Eclipse Arcade?
Our series of games inspired by the spirit of classic coin-ops, such as Candy Creeps, will continue as well. Since these represent original work by our studio, these titles become property of Atari.
I'm a Fig investor in Digital Eclipse. What happens to my investment?
Fig funds will still be used to develop a slate of Digital Eclipse projects, and the dividend schedule for investors remains unchanged. Updated investor information will continue to be available exclusively at Republic's website.
Anything else I should know?
To us, the future is bright and unwritten. We're excited, and we will have more news to share in the future. Thank you for your continued support!
