Atari has entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a provision in US law that’ll enable the struggling biz to operate and potentially restructure without those it owes calling in their debts.
The reason for the timing is not clear, but a massive credit deal with financier BlueBay Asset Management lapsed last year. The pair of companies announced a $26m (€20m) credit facility ha ended in September following negotiations over Atari’s debt. Without the safety net, Atari seemed simply unable to afford any more work on its in-development games.
Atari today is not the company Bushnell co-founded in 1972, which pioneered both console hardware and games titles that were the genesis of the home gaming market.
What’s left of Atari today makes games for smartphones and other mobile devices, PCs, Sony PlayStations and Microsoft Xboxes. That’s done via Atari Interactive Inc in the US and parent Atari SA, the French company that bought the Atari brand at the end of decades of corporate takeovers and rebranding.
Many will remember Atari for the Video Computer System (VCS), used to blow away space invaders and evade ghosts in the maze of Pac-Man. But before the VCS, the company made Home Pong, the tennis-like game created on a shoestring budget of $500. It sold 150,000 units in Christmas 1975, helping Atari to $3m in profits.
Source: The Register
